Spui — books, brown cafés and the city's quietest courtyard

The Spui is where intellectual Amsterdam takes its coffee. The square hosts a book market every Friday, the Athenaeum bookshop and newsstand anchors one corner, and two of the city's defining cafés face each other across the cobbles — Hoppe, pouring since 1670, and Luxembourg with its Parisian terrace. Through an inconspicuous door lies the Begijnhof, a medieval courtyard of gabled houses around a silent green, home to the city's oldest wooden house. The “Lieverdje” statue in the square was ground zero for the Provo happenings of the sixties — this small square has a habit of starting things. Come late morning: book market, courtyard, then a slow beer at a brown café window.