Oostelijke Eilanden — where the VOC built its fleet

The Eastern Islands were the engine room of Amsterdam's Golden Age: on Kattenburg the Admiralty built its warships (the Maritime Museum occupies its monumental storehouse), on Oostenburg the VOC ran the largest shipyard in the world. The working past survives in street names, restored wharf buildings and the Van Gendthallen's industrial skeletons, while Oostenburg's newest corner has flipped into dense, lively new-build with quayside eating. It is a neighbourhood of layers rather than sights — walk from the museum's replica East Indiaman past Wittenburg's courtyards to the new Oostenburg quays, and you cross four centuries in twenty minutes.