Individual experience: exploring Amsterdam's hidden gems

What to expect

I will tell you about the history, architecture, design, art, traditional Dutch food, and the distinctive features of the Dutch. Learn about how they organized the world's first stock exchange, the tulip mania, 'air trading,' the secret life of Amsterdam's basements, and why Dutch windows are so large.

• We will start the walk from the central station, spend some time in the bustling tourist quarter, visit one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the Netherlands—St. Nicholas Cathedral, see the Exchange designed by the most revered Dutch architect. We'll touch on architecture, 3D-printed houses, and other unusual things.
• We will then visit one of the best galleries of young Dutch designers. It's a great place to buy unique souvenirs and interior items—unthinkable tables, paper folded vases, and everything born from the designers' creativity of perhaps the most creative country in the world.
• A minute's walk from the tourist paths is a completely unusual place. Here, street artists use houses as canvases for their huge paintings; everyday graffiti replaces each other, and every house hosts daily film screenings, performances, and concerts surrounded by mysteriously grim brick walls.
• From here, we will move to no less interesting place—a store of unusual gifts. Thanks to the excellent sense of humor of Dutch designers, even the gloomiest people here can't help but smile.
• We will visit Spui square, where depending on the day, we will either come across a book market or an art market. Here are excellent bookstores with art albums. If desired, you can visit a store of clothing by young designers—quite a radical and cheerful spectacle.
• We'll enter the ancient twisted gates and stroll through the courtyards and galleries of the Amsterdam Museum, leading us to a picturesque and quiet hofje. Along the way, we'll learn about the reliefs that the Dutch loved to decorate their houses with and try to solve their riddles.
• We'll walk through the luxurious floating flower market, where you can buy everything from tulip bulbs to Venus flytrap in a canned jar. Learn about tulip mania, futures, and 'air trading.' As well as how a small bulb caused the collapse of the economy of one of the most prosperous countries.
• We'll also talk about the artists living here, walk to the Chinatown. If desired, you can have a snack at one of the best Chinese/Vietnamese restaurants. We'll see the scariest place in the city, the square where people were executed, and the narrowest house in Amsterdam. We'll also look at the city from a height, peek into the university courtyard, learn the history of the weigh house, and how it's connected to the great Rembrandt.

Along the way, we will definitely tell you where you can taste traditional Dutch liqueurs, try the most delicious chocolate cookie in the world, and make great souvenirs almost with your own hands

What we will see:

• Train station building
• The Exchange
• Design shop
• Dam Square (Royal Palace, Nieuwe Kerk)
• Wax figure museum, National Monument
• Amsterdam Museum
• Hofje
• Spui Square (Bookstores, antiquarian market, store of clothing by young Dutch designers)
• Flower market
• Christmas gift shop
• Coin Tower
• Rembrandt Square
• De Krijtberg
• Amsterdam's Gates
• Chinatown (Chinese supermarket)
• Begijnhof
• Squats
• Panoramic terrace
• Fo Guang Shan Holland Tempel
• The narrowest house
• Chamber of Weights

And also:

• Walk along the canals of Amsterdam
• Discover the secret of Dutch residential houses on the water
• Try the famous Dutch herring