The unhurried way to walk the canals
Skip the loop everyone Instagrams.
A six-bridge route that ends, properly, in a brown café.
The Grachtengordel was never designed to be photographed — it was designed to be walked, slowly, in the wrong shoes, with somewhere unimportant to be afterwards.
What follows is the version we'd tell a friend who just moved here.
The short version
Pick one neighbourhood. Stay long enough to be bored. The good bits are on the second loop, never the first.
If you only have one rule, make it this: walk further than you planned.
Where to start
Most of what follows assumes you're willing to skip a sight or two. Amsterdam rewards the visitor who picks fewer things and stays longer at each one.
Keep reading
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