Rivierenbuurt — Plan Zuid brickwork and quiet star power

The Rivierenbuurt is Plan Zuid at its purest: H.P. Berlage's 1920s urban design filled in by Amsterdam School architects, street after street of sculptural brick along avenues named for rivers. The twelve-storey “Wolkenkrabber” on Victorieplein was the city's first residential high-rise; on the nearby Merwedeplein stands the apartment where the Frank family lived before going into hiding — a small statue of Anne looks over the square. Long a quietly Jewish, quietly bourgeois quarter, it now hides some of the city's most serious cooking behind unassuming façades. Come for an architecture walk between the Amstel and the Beatrixpark, and stay for dinner somewhere the tour buses will never find.