City shopping ~ Amsterdam

Yesterday I went to Amsterdam to visit a friend of mine, we were just wandering around Amsterdam and visiting some cute shops ^_^ Thought I'd share some of the nice shops Amsterdam has to offer!


Amsterdam shopping     Here is an overview of the shops we visited




First we went to 'Haarlemmerstraat'. Here were some cute design/interior/book/toy shops.


This is &K Centraal. They had some really nice things! Designer kitchen supplies, cookbooks, toys, jewelry, interior decorations and much more! Really cute and pretty. But as with most of these things, kinda expensive..   I've also found their webshop if you want to check them out.

Next stop was 'Het Grote Avontuur' which translates as 'The Big Adventure'. This shop was so nice! They had all these vintage decorations and old little notebooks. As shown in the picture they also had vintage furniture.
One of the special things they sell here are vintage stencils and paint rollers with vintage designs. These looked really awesome!
They also have a webshop and a blog (in dutch).

There were more interesting shops in the Haarlemmerstraat, but these were the ones we entered.
After we had some lunch we continued our walk to the '9 straatjes' (9 little streets). If you visit Amsterdam, you should really go to these streets! There are many little shops with lots of different things. There are designer and vintage clothing shops, beads and jewelry shops, secondhand bookstores, little restaurants and coffeeshops.

We did enter some shops, but we mainly checked the shop windows and decided we didn't have enough money to buy anything so we just walked further. The atmosphere is nice there. There are so many people chilling, walking, cycling and driving. So you really have to watch your step when you decide to cross the road ;)

We walked towards the Kalverstraat, here are the big main shops like H&M, Zara, Lush etc. We didn't go there, instead we went to some streets near the Kalverstraat.


The next shop we visited is 'by Popular Demand'. This is another designer/gadget/decoration shop. So many cute things o.O it's amazing. They also have kitchenware, moleskine notebooks and lomo cameras.
It's situated on the corner of Raadhuisstraat en Spuistraat. Very easy to find.
Sadly enough I couldn't find a webshop..

Last shop is the 'American Book Center'. Probably not very interesting for people who are American or English.. But I love it there! So many books about designing, architecture, fashion, cooking, fiction etc. The store itself is also very nice. They have a tree in the middle and next to the stairs is a superhigh bookshelf o.O
Recently I read in the news paper they now own a machine where you can make your own book!
Plus, if you're a student you can get a discount ^_^

Right next to the American Book Center is a little courtyard called the Begijnhof. It isn't always open to visitors because there are still people living there. It's so peaceful and quiet.. Very different from the crowded streets right next to it.
The perfect place to relax and calm down a bit ^_^

A little history:
There is a little church in the middle of the court. Since 1150 women were living in the houses surrounding the court. They weren't nuns, they could leave the court and get married whenever they wanted. But for the time they lived there, they needed to be dedicated to the church.

Last stop was a bakery called 'de Laatste Kruimel'
Here they make some delicious sandwiches, pies, cakes, jam, brownies etc. Or so I have been told, I didn't have money to buy something >.<
It all looked really nice and handmade. There were also lots of people inside, which is always a good sign. When you are in Amsterdam you should at least take a peek in the shop window because it really looks delicious!



I hope you will find this useful if you ever want to visit Amsterdam. These are just a few of the amazing shops Amsterdam has to offer, maybe I will post a part 2 sometimes when I do have money to buy some goodies ;)



Bye Bye
Anne Lien