Blue Boat Company City Canal Cruise and Maritime Museum

About this activity

See the boat

+6

What is included

Itinerary

1. 1
   Stop 1

   1 hr 15 min - Amsterdam is best viewed from the water. On this 75-minute canal cruise you’ll experience the best of our historical city. It offers you the best views of the 17th-century buildings lining the city canals, and will also show you the 21st-century city that Amsterdam has become. You’ll come across new architecture and bridges, showing a city that is rooted in history but continues to develop and change.

2. 2
   Magere Brug

   The Magere Brug (English: Skinny Bridge) is a bridge over the river Amstel in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It connects the banks of the river at Kerkstraat, between the Keizersgracht and Prinsengracht.[1] The central section of the Magere Brug is a bascule bridge made of white-painted wood. The present bridge was built in 1934. The first bridge at this site was built in 1691 as Kerkstraatbrug and had 13 arches. Because this bridge was very narrow, the locals called it magere brug, which literally means "skinny bridge". In 1871 the state of the bridge had deteriorated so much, it was demolished and replaced by a nine-arched wooden bridge. Half a century later, this bridge also needed to be replaced. Architect Piet Kramer made several designs for a steel and stone bridge, but the city decided to replace it with a new bridge that looked the same as the previous, only slightly bigger. In 1934, that bridge was demolished, and replaced by a redesign made by Piet Kramer. The last major renovation was in 1969. Until 1994, the bridge was opened by hand, but is now operated automatically. Use of the bridge has been limited to pedestrians and cyclists since 2003. The centre-part is opened many times, daily, in order to let river traffic pass. The sightseeing tour boats are low enough to pass underneath the bridge when closed. The bridge is decorated with 1,200 light bulbs which are turned on in the evening.

3. 3
   Westerkerk

   The Westerkerk was built between 1620 and 1631 in Renaissance style according to designs by architect Hendrick de Keyser (1565-1621). He is buried in the church he designed earlier: the 'Zuiderkerk'. The building of the Westerkerk was finished and completed by his son Pieter de Keyser (1595-1676) and inaugurated on June 8, 1631. The church has a length of 58 meters and a width of 29 meters. The high nave is flanked by the two lower aisles. The three-aisled basilica has a rectangular plan with two transepts of equal dimensions. As a result, the plan for this church was given the form of two Greek crosses connected with each other.[2] (a patriarchal cross). Several older churches in Amsterdam, such as Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk, were originally built before the Reformation and were converted to Protestantism during the Reformation in 1578. The Westerkerk was one of the first purposely built Protestant churches. The Noorderkerk and Zuiderkerk preceded the Westerkerk. Today the Westerkerk remains the largest church in the Netherlands that was built for Protestants, and is still in use by the PKN (Protestantse Kerk in Nederland)

4. 4
   Canal Ring (Grachtengordel)

   The Grachtengordel (known in English as the Canal District) is a neighborhood in Amsterdam, Netherlands located in the Centrum district. The seventeenth-century canals of Amsterdam, located in the center of Amsterdam, were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in August 2010.[1] The Amsterdam Canal District consists of the area around the city’s four main canals: the Singel, the Herengracht, the Keizersgracht, and the Prinsengracht. From the Brouwersgracht, the canals are generally parallel with one another, leading gradually southeast into the Amstel river. Many of the canal houses in the Amsterdam Canal District are from the Dutch Golden Age, 17th century. Many of these buildings, however, underwent restoration or reconstruction in various centuries, meaning that these building display many different architectural styles and facades

5. 5
   Het Scheepvaartmuseum| The National Maritime Museum

   1 hr - The collection of The National Maritime Museum is one of the largest and most notable maritime collections in the world with approximately 400,000 objects, including paintings, models of ships, navigation instruments, and maps of the world. Discover 500 years of Dutch Maritime history as well as its strong links to today’s society and the society of the future.

Cancellation policy