☰Amsterdam Museum

Housed in a former civic orphanage on the Kalverstraat, the Amsterdam Museum traces the city's development from a small medieval fishing settlement to a global trading hub and modern capital. The permanent collection covers roughly a thousand years, with rooms dedicated to the Golden Age, the harbour and its trade routes, wartime occupation, and the counterculture era of the 1960s and 70s. Interactive displays and multimedia exhibits keep things engaging. Allow at least an hour, more if you want to linger over the city's remarkable art collection. The adjacent Schuttersgalerij (Civic Guard Gallery) is free to walk through.