Amsterdam is a great place in that it has all the advantages of a big city,   culture, history, food, entertainment, a reasonably good transport system and with relatively few of the "Big City" disadvantages. It is physically small, beautiful, relatively quiet, and largely thanks to the canals. Amsterdam is also a late city. Many shops don't open until 10 in the morning, and recently a lot of them stay open until 9 pm.

Weather
     Typical weather ranges from a little around freezing in the depths of winter, sometimes we are even able to skate on the canals! though usually with little snow, to typically pleasant sunny days of 20 to 28 degrees celsius in the summer. Spring and Autumn are pleasant, but can be wet!

Exploring Amsterdam
       On foot is a pleasent way to spend a few hours, and it will help to understand how the city is laid out. Imagine a line running from  Central Station in the North, via Damrak to the Dam square, then to the Muntplein and along the Amstel river out of the city. A quick look at a map of the city will show that it is not a very strait line .... but in as much as this line runs from north to south, it divides the city into eastern and western sections.

Artis Zoo        Every Day : 09 - 17 hr
     I think it's a great zoo and it's the oldest on mainland Europe (1838), well layed out design for the more than 6000 animals and easy to get to (tram # 9 to the door), and a great aquarium. Also a fun planetarium. The animals seem to be housed in good sized enclosures and in general I think it is quite well looked after. Nice on a sunny day.

Bike Rental
     Amsterdam is a city of bikes!, everywhere you look are bikes! new ones, old ones, broken ones and dead ones. I think that more than a half million of them must be on the roads at any one time!. You also have more chance of being run over by a bike in Amsterdam than by a car.
     If you want to rent a bike whilst you are here in Amsterdam then you should remember to take your paspoort for identification and usually you have to leave a refundable deposit (about fl. 100), I don't know the exact prices but they are not expensive and they are a great way of getting arround the city ......... however!!! .... hardly anyone seems to buy a new bike here in the city .... so, you will be given a good lock when you rent the bike and you should always use it (the best is to lock it to something!). You will see when you are riding arround that most of the bikes seem to go through red traffic lights, however it is a lot safer as a tourist to wait until it says that you can go! and unlike the native cyclist who also goes in the opposite direction to the trafic on the very narrow canals you can better stay on the correct side!
You can also take a Bike Tour from Yellow Bike on the N. Z. Voorburgwal 66 - Amsterdam
Some of the addresses for bike rental that I know are :-
     Rent a Bike - Damrak 247 - Amsterdam
     Rent a Bike - Damstraat
     Mac Bike - Marnixstraat 220 - Amsterdam

Canal Trips
     Canal trips in "Rondvaart" boats depart from The Damrak by Central Station, and Rokin by the Spui. It's worth taking one of the canal boat tours to see Amsterdam from the water. They last about 90 minutes, and take you around the city and through the harbour. If you're feeling energetic, you can hire a Canal Bike from one of the several points through the city (Westerkerk, Leidseplein, Leidsestraat, Rijksmuseum), and choose your own route, they seat 4 persons and it's always good exercise for your legs.

Currency
     The Dutch currency is the guilder, expressed variously as fl (for florin), dfl, hfl, G, NLG, or just f .
The guilder is subdivided into 100 cents.
There are coins of : 5 cents 10 cents 25 cents 1 guilder 2.5 guilders 5 guilders & 10 guilders
There are notes of : 10 guilders 25 guilders 50 guilders 100 guilders 250 guilders & 1000 guilders
A lot of people won't accept 1000 guilder notes. Since there are no 1 cent coins, total amounts are rounded to the nearest 5 cents when you pay.

Language
     Just about everyone speaks good English in Amsterdam, and is proud of the fact. Many speak German and French too. If you are English speaking, then you can better speak English (unless you speak Dutch too): you are more likely to offend than do anyone a favour by trying out your French or German.

Rijksmuseum
     Stadhouderskade 42  Tuesday - Saturday - 10 - 17 hr - Sunday 13 - 17 hr (Closed Monday's)

     Large museum containing paintings by some of the Netherlands' great 17th century painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Hals. The Nightwatch by Rembrandt is their prize piece. Contains many artefacts as well as paintings including Dutch History and Asain Art.

Royal Palace
     Dam Square  Enquire locally (The Queen might have quests for tea!)
     Originally built as the Town Hall it was started in 1648 and (nearly) finished in 1655. You can take a conducted tour. Worth having a look.

Stedelijk
     Paulus Potterstraat 13  Every Day 11 - 17 hr
     Major collection of modern art from around 1880 onwards. Paintings from Van Gogh, Monet, Bonnard, Cezanne, Picasso, Mondrian, and De Kooning, it also has a very good collection of the "Cobra Artists". The International Library that is housed here has a huge collection of books on modern art and you are allowed to make fotocopies from them.

Van Gogh Museum
     Paulus Potterstraat 7  Tuesday - Saturday - 10 - 17 hr - Sunday 13 - 17 hr (Closed Monday's)
     Category Art/industrial art Collection Painting (after 1850)
     Languages Explanatory texts English, Dutch Walkman German, English, French, Italiaans, Dutch, Spanish
     Disabled International Accessibility Symbol (IAS symbol) Wheelchairs available (upon request)
     Surprisingly spacious, dedicated to Van Gogh and his contemporaries with over 500 of his sketches.

Anne Frank Huis
     Prinsengracht 263
     Category History/society
     Languages Explanatory texts English, Dutch
     The war-time hiding place of the young Jewish girl and her family, finally caught by the Nazis, made famous by Anne Frank's diaries. Not to be missed. Go early to avoid the queues.

Public Transport
     Amsterdam City Transport
     Trams, Buses, Express Tram and Metro.

     The basic form of inner-city public transport is the tram (which operates on 16 routes). Usually they are not so bad, but they can be very confusing! .... even for the locals!! .... the reason being that some of the trams you must only get in at the back (unless you have a Month or Year Card) ... then you can also get in at the front, but on some of the other trams you can get in at the front, back or middle. If you need to buy a ticket (which you should have) then you can get that from the driver ....sometimes!! .... unless the tram has a conducter (which some of the trams have) .... sometimes!! .... Then there are the blue trams and in (some of them!!) you can't get a ticket from the driver but you have to get it from the automaat in the middle of the tram .... except when the tram goes onto the metro system, then you can't buy a ticket from the machine but you have to get it before you get in the tram. The suburbs are served by a network of city-owned busses (on 27 routes), a partly underground railway (Metro) line serving two routes to the southern area, and a new high speed (when it's running properly) "Sneltram" (quicktram) which also uses the Metro track for part of it's journey. My advice is to get a good map (when you get to Amsterdam) and then walk and at the same time you can see (and be seen!!) and enjoy the city.

Red Light District
     Prostitution is a big tourist attraction here in Amsterdam and a lot of it is concentrated arround or in "The Red Light District" where virtually naked women try to sell their wares from the windows and where every other shop has something to do with Sex.