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Nicknamed “the castle” because of its crenellated façade, this is the oldest Trades Union building in the Netherlands, built in 1900 by H P Berlage of Beurs fame for the General Dutch Diamond Workers’ Union (ANDB). Go inside for the stunning tiled entrance hall and staircase, and murals by Richard Roland Holst of the Amsterdam School.

The flat brick façades of these typical 19th-century warehouses, punctuated by shuttered, arched windows, seem to stretch endlessly along the dockside. When owned by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), they were declared part of a free port, and no duties were levied here on cargoes in transit. Now they have been converted into offices and apartments, served by pleasant cafés and restaurants with tables outside in summer.

When this soberhofje , the Amstelhof, was completed in 1683, it was the widest building in Amsterdam. It was part of the final phase of work on the Grachtengordel when the three canals were extended beyond the Amstel and given the prefix “Nieuwe”. Part of the building now houses the Hermitage Amsterdam, a satellite of the Hermitage, St Petersburg.

During the Nazi occupation, this former theatre was used as an assembly-point for thousands of Jews. Behind an intact façade, a garden has been created around a basalt monument on the site of the auditorium. The names of 6,700 Dutch Jews are engraved in a memorial hall to the 104,000 who were exterminated. There is an exhibition upstairs.

About 8,000 different species of plants, flowers and trees, an ornamental pond, rock and herb gardens, and numerous glasshouses are crammed into this small, wedge-shaped botanical garden. Most of the exotic plants were collected by the VOC in the 17th and 18th centuries. Highlights are a 300-year old Cycad palm, the three-climates glasshouse and a coffee plant, Europe’s first, smuggled out of Ethiopia in 1706.

It is hard to believe that the magnificent Carré Theatre, superbly set beside the Amstel, was built at break-neck speed in 1887 to house Oscar Carré’s circus. A copy of his other circus in Cologne, it has a fine Neo-Renaissance frontage, some splendid ironwork, and is decorated appropriately with the heads of clowns and dancers. Today, it hosts pop concerts, dance shows, lavish musicals, and even the occasional circus.

For anyone who loves ships, the maritime museum is a must. Where sails, ropes, guns and munitions were once stored is now an Aladdin’s Cave of nautical treasures. Don’t miss the Royal Barge on the ground floor and the East Indiaman Amsterdam, moored outside. The museum is closed for renovation from 2005 to 2007.

Following the development of the Dutch Resistance movement from the German invasion in May 1940 to the liberation in May 1945, this exhibition shows how the Dutch people courageously faced the occupation. Its fascinating and evocative displays relate private stories of individual heroism and place them in their historical context. Among the memorabilia are forged identity papers, old photographs, underground newspapers and deadly weapons.