Traditional Dutch houses are famous for their characteristic façades, which come in all sorts and sizes: crow-stepped gables, bell-shaped gables, pointed gables and cornice fronts. You will have already seen many fine examples of them on this I-Tour through the canal ring – after all, this area is full of merchant houses with their ornate façades.

The inhabitants of Amsterdam built these wonderful gables to make their houses look prettier and many of these individual gables are actually no more than a little wall that hides a slightly lower, pointed roof.

You have now come to Leidseplein, where once stood a city gate. This gate once marked the beginning of the road to Leiden and this square was the first thing travellers saw of the canal ring and of Amsterdam when they entered the city. Even then, there was plenty of hustle and bustle, with travellers, street vendors and market traders coming to the city from all over.

As you can see, Leidseplein is still a very busy, energetic spot, but for other reasons: at present, it is the heart of entertainment on Amsterdam’s canal ring. Many cafés, shops, restaurants and theatres are located around the square, such as the New De La Mar Theatre, pop venues Paradiso and Melkweg and the city theatre, the red-brick building on the opposite side of the square.

On your right, on the opposite side of the road, you will see one of the strangest buildings of the canal ring: Paradiso, one of the most famous pop music venues in the Netherlands.

You can tell by the building’s exterior that it was not built as a concert hall. In fact, Paradiso was a church until 1967, which is obvious from the high, church-like windows with their rounded tops, which are typical of churches.

Nowadays, Paradiso is hallowed ground for music and culture lovers, because pick of the international music scene has given spectacular performances here in this intimate temple of pop, including Pink Floyd, Prince, Adele and Lady Gaga. All these famous performers love to visit cosy Paradiso because this pop venue has its every own intimate ambiance. This special atmosphere is created by the high, church’s ceiling and balustrades but more particularly because ‘only’ 1,500 people can fit into the building. That may seem a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the larger venues like the Heineken Music Hall or Ahoy in Rotterdam.

The Golden Age marked both an economic climax in Dutch history and a cultural one. Many of the works of art that date from around the same time as the canal ring are to be found in the imposing edifice on the opposite side of the road and the water.

This is the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Netherlands’ largest museum. Its collection contains many famous works and you can see many paintings by the Dutch masters of the Golden Age, including Rembrandt van Rijn’s Night Watch, Johannes Vermeer’s Milkmaid and many others. Beyond the Rijksmuseum, there is the large expanse of park, the Museumplein, which features the Stedelijk Museum and the Van Gogh Museum.

The Rijksmuseum was closed to the public for ten years while this magnificent building underwent a drastic renovation. Work has been done on the entire exterior, the entrance and the walkway under the building, and the interior has a completely new look. The ‘new’ Rijksmuseum was opened by Queen Beatrix in early 2013, an occasion celebrated with fireworks and a big party. If you want to see an impression of this festive occasion, watch the video.

If you are wondering what the renovated building and Museumplein beyond look like now, just cross the road and follow the walkway under the building.

This is Spiegelgracht, one of side-streets in the canal ring and the heart of Amsterdam’s art and antiques scene. Dozens of antique shops and galleries can be found in these streets. The antique dealers sell all kinds of curiosities, ranging from historic tiles of Delft Blue to nineteenth-century writing desks – if you like antiques, this is the place for you.

Spiegelstraat would never have become the centre of art and antiques without the Rijksmuseum close at hand, because in the early years, the museum bought many objects for its collection from the shops on this street: earthenware, furniture, jewellery, glasses and textiles, and it is no coincidence that the majority of the antique dealers in this district are specialised in these items.

As you may have noticed on this I-Tour, luxury and status were important for the merchants who lived along the canals of Amsterdam, and their houses were expected reflect their standing by their spic-and-span exteriors.

A whole army of servants was needed to run a household in a canal house but these cooks, cleaners and nursemaids were not allowed to use the front door. Their entrance was the back door in the alleys between the canals, like Kerkstraat where you are now. In contrast to the front of the houses, it was a huge mess in these streets, with goods being delivered or dispatched, horse manure littering the streets and rubbish put out to be collected. It must have been very smelly – although the same could be said of the front of the house, as the canals were used as open sewers in those days.

The part of Herengracht you are now on is the most dazzling impressive part of the canal ring and the most expensive and most beautiful houses were built here. In fact, the wealth of this part of town gives it its name: ‘Gouden Bocht’ or Golden Bend.

Take good look at the houses along this part of the canal: these are the typically large canal houses where the richest Amsterdam merchants once lived. In Amsterdam’s heyday, these buildings all had almost the same layouts and the same characteristic, luxurious interiors. The photographs show how the wealthy residents furnished their canal houses: marble columns, silk curtains and paintings by Dutch masters hanging on the wall.

Nowadays, the merchant houses on the Golden Bend often provide office accommodation for businesses such as law firms, banks and stock exchange dealers. The Mayor of Amsterdam lives here too, at number 502, a little further back along Herengracht, on this side of the water.

A characteristic feature of the canal ring and the centre of Amsterdam are the many ‘hofjes’, courtyards off the busy street and lined with tiny houses. You are now in the most well-known courtyard of Amsterdam: the ‘Begijnhof’, called after the Béguines, the nuns who lived here for centuries.

This courtyard also contains one of the few remaining wooden houses in Amsterdam, although, in the Middle Ages, nearly all the houses in the city were built of wood. Over the years, the other wooden houses have either been replaced or burned down, because living in a wooden house was always risky. Most households cooked their daily meals over an open fire inside the house, so it not very surprising that many large fires broke out in the city during the Middle Ages. Consequently, around the year 1450, the city administrators prohibited the building of houses with wooden side walls; later wooden façades were prohibited too.

Maybe you have noticed something else about the ‘Begijnhof’ besides the wooden house? Perhaps you have seen that the courtyard is slightly lower than the area that surrounds it? Why do you suppose it is lower? Do the quiz to find out.

Doesn’t this street strike you as being rather broad? That is because this Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal was once a canal and until 1884, water flowed down the middle of this street and ships, not trams, would pass by. The picture shows the street as it was in bygone days.

The people of Amsterdam had good reason to build their city along the waterways: the canals of yesteryear were the motorways of today. Merchants transported their goods by ship and people preferred to travel long distances by boat, which was much more comfortable than a bumpy coach ride or taking a horse and cart along bad roads. Nonetheless, as the years went by, transport by road increased - at the expense of many of the waterways, even in Amsterdam. Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal was not the only canal in the city to be filled in; unfortunately, about seventy canals in Amsterdam have had to make way for cars, bikes, trams and buses.

Now you are back on Dam Square, the beginning and the end of your trail. As we explained at the beginning of the walk, this square is the symbolic heart of the city and of the Netherlands. And the Dutch royal family have an important aspect of this: Dam Square is the place where all the national celebrations, like royal marriages and investitures, past and present, are held. The celebrations are not just held on the square, but in the buildings that line the square too, such as the Royal Palace and the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), which you can see on your right.

In 2013, the enthronement of King Willem-Alexander took place here on Dam Square, making him Monarch of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and spoke to the people on the square from the balcony of the palace. Afterwards, in the Nieuwe Kerk, he was formally installed as king. It was one huge, day-long party for everyone here on Dam Square. If you would like to see some impressions of that day, you can watch the video.

Finish the trail by returning to the Monument on Dam Square, and reflect a little on your I-Tour of the ‘Venice of the Low Countries’, which showed you all the highlights of Amsterdam’s canal ring. If you would like to see more of Amsterdam and its environs, please take a look at the App, which contains various I-Tours of Amsterdam and the neighbouring towns.