Amersfoort is one of the Netherlands' best-kept secrets — a proper medieval city half an hour by train from Amsterdam and just ten minutes from Utrecht, yet largely ignored by tourists. Their loss.
The old centre is remarkably intact. The street plan and canals are still much as they were in the Middle Ages, but where Amsterdam's canals are grand and busy, Amersfoort's are small, quiet, and bordered by gardens. The Lange Jan — a church tower that has stood alone on its square since the church it belonged to blew up in 1787 — is the focal point. The Joriskerk on the Hof is worth a look, and Amersfoort is one of the few Dutch cities with genuinely pleasant squares, best enjoyed during the Keistad Jazz Festival in May when bands play on every one of them.
Walk the outer ring of canals and you reach the Muurhuizen — grand mansions and former monasteries built directly into the medieval city wall. The Koppelpoort, a combined land-and-water gate from 1425, still controls entry to the city and still works. The Mondriaanhuis, birthplace of Piet Mondriaan, traces how a boy from a small Dutch town became one of modern art's most recognisable figures. And on the crossing outside city hall, Sofie the traffic light — the only one in the Netherlands showing a woman — has been quietly making a point since someone installed her anonymously in 2000.
It is a city for walking, sitting on a terrace with a beer from De Drie Ringen (the local brewery), and discovering things at a pace that Amsterdam no longer allows.