I love exploring new places at sunrise when I travel. The city is quiet, the light is great, and I can get in bed at midday knowing I’ve already done a day’s sightseeing. So, on my recent trip to Amsterdam I set my alarm early, excited to see this beautiful city before anyone else woke up.
To be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot of “sun” involved on my sunrise adventures. The mornings were mainly cold and grey. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth getting up at the same time as the sun to have the city to myself. ( . . . And this is coming from someone who really, REALLY loves sleep!) From tulips to gingerbread houses, these DIY sunrise tours of Amsterdam visit the city’s most picturesque locations whilst everyone else is still in bed.
St. Olofssteeg
I started my first early morning in Amsterdam on the bank by St. Olofssteeg. When thinking of Amsterdam, those tall, gingerbread-like houses on the canals come to mind. St. Olofssteeg is the perfect place to photograph these together. Here the canal slowly narrows as it bends sharply round the corner. And, more excitingly, the narrow brown and white houses open directly onto the river. I didn’t manage to catch anyone stepping from their doorway into a boat (do they actually do that?) but I suppose it was only sunrise!
Damrak
Damrak is only a couple of minutes’ walk away, and it was my next stop on my sunrise tour. Like the houses near St. Olofssteeg, the houses on Damrak also open straight onto the water. However, Damrak is much wider and more open, so I managed to get some beautiful photos of the houses’ reflections. The morning was so cloudy that the sun was yet to make an appearance and the morning was quite dark still. However, I quite like the way the water reflected the sky’s moody clouds beneath the narrow, terraced houses.
Papiermolensluis
From Papiermolensluis was one of my favourite views of Amsterdam’s terraced houses. The corner of Prinsengracht and Brouwersgracht in particular has a beautiful red building that looks almost like a crown. The red-brick colour, combined with the white window ledges and decoration, make it look like a gorgeous gingerbread house that’s ornately covered with icing.
Like a lot of Amsterdam’s houses, the roof seems to slant inwards towards the canal. Apparently this was to make it easier to hoist furniture up the steep walls, though it looked a bit precarious to me. The red, pointed gables curve round the bend, tapering into smaller, iced houses that dwindle away along the canal.
Prinsengracht X Bloemgracht
It was nearly time for my visit to Anne Frank’s house, and I headed down Prinsengracht thinking my sunrise tour was over. However, I saw this scene and couldn’t resist nipping across the canal to photograph it. From the bridge opposite Anne Frank’s house, I had a direct view down the water to the spire at the very end. I loved the composition, with the Amsterdam houses lining the canal to the spire like an arrow. With the colourful flower box in the foreground, it made a pretty end to my first morning’s sunrise adventure.
Rijksmuseum
For me, the Rijksmuseum is one of the most beautiful places in Amsterdam. It was definitely one of my favourites to photograph, and worth getting up early for! The I Amsterdam sign that famously lived outside the Rijksmuseum has been removed for distracting tourists from the beautiful building. I missed it by a matter of weeks, but I’ll admit that I can imagine how much time I would have spent posing against the “D” (for Daisy, of course) instead of admiring the museum’s stunning façade.
The red brick contrasted perfectly against the light sunrise sky, with the sun beginning to peek out from behind the pointed towers. As I turned to leave the Rijkmuseum, the clouds began to draw in. It was almost as if the weather knew what I was most excited to photograph, and let me have a rare, blue sunrise before turning wintry again.
Zevenlandenhuizen
I headed through the Museum Quarter, treading across grass that was damp with frost and dew. There’s a street nearby where seven houses in a row are built in styles typical to seven different countries. I’d stumbled across a mention of it on Instagram and decided to check it out, knowing very little about what I would find.
Zevenlandenhuizen was easy to spot as soon as I turned the corner. The terracotta bricks of the Spanish house especially stood out against the rest of the street. It was funny to look at, because the houses are still tall and narrow like many of central Amsterdam’s houses are. The only difference is how they are decorated, like strips of foreign colour from the floor to the sky. I felt like it should have been a theme park, except it was just a normal, residential street.
