The Albert Cuyp runs the whole length of its street through De Pijp and is the biggest of Amsterdam's street markets. It is a plain working market that sells nearly everything: cheese and fish next to phone cases, bolts of fabric, socks, bulbs, spices and the kind of plastic household object nobody photographs. Many pitches have stayed in the same families for generations, and the goods reflect who has moved into De Pijp — Dutch, Surinamese, Turkish, Moroccan, within a few metres.
Eating is the reason most visitors come. 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 and a Surinamese roti and the market has fed you. Traders first set up here in 1905, and it has opened daily since 1912.