Strange Things to Do In Amsterdam

An Overview of Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a legendary city of canals, dikes, bridges, bikes, parks and tourism centers. The city is one of the most popular tourism destinations on earth, drawing in millions of visitors each year. Amsterdam is also home to impressive collections of art, a distinct culinary and trade culture and numerous historical attractions. The city is beyond beautiful and active with many strange things to do in Amsterdam.

Strange Things to Do In Amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum

This large, ornate and interactive museum of surrealism is home to some of Dali’s strangest and most illuminating works. The museum is a cornerstone of the Museum Square with additional access to the famed and compelling Stedeljik Contemporary Art Museum, the Rijksmuseum of History and Arts and the Royal Concertgobouw Concert Hall. The Van Gogh museum hosts 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 700 letters from one of history’s greatest and most tortured artists.

NEMO Science Museum

The NEMO Science Museum is an immensely popular interactive museum located in Amsterdam’s bay. The massive museum has a heavy focus on education and scientific learning. The Museum costs 17.50 Euros per person.  It is a distinct, architecturally interesting building with a green surface, almost appearing as a ship emerging into the bay.

Flower Market

This Flower Market includes an incredible series of canal-side stalls crammed with riveting colors and flowers. The market has a special and historical emphasis on tulips. The area is also home to various breakfast stalls and other shops with nice views into the nearby canals.

Electric Ladyland: Museum of Fluorescent Art

This museum is a trippy, color-meld of a gallery dedicated to psychedelic color theory and abstract shapes.  Advanced booking required for entry, but visitors can view the entire museum in personalized small tours. The site is amazing for preserved artworks, shining minerals and manufactured sculptures alit under rays of ultraviolet light.

The Hash, Marijuana and Hemp Museum

This small museum is an appropriate educational homage to the Cannabis Capital of the world. Amsterdam’s status as a legal weed capital has resulting in numerous shops, lounges and venues dedicated to the plant. The museum takes a more objective but entertaining look at the herb.

In’t Aepjen Bar

This is a historically odd bar where sailors short on coins would pay their tab by offering pet monkeys acquired on voyages to far-off tropics.  Monkeys soon overpopulated the bar and created a flea problem. This resulted in the monkeys being removed to a large garden owned by a regular customer named Gerard Westerman.  The garden site would would eventually become Amsterdam’s Artis Zoo while the odd bar would decorate in remembrance of it’s monkey mascots.

Oudemanhuispoort

This tiny street is an ancient brick pathway crammed with independent stalls selling used books, sheet music and other literature. Often known as a hiding place for antiques, rare tomes and paper treasures, the branching street is magical to wander along,

Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam

This area is home to a famed and old greenhouse created in the 1600’s to grow desperately needed local herbs to combat the Black Death. The botanical gardens still grows many important herbs as well as other decorative plants. It’s one of the world’s oldest botanical gardens.

Micropia

An astounding zoo of the world’s most obscure, demented and wonderful microbes. The museum isn’t for the squeamish, since it has numerous models of microscopic organisms, displays of organ systems and super-sized viral sculptures. The museum has also created backlit displays of microscope dishes used to better view the vast, unseen world which exists upon every Earthly surface.

KattenKabinet (Cat Cabinet)

This was originally designed as a museum of remembrance for a man’s departed cat (John Pierpont Morgan). The museum gradually expanded into a massive memorial mansion, now with wall-to-wall art galleries of feline paintings, statues and other museum pieces. It’s the ultimate cat-themed art-and-joy feline museum.

Torture Museum

This is a demented, dark space museum displaying the endless creativity humans have for inflicting pain on one another. the museum contains models, torture implements, rather gruesome descriptions on torture uses and over 50 unnerving displays. While a uncomfortable to imagine, the museum isn’t overtly graphic or scary.

De Poezenboot (The Cat Boat)

This boat is an amazing animal sanctuary and rescue shelter for abandoned cats. Made from a converted boat, this official charity provides a temporary or permanent home for 50 cats floating on the water. Many of the cats are seperated from guests for special needs or purposes, while others wander the boat freely, nuzzling up against guests.

Nieuwe Spiegelstraat

Amsterdam’s most unique shopping street has arcane antique shops, obscure items, outdated globes, dinosaur molds, old navigation devices and other such oddities.  Thom & Lenny Nelis Antiques is the most famous of these shops, but there are many others that are equally interesting in the area. Exploring the shops, discovering old works and browsing hidden nooks are among the strange things to do in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Cheese Museum

This museum is a wonderful shrine to the history, creation, appreciation and design of culturally vital dairy products, with a heavy focus on the Netherlands specialty, Gouda.

Mark Bischof Studio

This is an incredible sculpture studio filled with wooden and metal kinetic sculptures which clatter, spun and hum uniquely. The structures use marbles to facilitate motions for simple tasks rendered artistically complex.

Amsterdam Tulip Museum

A immensely important flower in Dutch culture, the tulip remained a symbol of wealth and cultivation.  It’s responsible for the misunderstood Tulip Mania during the Dutch Golden Age, where the excessive value of the flower among the elite caused a market bubble and rapid value collapse once florists began cultivating tulips in bulk.

