The Albert Cuyp runs the whole length of its street through De Pijp, and it is the biggest of Amsterdam's street markets. Traders first set up here in 1905, and the market has opened daily since 1912. It is a plain working street market that sells nearly everything. Cheese and fish sit next to phone cases, bolts of fabric, socks, bulbs, spices and the kind of plastic household object nobody photographs, and the traders shout across each other in an accent the neighbourhood has had for a century. Many of the pitches have stayed in the same families for generations, and the goods reflect who has moved into De Pijp — Dutch, Surinamese, Turkish, Moroccan, all within a few metres.
Eating is the reason most visitors come, and it works. Herring is sold from carts, cured rather than raw, either whole and held by the tail or cut up with onion and pickle. Stroopwafels are pressed to order on a griddle, two thin waffles closed around hot syrup, and a warm one bears no relation to the packaged version. Add a cone of chips under mayonnaise, a wedge of aged Gouda and a Surinamese roti, and the market has fed you.