Amsterdam: An overview - Part 5

The Amsterdam Dungeon

This museum brings together interesting facts from Amsterdam' s history while merged them typical theatrical effects. The Amsterdam Dungeon plays up the fear factor and is very much like similar attractions you can visit in other parts of Europe. If you have nervous people or children in your group then you might want to give this one a miss. The Amsterdam Dungeon brings together 500 years of history and makes it come to life with 11 shows. They have a number of actors playing parts and one experience that I will not spoil by telling you about it here, but watch out! During the 80 minute tour you get to see if you can survive the plague while making sure you don’t get tortured by the executioner Peter Titelmann from the Spanish Inquisition. If you are feeling really brave after all this you may want to take on the mirror labyrinth and the roller coaster. You can find the Dungeon at Rokin 78, Amsterdam

Amsterdam Exchange Experience

The Amsterdam exchange was started by the old Dutch East India Company in 1602. It is thought to be the oldest stock exchange in the world and when it also started trading in securities as well as stocks and bonds its name was changed to the Amsterdam Bourse. The Amsterdam stock exchange or AEX as it is now known has opened its doors to the public with this new attraction. It takes visitors on an interactive journey from the start of the Dutch East India Company right through to today' s electronic trading floor. You can also find out how you would fare as a real trader in today’s world by trying your hand at a simulation of the real trading floor. You can find out if you would become a millionaire or if you would lose everything. It can be found at Beursplein 5, Amsterdam

Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum is the largest and most important museum of the Netherlands and has a collection of just over 1 million objects which of course includes many masterpieces. I could devote many pages to this one place but as this is only an overview article I will limit it to the basics.

The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague and moved to Amsterdam in 1808. Its current home was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885. In 2013 a ten-year renovation was completed and the main building was reopened. The layout has changed for those that knew it and only Rembrandt’s ' The Night Watch' has returned to its original gallery.

At any one time the museum has on display about 8, 000 objects of art and history from their total collection. They tend to cover the years from 1200 to 2000, and always show some of the masterpieces by Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer. It can be found at Museumstraat 1, Amsterdam

Continued in part 6