H&A travel
Vintiquing in
Amsterdam Amsterdam is not just about bicycles and canals. Wander its small streets and you’ll find antiques and vintage shops galore – not to mention museums full of oddities words Rosanna Morris Photographs Phillip Morris
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With this in mind, visit this friendly city for some shopping and you know you’ll be in for a treat. Due to the city’s diminutive size, it’s easy to get around on foot, though it’s also worth trying bikes, trams and boats. The small streets that crisscross the canals show you Amsterdam at its best. Chic shoppers head for the Negen Straatjes (Nine Streets) area of town and serious antiques and art buyers go to the designated antiques district Spiegelkwartier (Mirror Quarter). But strike out to the north and south and you’ll find old garages
and dance schools that have been transformed into sizeable, upmarket shopping destinations. When Amsterdam was the largest port in the world during the Dutch Golden Age in the 16th and 17th centuries, spices and other goods were imported into the city from the country’s colonies in the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. You’ll notice many Asian influences in both the food and the antiques trade, where many pieces hark from that part of the world.
illustration: sophie joyce
he residents of Amsterdam love old things. If they’re not pedalling along a canal street on a rusty loop-frame bicycle, they’re out looking for a bargain to add to their collection. You only have to count the number of mini museums, formed through someone’s liking for an item – be it spectacles, chess sets or pianolas – to realise the Dutch love of acquisition. Even the window of a dry-cleaner flaunts a vast collection of antique irons, while a cobbler’s object of choice is old shoe lasts.
November 2011 H&A 141