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People from all walks of life can find everything in Europe’s playground.

Faceing the difficult challenge of balancing old-world charm with a progressive tilt, Amsterdam is both a touchstone of tradition and a district of debauchery.

FRIDAY

We dealt with two obstacles on this trip that required us to plan smartly: A Friday evening arrival and an airport hotel. (You can’t win ’em all.) After arriving at 6:30 p.m., we made our way right to our hotel, the Hampton Inn Schiphol Airport, which provided a shared shuttle service every 40 minutes to and from the airport.

At that time of the day, all we could do was head into the city for our dinner reservation at A Fusion (Zeedijk 130), an Asian fusion restaurant near the Nieuwmarkt that had been recommended by friends. What seemed like a fairly standard selection of Japanese, Chinese and southeast Asian foods was of exceptional quality — and crucially not particularly expensive, either.

A late jaunt back to Amsterdam Centraal station meant a jaunt through the heart of De Wallen, Amsterdam’s famous red light district, which certainly provided a few eye-openers.

SATURDAY

The main reason to visit Amsterdam in April was to visit Keukenhof, the flower garden outside the city that draws thousands of visitors to its millions of bulbs every spring. We purchased the combination tickets that included round-trip bus transportation from the airport, and our decision to leave on the first bus, at 8 a.m., proved wise when we returned two hours later to see hundreds of people waiting to board.

What To Know
Date of visit: April 6 to April 8, 2018.
Airport location: Nine miles (15 km) southwest of the city. Plenty of trains are available to a number of city stations; it’s 20 minutes to Amsterdam Centraal.
Walkability: 5/10. The best way to appreciate the city is by foot, but the distance between locations can be deceptive and the bicycle traffic is an extra obstacle.
English: Widely spoken.
Must-See Attraction: The Anne Frank House is an institution, but to get a look at traditional life, stop by the Molen van Sloten, a functioning windmill.
Traveler’s tip: If you’re staying in the suburbs, consider an Amsterdam Travel Ticket (or the Amsterdam & Region Travel Ticket), which allows you to hop on any public transport service in the city when your legs are tired.

A 25-minute journey on the 858 bus, which picks up travelers outside the airport’s Arrivals 4 hall, led us right to the town of Lisse and the entrance to the garden – where, given the early date, the majority of the bulbs had yet to fully bloom. A greenhouse on the eastern side of the garden housed a collection of thousands of tulips, crocuses and hyacinths for visitors to appreciate in all their splendor, and other special exhibits, as well as an open windmill and river tours, are available as well.

We caught the shuttle back to the airport — again, given the early hour, there were only five of us on it — and marveled at the crowds waiting to depart before catching a taxi to Molen van Sloten (Akersluis 10), located 10 minutes away. Built in 1847, it is the only Amsterdam windmill open to the public every day – and the best part is that it’s one of very few still in use. This one still controls the water levels around the village, and a guide will take you inside to explore its history, how it works and what life was like for windmill operators, who traditionally lived inside.

Considered one of the most beautiful streetcar routes in the world by National Geographic Traveler, Amsterdam’s Tram 2 was a 10-minute walk away and a must-ride. Bound for the Van Gogh Museum, we got off at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam’s famous art and history museum, and first stopped for an unplanned lunch break at Bagels & Beans, a Dutch cafe chain offering — well, you know.

Organizers of the Van Gogh Museum recommend buying tickets for a specific time slot online in advance of visiting, and we did just that, procuring a pair for 1:30 p.m. Inside is a memorial to the Dutch artist, whose personal demons led to his death in 1890 at just 37, with works preserved thanks to the efforts of his brother, his brother’s wife and their son. “The Starry Night” is not here — that’s in Paris — but the rest of his most famous works are on display, including the “Sunflowers” series, the “Bedroom in Arles” and the haunting “The Potato Eaters.”

At this point, there are a number of museums and regions to visit – the aforementioned Rijksmuseum, the urban Vondelpark, the Diamond Museum – but, with limited time and having already decided upon visiting Mr. Van Gogh, we drifted east, past the famous “I Amsterdam” sign, to the Albert Cuypmarkt. With more than 300 stalls, you can find nearly everything, including cheese, fruit, vegetables, watches, jewelry and even toothbrushes. We opted for the stroopwaffels, a local treat made of two thin slices of pressed dough with a caramel filling in the middle, and the poffertjes, small, spongy pancakes the size of banana slices covered in powdered sugar.

Now after 3 p.m., we scurried along a number of city sights on our way through the canals. The Leidseplein is a commercialized square near the bottom of the U formed by the canal belt. The Bloemenmarkt, historically a floating flower market now spread across a series of moored stalls along the Singel, the historic city moat, is where visitors can take home tulip bulbs for relatively cheap. The Munttoren, across the water from the Bloemenmarkt, is a clock tower above the ancient city walls; the Dam is a historic city square lined by the Koninklijk Paleis [Royal Palace] and the Nieuwe Kerk; and the Oude Kerk, built in the 1300s, has a floor consisting entirely of gravestones.

The church we opted to visit, though, was none of the formidable city structures but instead the Ons’Lieve Heer op Solder [Our Lord in the Attic]. After the Reformation swept through Amsterdam, adherents of other religions were forced to worship in private, and in the 1660s, a German businessman purchased a home and the two adjoining it and converted the top floors into an ornate Catholic church. One of a number of hidden churches throughout the city, it has remained and been restored to stand as a memorial.

Our final stop of the day was, of course, dinner, which we ate at In De Waag, the candle-lit restaurant that now occupies the 15th-century gatehouse dominating the Nieuwmarkt. Once a city gate and part of the old city walls, it was later the site of public executions, a guildhall, a fire station, a museum and, now, the perfect place to tuck away steak, salmon and anything else on the seasonal menu.

SUNDAY

After a long day, we chose a slower start to Sunday, making our way to the Westerkerk for a 10:30 a.m. canal tour. There are plenty of operators running circuits of the canals, but we arbitrarily chose Lovers Cruises, which makes 75-minute runs with audioguides available in practically every language.

For lunch, we caught the tram down to the Foodhallen, which has more than 20 stalls set up to sell a significant variety of offerings; I chose sushi at Meneer Temaki. Another tram trip back led us to our final stop of the trip, an appointment at the Anne Frank House, which was only selling tickets online at the time of the visit because of ongoing renovations (and plan ahead — they sell out two months in advance).

A poignant tribute to two Jewish families who went into hiding in a secret annex to avoid Nazi persecution, the house has been maintained since they were captured and transferred to concentration camps in 1944. It was turned into a museum by Anne’s father, Otto, the only survivor, in 1960. A number of films accompany Anne’s diary in telling her family’s story, and the reconstructed secret annex remains mostly as it did when the Frank and Van Pels families sought refuge within it.

Verdict: Being the first warm weekend of the year, Amsterdam attracted its fair share of, shall we say, “leisure travelers,” especially in the central districts. Once outside there, however, attitudes mellowed, even if the size of the crowd did not.

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