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permanent collection. Among many highlights, the latter includes a particularly large sample of the work of Mondriaan (1872–1944), from his early, muddy abstracts to the boldly coloured rectangular blocks for which he’s most famous. The Stedelijk is also strong on Kasimir Malevich (1878–1935), whose dense attempts at Cubism lead to the dynamism and bold primary tones of his “Suprematist” paintings – slices, blocks and bolts of colour that shift around as if about to resolve themselves into some complex computer graphic. Other high spots include several Marc Chagall paintings and a number of pictures by American abstract Expressionists Mark Rothko, Ellsworth Kelly and Barnett Newman, plus the odd work by Lichtenstein, Warhol, Robert Ryman, Kooning and Jean Dubuffet.

The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark | Museumplein |

The Concertgebouw

Across Van Baerlestraat just to the southwest of the Stedelijk Museum is the Concertgebouw (Concert Hall; 020/671 8345, www.concertgebouw.nl), home of the famed – and much recorded – Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest). When the German composer Brahms visited Amsterdam in the 1870s he was scathing about the locals’ lack of culture and, in particular, their lack of an even halfway suitable venue for his music. In the face of such ridicule, a consortium of Amsterdam businessmen got together to fund the construction of a brand-new concert hall and the result was the Concertgebouw, completed in 1888. An attractive structure with a pleasingly grand Neoclassical facade, the Concertgebouw has become renowned among musicians and concertgoers for its marvellous acoustics. Thanks to a facelift and the replacement of its crumbling foundations in the early 1990s, it’s looking better than ever, with a glass gallery that contrasts nicely with the red brick and stone of the rest of the building.

The Concertgebouw showcases an ambitious programme of classical music with the offerings of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra supplemented by the regular appearance of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest) as well as all manner of visiting orchestras. Ticket prices are reasonable (€30–50) and there are regular free – or heavily subsidized – lunchtime concerts throughout the year. Guided tours of the Concertgebouw take place on Sundays (noon–1pm) and Mondays (5–6pm) and cost €10. The tour takes in the Grote Zaal and Kleine Zaal auditoria, as well as various behind-the-scenes activities – control rooms, piano stores, artistes’ dressing rooms and the like.

Main hall of the Concertgebouw

The Museum Quarter and the Vondelpark |

The Vondelpark

Amsterdam is short of green spaces, which makes the leafy expanse of the Vondelpark, a short distance from both Museumplein and the Concertgebouw, doubly welcome. This is easily the largest and most popular of the city’s parks, its network of footpaths used by a healthy slice of the city’s population.

The park dates back to 1864, when a group of leading Amsterdammers clubbed together to transform the soggy marshland that lay beyond the old Leidsepoort gateway, on the western edge of Leidseplein, into a landscaped park. The group were impressed by the contemporary English fashion for natural (as distinct from formal) landscaping. They gave the task of developing the new style of park to the Zocher family, big-time gardeners who set about their task with gusto, completing the project in 1865. Named after the seventeenth-century poet Joost van den Vondel, the park proved an immediate success. It now possesses over a hundred tree species, a wide variety of local and imported plants, and – among many incidental features – a dinky little bandstand and a grand statue of a pensive Vondel, shown seated with quill in hand, near the park’s main entrance. Neither did the Zochers forget their Dutch roots: the park is latticed with narrow waterways crossed by pretty bridges and ponds that are home to many types of wildfowl, including numerous heron, though it’s the large colony of (very noisy) bright-green parakeets which