Amsterdam - Old South & De Pijp (Chapter)

This is the Old South & De Pijp chapters from Lonely Planet’s Amsterdam guidebook.

Often called the Museum Quarter, the Old South holds three top-draw museum collections, as well as the Concertgebouw music hall. It’s also one of Amsterdam’s richest neighbourhoods, and impressive manors rise on the leafy streets.

Ethnic meets trendy in De Pijp, a recently gentrified area that mixes labourers, intellectuals, new immigrants, prostitutes and young urbanites.

• you’ll wait in line outside and jostle the crowds inside, but seeing those vivid brushstrokes of yellow sunflowers and purple-blue irises makes it all worthwhile at the Van Gogh Museum

• plunge into the Golden Age trove of Dutch master paintings, Delft tiles, gold goblets and gilded dollhouses at the Rijksmuseum
• admire the abstractions of Mondrian, Matisse and all their modern compadres at the Stedelijk Museum
• feast your senses on the international free-for-all of fresh produce, cheese, fish, clothing and quirky Dutch souvenirs at the Albert Cuypmarkt, Europe’s largest daily street market
• maps
• chill out, De Pijp style, at the lush Sarphatipark, an urban oasis of rolling lawns, statues and fountains
• transport
• restaurants & bars
• diverge from the well-trodden tourist pub crawls with a bar hop through the exuberantly friendly watering holes of De Pijp

Coverage includes: Neighbourhood Top Five, Local Life, Getting There & Away, Sights, Eating, Drinking & Nightlife, Entertainment, Shopping and Sleeping.