Last Updated on sixth May 2023 by Sophie Nadeau
If there’s one row of homes that almost each customer to Amsterdam makes it a precedence to see, it’s the Damrak Canal Houses which date again centuries and seem as in the event that they’re dancing because of their leaning statures. Here’s methods to see the Damrak Gingerbread Houses, in addition to what to know earlier than you go.
In Dutch, Canal Houses are often called grachtenpanden.
If you’re planning a visit to the Netherlands, make sure to try our steered in the future in Amsterdam, the greatest Amsterdam journey ideas, and methods to spend one week within the Netherlands.
The homes date all the best way again to the Seventeenth-century and are a part of one of many oldest areas of town. After all, through the Middle Ages, the canal exterior of those waterside properties flowed straight into the Amstel River, which in flip emptied right into a basin often called the IJ.
How to see the Damrak Canal Houses
I’ve been to Amsterdam extra instances than I can depend and the Damrak Houses have at all times been a spotlight for me (irrespective of how touristy they might be!) Unfortunately, on my penultimate journey to Amsterdam again in 2019, the homes have been really beneath scaffolding.
Therefore I used to be fairly happy to seek out that they’re as soon as extra utterly seen as of 2023. It couldn’t be simpler to see the Damrak Houses and so they’ll really probably be the primary iconic Amsterdam sight that you just see upon arrival within the metropolis.
Once you’ve left Amsterdam Centraal and headed in the direction of town centre (not gone out of the again of the station in the direction of the ferry docks), it’s essential to stroll immediately forward. The Damrak Houses are on the left hand facet round 500 metres from the station.
You can both see them from Damrak road or head a bit of additional down and admire them from a barely totally different angle by heading onto the Oudebrugsteeg and snapping photographs of them from there. The bridge view additionally gives a surprising vista onto the principle practice station.
Unfortunately you possibly can’t see the inside of any of those homes. However, if you wish to keep at Damrak for a short time longer, then you possibly can seize a drink on the out of doors terrace of The Grasshopper (although you’ll pay fairly excessive costs for the privelige).
Close by you’ll discover star sights like De Oude Kerk and Beurs van Belage (the outdated inventory change). One of essentially the most enjoyable information about Amsterdam is that canal homes are slim as a result of as soon as upon a time they have been taxed on how extensive they have been! Indeed, the narrowest home within the Dutch capital is simply 2.2 metres extensive!
