Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a city you see from the water. Four half-circles of canal wrap the old centre, and the water in them is managed rather than natural — a large part of this country lies below sea level and stays dry only because the pumps keep running. Along the canals the tall brick houses lean out over the street, gable by gable. Bicycles set the pace of every street you cross. Most of what a visitor comes for sits inside that ring, within an hour of walking.

Amsterdam began as a fishing settlement behind a dam on the Amstel, first recorded in 1275. Trade made it a port, and the northern provinces' revolt against Spanish rule made it the capital of one. When Antwerp fell in 1585, its merchants, its bankers and its Sephardic Jewish community moved north, and Amsterdam inherited a trading network it had not built. The century that followed made it the richest city in Europe. The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602 and financed through the first public stock exchange, ran a trading empire from here. That money paid for the canal ring, the town hall on Dam Square and most of the paintings now in the Rijksmuseum. It came from colonial trade and, in part, from slavery — something the city and its museums have addressed openly in recent years. Decline came in the eighteenth century, then French occupation, then a slow industrial revival. The German occupation of 1940 to 1945 destroyed a Jewish community that had been part of the city for three centuries. What survived intact was the fabric itself.

Two days cover the canal ring, the big museums and one neighbourhood on foot. Four let you take a boat, cross the IJ, and spend an afternoon in the Jordaan or De Pijp doing very little.