Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [80]
The outer districts | Amsterdam Oost |
The Tropenmuseum
Across the Singelgracht canal on Mauritskade rises the gabled and turreted Royal Tropeninstituut – formerly the Royal Colonial Institute – a sprawling complex containing the Tropenmuseum (daily 10am–5pm; €7.50, 6- to 17-year-olds €4; 020/568 8200, www.tropenmuseum.nl; tram #9 from Centraal Station), whose entrance is around the side at Linnaeusstraat 2. With its cavernous central hall and three floors of gallery space, this is Amsterdam’s ethnographic museum, focusing on all the world’s tropical and subtropical zones – which it does incredibly well, with a spectacular collection of art, applied art and other exhibits, displayed in an engaging, modern, yet largely gimmick-free way. Among the many artefacts there are Javanese stone friezes, elaborate carved wooden boats from Papua and New Guinea, a gamelan orchestra, a whole room of ancestral and death masks, and some incredible ritual poles cut from giant New Guinea mangroves. The collection is explained in English and imaginatively presented through a variety of media – slides, DVDs and audio clips – and you can watch everything from Dutch colonials meeting the natives over a hundred years ago to nomads of the Central Asian steppes huddling inside a traditional tent. There are also fun, creative displays devoted to such subjects as music-making, puppetry and traditional storytelling. Perhaps best of all are the museum’s studiously authentic reconstructions of contemporary life around the world – a mock-up of a Nigerian bar and residential compound, a Middle Eastern teahouse, a south American café, a Filipino jeepney bus – plus its candid expositions on the problems besetting the developing world, both urban and rural, such as the destruction of the tropical rainforests. The permanent collection is enhanced by an ambitious programme of temporary exhibitions, such as one dealing with Haitian voodoo. There’s also a shop, with crafts and music from and books about the developing world, and downstairs, the Tropentheater specializes in Third World cinema, music and dance.
The outer districts | Amsterdam Oost |
The Oosterpark and beyond
Behind the Royal Tropeninstituut, the manicured greenery of the Oosterpark is a pleasant introduction to the massed housing that extends south and east. A working-class district for the most part, particularly on the far side of Linnaeusstraat, the area also has a high immigrant presence, and the street names – Javastraat, Balistraat, Borneostraat – recall Holland’s colonial past. This is one of the city’s poorer neighbourhoods, with a sea of ageing terraced houses, though whole streets have been torn down to make way for new and better public housing. If you find yourself with some time to fill after the Tropenmuseum you might consider a stroll along Dapperstraat market (Mon–Sat 9am–5pm), one block east of Linnaeusstraat, the eastern equivalent to the Albert Cuypstraat market, though slightly less atmospheric.
The outer districts | Amsterdam Oost |
Amsterdam ArenA
Not strictly in Amsterdam Oost, but nonetheless on this side of town, the home ground of Ajax, the Amsterdam ArenA (museum & stadium tours: April–Sept 5–7 daily 11am–4.30pm; Oct–March Mon–Sat & last Sun of the month 4 daily 11am–4.30pm; €10.50; 1hr 30min; 020/311 1336, www.amsterdamarena.nl) is well worth the fifteen-minute metro trip, both to visit the Ajax Museum and to take a tour of the stadium itself. Either take the metro to Strandvliet and walk around the stadium to the main entrance on the far side, or go a stop further on to Bijlmer station, from