Brouwerijt-Ij Brewery and De Gooyer Molen

This is the home of a Dutch brewery directly adjacent to a 300-year-old windmill (De Gooyer Molen).  It’s the tallest wooden mill in the Netherlands standing at an imposing 26.6 meters high. The windmill registered as a National Monument.

Totalitarian Art Gallery

This is a powerfully evocative museum with pieces heavily collected from the Soviet Union. The Museum’s various galleries show artworks from some of the most oppressed societies in the world, right up to the unwinding of the Soviet Union.

The Plastic Whale

To better combat over-tourism and littering, this company offers specially designed, recycled-material boats which tour the canals of Amsterdam. The tours offer information and grand sights around the city all while pulling rubbish out of the water.  The tourism model has had an enormous cleansing impact on Amsterdam. While cleaning canals and going on tours may seem like strange things to do in Amsterdam, the positive impact brought forth by this form of tourism is profound.

NDSM Hidden Art World

This hidden world of art and designs contains a community of island artist squatters in a shipyard studio area. This is a relatively unofficial setup, with numerous studios opening, closing and being tucked into the industrial zone. The area is used for cultural activism, summer festivals along the waters, a small restaurant and a special zone for upcoming graffiti artists. The site can be reached by ferry from behind Central Station.

CTaste

This is a pitch-black, sensory experience restaurant where food is served in total darkness with electronics completely forbidden. Trained staff members bring food in the darkness and guide visitors to their plates.

Van Delft Biscuits

On December 6th, many Europeans celebrate the holiday Sinterklaas, a festival for Santa’s cousin who resides in Spain and travels by boat.  The traditional snacks (which are thrown at children) are called Pepernoten Cookies and can be eaten year-round at 500 Singel Street in Amsterdam. This is an extremely popular but relatively obscure festival throuhgout Europe.

Pianola Museum

A Pianola is a mechanical-gear version of the 19th century iPod.  Hooking one up to a piano would cause the keys to play without the host needing to remain on the bench.  This museum is home to dozens, several prepped to play music. The museum is fairly small but absolutely crammed, so set aside at least an hour or two when visiting.

Blossom Bikes

In Amsterdam, artistic traditions have bikes covered in flowers randomly appear for visual displays, only to vanish before the flowers wilt. These bikes can be found randomly thorughout the city in the spring and summer.

Rijksmuseum

This is considered among the greatest museums of Dutch culture in existence, with over 800 years of national artwork on display. The museum is home to sculptures, fantastic paintings, information on culturally potent artists and beautiful architecture.

Anne Frank House

The tragic, uplifting and famous story of Anne Frank can be experienced firsthand by visiting the attic space where she wrote her devastating journal. The space is small and rather cramped, giving further insight into her experience. As such, tourists must book tickets in advance to help manage foot traffic in the limited space.

Zaanse Schans Windmills

Located slightly outside the city, there is a windmill village where the large structures lazily rotate over serene canals. The windmills are one of the most popular and beautiful day trips from Amsterdam.

Keukenhof Gardens

This is one of the largest flower gardens on the planet, with some of the best-maintained tulip features on Earth. Vast beds of flowers can be seen in neat clusters with visitors following winding footpaths through the vibrantly-colored grounds.

Hoge Veluwe National Park

This is another day trip from the city. Located about an hour drive from Amsterdam’s center, this is a famed hiking and cycling location to spot deer, mouflon and wild boar. Beautiful nature scenery is available, as well as stunning architecture sites and winding hiking trails.

Giethoorn

This is a village outside of Amsterdam to the north and another popular day-trip location. This unique town forbids cars, making is almost impossibly quiet and peaceful.  The only way to explore is through the various canal-streets or on foot across the numerous bridges

Museum of Prostitution

Located in Amsterdam, this is a notorious, small museum describing the world’s oldest profession. The intriguing insights the museum offers discuss secrets of the Red Light District of Amsterdam, the history behind the famous Amsterdam windows and strange, erotic confessions left behind by other visitors. Visiting the museum, located in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, is one of many strange things to do in Amsterdam. The musuem also includes 12 explicit audio stories by Inga, Amsterdam’s most famed prostitute.

Marken

This is an independent, extremely picturesque town of colorful wooden houses on stilts, a thin lighthouse, old-school fishing vessels and a notorious wooden-shoe factory. It remains a prominent cultural heritage site and beautiful day trip out of the city.

Tropenmuseum

This is a strange theme-museum following cultures across the world and specifically highlighting similarities found between them. The museum does a grand job of highlighting cultural distinctions and similarities while showcasing prominent cultural aspects.

Voldendam

Another short day trip north outside of Amsterdam, this is an extremely gorgeous fishing village with narrow labyrinth streets and a plethora of seafood options.  Edam is nearby, one of the country’s most famous cheese-making capitals.

Vondelpark

This is an excellent outdoor area for walks, cafes and statues.  The park is named for the talented poet Vondel. This green space, paired with Rembrandtpark located directly to the West, is an good choice for getting outside of Amsterdam’s tourism crowds. The parks are a good place for a break after enjoying the many strange things to do in Amsterdam.

TonTon Club West

This club is very strange Japanese-American Retro Arcade with alcoholic milkshakes and old school games.

Read more about strange things to do in Amsterdam and seeing the world by visiting Leftfade Trails Blog.

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