Lastage — the forgotten quarter between Nieuwmarkt and the harbour

The Lastage was Amsterdam's original overspill: a sixteenth-century shipbuilding quarter outside the city wall, later absorbed and half-forgotten — which is precisely its charm today. Its icon is the Montelbaanstoren, the 1516 defence tower on the Oudeschans whose elegant (and slightly tilting) spire Rembrandt sketched repeatedly; the quay before it remains one of the most painterly water views in the centre. The streets between Nieuwmarkt and the Oosterdok stay strikingly quiet given the crowds two blocks away, with ship chandlers' warehouses converted to homes and a scattering of local cafés. Walk it as the connective tissue between Nieuwmarkt, the Scheepvaartmuseum and the Plantage — and stop on the Montelbaan quay at dusk.