Every design for Amsterdam

Amsterdam sits where the Amstel once met the wide arm of water called the IJ, and the city still carries the name of the dam laid across that river in the thirteenth century. Everything that followed grew out from that single crossing: a fishing village, then a world port of the Golden Age, then the curve of canals that UNESCO now lists as World Heritage. Locals still call it Mokum, a nickname borrowed from Yiddish.

The Koninklijk Paleis, once the city hall, stands on Dam Square at the centre of it all. Not far off, the Westertoren rises above narrow canal houses with their gabled façades, and the Anne Frank Huis draws people from every corner of the world. The Oude Kerk and the Zuiderkerk add their own spires, while bike lanes thread past the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum as if great art were simply part of the commute. This is a city with a long habit of openness and tolerance, and a capital that leaves the business of government to The Hague.

If you learned to ride a bike here, or found your feet here later on, you could draw this map blindfold: the rings of canals, the river, the water along the top. Keep it with you, wherever the next ride goes.