Located under Q-Park, Waterkant is ideal for sunny days since you can get direct sunlight until late evening. Grab a beer and a table on the terrace and enjoy sunny Amsterdam while it lasts. Note: if you get a bit tipsy you think you see a double Guggenheim

Under the city, the extraordinary Gesamtkunstwerk by Louis van Gasteren, Jan Sierhuis and others is located in Nieuwmarkt underground. This is one of the public artworks of the Seventies and early Eighties endangered due to station renovation on the Underground Eastline. At present there is a notice hanging at different spots on the wall: ‘‘This artwork has been temporally removed due to renovations”.

Gorgeous cinema near the Rembrandtsplein. Built in the early 1920s in a very rich architectural style that mixes Jugendstil, the Amsterdam School and Art Deco, the cinema was meant to be a temple for cinematography. The entrance and the main auditorium (Zaal 1) are just simply stunning. It’s been recently restored in its former splendor and is now owned by big distributor Pathé Cinemas. Though a lot of people have been criticizing the fact that a beautiful cinema as this is now exploited by a big commercial chain, I sort of like that fact that also the big blockbusters are usually screened here. It feels like the old days where I imagine you’d simply get overwhelmed by the place and the film and its technique. So my advice is: whatever (crap) plays in Zaal 1, just buy a bag of popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

De Waaghals (= The Dare-devil) is a very nice vegetarian restaurant. The atmosphere is informal, but the food is very nice, refined and creative. Organic ingredients are used as much as possible. Each month a dish focuses on a different country.

The portal between the Leidseplein nightlife area and the Max Eeuweplein is pompously accentuated by a classical looking façade, designed in 1991 by Zaanen Spanjers Architects. On the frieze, supported by columns, the architect has carved an inscription: ‘Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum’ - ‘A wise man does not piss into the wind’. A ‘wisecrack’, disguised in Latin.