Walking around Amsterdam
The numbers on the map correspond to the pictures below. Click on the picture to get a larger version in a new window.
The Amstel river behind the Town Hall. To the left is the town hall with in front of it the Waterlooplein flea market.
The amstel river but now with the Town Hall on the right, you are looking in the direction of the old mint tower, the flea market and Dam Square.
The Blauwbrug (or Blue Bridge) is supposedly a copy of a bridge in Paris. It was recently restored to it's old grandeur and is a beautifull bridge. The lampposts have very original decorations:
If you turn around and look towards the north (away from the centre of town) you can see on your left hand side a beautifully restored drawbridge. This one is not so much restored as newly built.
De zuiderkerk or South Church is a beautifull church in what once was the jewish area of town. Most houses surrounding it have been newly built not too long ago and the little church yard (and former cemetary) is now a lovely quiet square in the centre of town.
On a sunny day it is a great location to sit down and rest a bit in the shade of the trees.
If you continue to go down through the former jewish area of town you end up in what is the oldest part of town and now the famous red-light district. First you enter a square where 'The Waag' is located. This used to be the place where all articles for the various markets came into town and were weighed. The building has since then been used for a wide variety of purposes of which the latest is a fancy restaurant.
If you walk through the red-light district you will come to the Dam Square. This is often thought to be the very place where the town originally was started by building a dam in the river Amstel. On the square is the very beautiful former town hall of which the building was started in 1648. It is no longer the town hall since the various royal families (starting With the brother of Napoleon) have stolen it from the town and people of Amsterdam, only to hardly use it all.
If you stand in front of the former town hall a little bit to the left is the Nieuwe Kerk (The new church) which is used for the coronations of the royal family. Most of the time it is no longer used as church though but as exhibition centre.
Walking through town you will almost always see water in the form of the many canals. A lot of them are lined with trees and on nice days filled with boats.
Unfortunately they are also lined with cars and it makes you wonder every now and then what they must have looked like without any car in sight.
There has almost always been a shortage of affordable housing in Amsterdam so from very early on people lived in or on boats. This is still the case and many people use the boat not only to live on but also to have at least a little bit of green in their living area. 
You can also find the oldest houseboat in Amsterdam, well over 100 years old and still inhabited.
If you are in the area of this old houseboat you might as well walk the extra 200 meters and go to one of the oldest 'bruine cafe's' (Brown cafe's) in Amsterdam, Cafe Oosterling at the end of the Utrechtsestraat. This is a cafe which has literally been made brown by generations of smokers and it is also one of the few cafe's with it's own brand of Jenevers and a license to sell bottles of all sorts of wine, beer and liquor outside of the normal shop opening hours.