DAM AND NIEUWMARKT

Dam Square

The Dam is the heart of Amsterdam. There you can find the Royal Palace, the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), Madame Tussaud's, De Bijenkorf department store, the Old Post Office (now a shopping galleria) Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and the National Monument. Dam links the main streets Damrak, Rokin and the pedestrian street Nieuwendijk. Among notable events was when the German shot large crowds to death in 1945. Nowadays it is popular to sit there and relax on holidays.

Dam Square a sunny may day with Madame Tussauds/Peek&Cloppenburg, The Royal Palace and the Nieuwe Kerk. People like to sit and relax at the foot of the National Monument.

Dam Square in the morning. To the left is the building that host Madame Tussaud and the Peek and Cloppenburg department store.

The Royal Palace. The most significant building on the Dam was originally built as a city hall in 1665, but is now one of 3 royal palace in the Netherlands. There are impressive chandeliers and paintings inside. In Dutch it is called Koninklijk Paleis Amsterdam or Paleis op de Dam.

The globe statue at the top of the palace.

The decorative foot of one of the street lights.

Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), a landmark at the Dam Square. It is a 15th century church that was rebuilt in Gothic style in 1645 after a large fire.

Inside the gothic Niewe Church. It is no longer used as a church, but a museum. So unfortunately there is an entrance fee to get in. It is also used for inaugurations by the royal family.

Detail of the church.

Madame Tussaud was museum. I visited this museum in the early 90s.

The National Monument and Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, one of Amsterdam's foremost hotels.

De Bijenkorf, Netherland's largest department store.

Towards Rokin, one of the main streets. It leads to Leidseplein. The building is Amsterdam Diamond Center.

The National Monument is a World War II monument. It is 22m high and was revealed in 1956.

The lion part of the National monument.

Batman at Dam.

The blue/white trams pass right through the square.

Bike taxi and tram at Dam. The square reminds a bit of Copenhagen's Town hall square.

Old Post Office, now the shopping galleria Magna Plaza. It was built in 1899 and converted into a shopping mall with 40 floors in 1990. It is one of the few decorated gothic buildings in Amsterdam.

Magna Plaza, a shopping galleria inside the Old Post Office building.

The impressive interior of the shopping galleria Magna Plaza, the former Post Office.

Die Port van Cleve Hotel.

The Royal Palace from another angle.

Towards the North, with the pedestrian street Nieuwendijk in the middle. The old lights are nice.

You can see more of Dam at dark in the Amsterdam by night section.

Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal, a street behind Dam with narrow townhouses.

The beginning of the pedestrian street Nieuwendijk that leads to the Central Station.

Decorations for the European Football Championship in 2012, behind the Dam.

Nieuwmarkt

Nieuwumarkt (New Market) is a square a few blocks East of Dam square, next to Chinatown. There are many pubs at the square and the surrounding area is known as the Nieuwmarkt district. The square is famous for the medieval Waag building.

Waag is a medieval buildings that dominates Nieuwmarkt.

At first it was a gate to the medieval city, then a weighing house, a collection point for jews by the nazis during WWII and now a restaurant/café.

Some of the cafés and pubs at Nieuwmarkt.

Two days a week there is a market on Nieuwmarkt.

The Nieuwmarkt metro station. In the 1970s several buildings were torn down to make way for the metro. That lead to heavy riots.

Nieuwmarkt seen from the canal at Chinatown.

Chinatown

Zeedijk street, Chinatown.

Zeedijk Buddhist temple, also known as Fo Guang Shan He Hua.