Keizersgracht X Leidsegracht
I had seen pictures of this area in the days leading up to my visit to Amsterdam, and couldn’t wait to see it for myself. For some reason, the three bridges where Keizersgracht meets Leidsegracht makes me really happy aesthetically. Even without a boat passing through, the arches under the bridges are also really pleasing to the eye. (I enjoy simple pleasures!)
One of the great things about visiting Amsterdam in winter is that the trees are bare. I was given an unobscured view through the wintry branches at the iconic, narrow houses. The view was especially picturesque with the red-roofed house on the corner and the church spire in the background.
The Golden Bend
Just one canal over from Keizersgracht is Herengracht, a section of which has been renamed “the Golden Bend.” Amsterdam’s richest citizens—gentlemen, merchants, you get my drift—lived here during the 17th century. Here the houses are two plots wide, an obvious contrast with the rest of Amsterdam’s narrow houses, and thus show the wealth of the owners. Arriving in the early morning meant I was able to take pictures in softer lighting before the sun began cutting across the grand, stately houses.
Kalkmarkt X Binnenkant
I woke up on my third morning to a predictably grey and cloudy sky once again. Undeterred, I began my final sunrise adventure where Kalkmarkt and Binnenkant meet, near Central Station. It was yet another beautiful view of Amsterdam’s tall, narrow houses; I swear I never got bored of looking at them. Here the canals are quite wide, so from the corner of Kalkmarkt and Binnenkant I could see really far down the red, brown and white houses. At sunrise, the lights from the houses and lampposts still shone out through the blue hour, casting a beautiful glow.
Bushuissluis & de Waag
De Waag was once a gate into Amsterdam, then repurposed as a weigh house (which is exactly what it sounds) and is now a café. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Amsterdam and looks more like a small castle than a restaurant.
My favourite view of de Waag is straight down the canal to Nieumarkt, where the fancy building sits. Bushuissluis is the closest bridge and gives the best view. Somehow I managed to miss Bushuissluis and ended up photographing de Waag from the next one along. De Waag is less clear, but it does mean more narrow Amsterdam houses in the foreground (never a bad thing!). This bridge was also much more empty so there was no pushing to get a shot straight down the centre of the canal to de Waag.
Staalmeestersbrug
Less than five minutes walk away is Staalmeesterbrug, another bridge that looks down the canal, this time to a church. It’s a rickety little drawbridge made of rustic wood and metal chains, and is also one of Amsterdam’s Love Lock Bridges.
These are a trend we’ve all probably seen before. The tradition is to attach a padlock with the initials of you and your lover etc. onto a bridge, and then throw the key into the river below.
I was expecting there to be hundreds, maybe thousands of padlocks on this bridge. To my surprise, there were barely any. I’m talking literally ten. It turns out they were weighing the poor bridge down so the city had to remove them! Luckily, I didn’t go for the locks, but for the weird little bridge itself, and the beautiful view down to the church.
Bloemenmarkt
I continued towards the canal ring until I reached the Bloemenmarkt, the world’s only floating flower market. It opens at 9 a.m., making it the perfect place to finish up a sunrise adventure as the sun rises higher in the sky. Stretching over 250m on barges along the canal, the Bloemenmarkt typically displays tulips, one of Amsterdam’s trademarks.
I visited in winter—out of tulip season unfortunately—but the floating stalls still displayed colourful arrangements of incredibly realistic fake tulips. The morning had been really grey so far, with the sunrise barely piercing through the low, grey clouds. The tulip displays were a beautiful and sorely needed dose of colour to end my morning!
Amsterdam was the perfect place to explore at sunrise. With arching bridges and beautifully iced houses at every turn, all the city’s most picturesque locations are outside. Despite the chill and the lack of actual sun, I’m pleased I got to experience Amsterdam in the cold, early morning light. Everything seemed so much more beautiful when I had it to myself at sunrise.
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