The stately mansion at Herengracht 380 is often called the "French castle" of the canal, as it looks like something you'd expect to find in the Loire Valley rather than in Amsterdam. It was built around 1890 by the immensely wealthy tobacco magnate Jacobus Nienhuys, who made his fortune on a tobacco plantation in Sumatra — wealth built on the harsh exploitation of poorly treated coolie labourers. No expense was spared: each room was decorated in a different style, complete with a Moorish bathroom, a carriage "carport," and it was the first house in Amsterdam to be fully lit by electricity. Today the building houses the NIOD, the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, giving this opulent mansion with its troubled past a fitting new purpose.

Woven between the Herengracht, Keizersgracht, Prinsengracht and Singel lie the Nine Streets — three sets of three little cross-streets (3 × 3 = 9) that form one of Amsterdam's most charming corners. Laid out in the 17th century, the area was once home to tanners and leather workers, a past still echoed in street names like Berenstraat (Bear Street), Wolvenstraat (Wolf Street) and Huidenstraat (Hides Street). Today these picturesque lanes are filled with independent boutiques, vintage shops, art galleries, cosy cafés and specialty stores — with barely a chain store in sight.

The Canal Ring is the crowning achievement of Amsterdam's Golden Age — a series of concentric waterways laid out in the 17th century as the city rapidly expanded. Its three main canals — the Herengracht, Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht — curve in graceful semicircles around the old medieval heart, lined with thousands of elegant gabled merchant houses. Wealthy traders competed to build the grandest homes here, displaying their fortunes with ornate façades, hoisting beams and beautiful hidden gardens. A masterpiece of urban planning and engineering, the Canal Ring was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010, and remains one of the most romantic and picturesque places to wander in all of Amsterdam.

Rising 85 metres above the Prinsengracht, the Westertoren is the tallest church tower in Amsterdam and one of the city's most beloved landmarks. Completed in 1638 as part of the Westerkerk, it was designed by the celebrated architect Hendrick de Keyser and finished by his son Pieter after his death. Its spire is crowned with a striking blue imperial crown — a nod to the right granted to Amsterdam in 1489 by Maximilian of Austria to carry the imperial crown in its coat of arms. The tower's famous Hemony carillon has been chiming over the Jordaan for centuries; Anne Frank, hiding just around the corner, wrote in her diary how the sound of the bells comforted her. Affectionately nicknamed "de Ouwe Wester" (the Old Wester) and "the Pearl of the Jordaan," it remains a treasured symbol of the city, its silhouette woven into countless Amsterdam songs and stories.