Music, maestro
A Sunday morning concert at the Concertgebouw (concertgebouw.nl; 11am, tickets from €23) is an Amsterdam institution. The wedding-cake-white main hall, licked with gilt, is said to have among the best acoustics in the world and attracts outstanding orchestras and players. Expect anything from a Prokofiev symphony to a Brahms violin concerto. You can make a whole morning of it, too, with breakfast in the Café Viotta downstairs beforehand, brunch afterwards upstairs in restaurant Lier (€32 per person), or a tour of the historic building (€11). Sunday dim sum is also hugely popular, not only among the city’s substantial Chinese population. My favourite dim sum spot is the Sea Palace (seapalace.nl; small individual dishes €5.50-€8.50 each), a floating pagoda near Centraal Station that is not at all the tourist trap it appears.
Market forces
The Sunday Art Market (artamsterdam-spui.com; from 11am) on Spui Square offers art and crafts largely to mainstream tastes, with ceramics, prints, small sculptures and paintings usually sold by the artists themselves. Sunday Market Westergas (sundaymarket.nl; from noon on the first Sunday of the month) has funkier artwork, fashion and design, at Amsterdam’s former gasworks. On the second and third Sundays of the month, it moves to De Hallen in Amsterdam West and to Museumplein. In winter or bad weather, head to the Indoor Antique Centre (antiekcentrumamsterdam.nl; opens 11am), a warren of stalls selling antiques and collectibles, from granny’s attic junk to highly covetable. Keep an eye open, too, for the Pure Market (puremarkt.nl) which rotates around various city parks in the summer months, and has a superabundance of delicious food and artisanal products. This would be the place to pick up good Dutch farm cheese to take home.
Let us pray
The English Reformed Church (Begijnhof 48; ercadam.nl; morning service 10.30am) has been meeting for 400 years in the dainty church in a secluded garden courtyard that was spiritual home to the Pilgrim Fathers, before they set sail to the Americas. The service follows the traditional structure of the Church of Scotland. Anglican services are held in English at Christ Church City Centre (Groenburgwal 42; christchurch.nl; morning service 10am). The oldest church in town, the Oude Kerk (Oudekerksplein; oudekerk.n1; morning service 11am) dates back to the 14th century and hosts Dutch Reformed services in its cavernous vaulted interior. Hymns are played on one of four organs, the oldest dating from the 18th century.
Amsterdam is currently in lockdown and overseas holidays are subject to restrictions.