Amsterdam grew up around its harbour, and this is the rim of it — the medieval edge where the city met the water and built to defend it, weigh it, and ship from it. An afternoon's worth of walking through six centuries of that argument.
Start at the Waag on the Nieuwmarkt, the 15th-century gate-turned-weighhouse where the surgeons once held their anatomy lessons. Head south down the Kloveniersburgwal to the Trippenhuis, a mansion built for arms dealers with mortars carved into the chimneys, then east to the Oudeschans, where the Montelbaanstoren leans over the moat — a 1516 defence tower with a 1606 spire that de Keyser couldn't resist prettying up.
The turn comes at the Scheepvaarthuis, reckoned the first real Amsterdam School building, by Van der Mey, De Klerk and Kramer just before the First World War. It's a hotel now, but the stairwell is open to anyone who walks in and looks up. From there the Prins Hendrikkade carries you along the waterfront into the back of Centraal — trains, ferries, and the open harbour all in one place.
