﻿One of the most enjoyable neighborhoods to explore in Amsterdam is the Jordaan which has
become extremely popular for visitors in recent decades with its many shops, several different
street markets, cafés, restaurants, canals and narrow lanes. There's a casual outdoor bar scene
and unique shops individually owned and with a lot of character offering vintage and handmade items.
Crossing over an old-fashioned drawbridge, we’re entering Jordaan from the north end which begins
at the Brouwersgracht canal, often considered one of the most beautiful canals of Amsterdam,
and forming the northern border of Jordaan, and to the east, we have another border canal
the Prinsengracht. Right alongside that canal you'll find one of Amsterdam's many
lively street markets, Noordermarkt, and sometimes you'll get jazzy street entertainment,
as we found this morning. Every Monday morning it's a fleamarket selling fabric, some food,
secondhand clothing, old shoes, records, etc. and on every Saturday, it's a biological food market
selling a wide range of ecological products like organic fruits and vegetables,
herbs, mushrooms and cheese., t we'll get more of this market and music at the end of the program.
Although Jordaan does not have a lot of canals running through it there, are some beauties,
such as this, further south. We will be starting in the north part of Jordaan in our visit
and working down south towards this canal and beyond. That hungry swan is looking for a handout
but it seems like the people are not paying attention, wrapped up in their little worlds.
If you really want to get off track, take a walk around the Jordaan neighborhood.
It's mostly residential, and has quiet little narrow streets. There are some shops, of course,
and cafés and bars and restaurants. The streets here are perpendicular, they are straight, and
yet it's pretty easy to get lost because there is no obvious landmarks when you're walking around.
Even if you have a map, you might inadvertently take a right turn when you thought you were
taking a left turn, and you end up on the opposite side of the district – it's possible.
Jordaan is an enjoyable comfortable place to live, with an artistic bohemian atmosphere, something
like New York's Greenwich Village or Soho, that has attracted a critical mass of hip residents.
There is a peaceful atmosphere since it is slightly removed from the tourists and commercial
center of town, yet it's just 700 meters away from the Dam square, an easy 10-minute walk.
It's a reasonably quiet neighborhood. Of course, there's the odd scooter going through,
and the occasional jackhammer – they've got a lot of maintenance here with these old buildings,
but this is about as quiet as it gets in Amsterdam.
There's a few cars can come through here, but not much, not too many people. But it's a fun place to
just wander around. Some of the streets here used to be canals, but they were filled in a long time
ago to create more solid land for buildings and cars and people, such as here at Lindengracht,
one of the biggest streets in the area. Altogether seven of the canals in Jordaan were filled in to
create an expansion of the usable land. That made wide, busy streets with traffic and shops, but
the side roads here are quite narrow and peaceful and semi-pedestrian. You can walk in the street,
but there will be a few cars going by, so keep your eyes and ears open. Most buildings here
are quite old, dating back originally to the 17th and 18th century, typically five stories high
in a medium density. By the 1890s there was 85,000 people crammed into 11,000 apartments, making it
one of the world's most densely populated zones. Today the quality of life is very high with
a reduced population of just 20,000, many of whom are well-paid professionals, because this
is become a very expensive neighborhood – it's gentrified. There is an exotic variety of ethnic
restaurants, avant-garde art galleries, practical shops, like hair salons and eyeglass stores,
all of which creates a quite modern and holistic community. This urban concentration nowadays
offers lots of amenities, like restaurants on the corner, little markets for daily purchases, with
apartments on the upper floors. And of course, being Dutch, they've always got their canals
for boating recreation. You'll see all kinds of boats out, big and small, including some that
you have to peddle for propulsion, and others where you can sit back and enjoy one of the
famous tour boat rides of the Amsterdam canals – something you must do when visiting this city.
Some canals like this are smaller in scale than those famous waterways. They're more narrow,
they're shorter, but this gives them much more charm. It is incredibly beautiful down here.
This canal is just 500 meters long and it's so attractive it would be worth it to walk the whole
distance. And then you can actually go around the block on two other canals while also exploring
some of those side lanes. Typical of Jordaan it's a residential neighborhood, but there's
always some shops that will catch your interest. Tallest church tower in Amsterdam at 85 meters,
Westertoren can be seen from some parts of Jordaan, even though it's just outside the
district. It is fun and easy to simply wander through the little back lanes of this fascinating
neighborhood, spiced up with independent art galleries. You cannot get too lost, since it
is bounded by canals all around it, and it has straight streets that are simple to navigate.
And you'll find there are signs on nearly every corner, in that typical Dutch efficiency,
to help you figure out where you are. These old buildings originally provided low-cost housing
for the working-class laborers who built the city, for hundreds of years. It was a poor neighborhood
known for its radical politics and love of music and beer. However, in the early 20th century,
the neighborhood continued to deteriorate, buildings falling down, sewage backing up,
so much so the by the 1930s the city had a plan to demolish the entire neighborhood and build modern
housing. Fortunately, community opposition held up and fought against this plan for many years
and successfully won the battle to preserve it. But then the rent started going up, and in the
1960s, many of the original residents moved out to more affordable locations. In recent decades the
gentrification accelerated, and like in many cities, property values have skyrocketed because
it's one of the most desirable neighborhoods of Amsterdam, and a great place to visit.
We have a couple of dozen videos about the Netherlands covering nine of the most
interesting towns in addition to Amsterdam. Be sure to look for them in our collection