How does an excellent cup of coffee in an authentic Old-Dutch environment with views over the busiest part of Amsterdam sound to you? Afterwards you can explore the city with useful and interesting information from the Amsterdam Tourist Office. In 1911 the Noord-Zuidhollandsch Koffiehuis was built opposite Amsterdam Central Station. The wooden building, which is completely white, was built in the traditional Dutch style of Waterland, the area north of Amsterdam. The coffeehouse was originally a waiting room for passengers of the Noord-Zuidhollandse Tramweg Maatschappij.
MOST BEAUTIFUL LOCATION
Because of the construction of the Amsterdam subway in the early 1970s the streetcar shelter had to be removed plank by plank in 1972. In 1981 it was rebuilt. Now it houses one of the Amsterdam Tourist Information Offices. One floor below, at water level, Smits Koffiehuis is situated. The information office of the GVB, the Municipal Transportation Company, is located in the new wing which was erected in the same style.
WINDOWS
The coats of arms of the city of Amsterdam and the province of North Holland adorn the windows of the coffeehouse. A fifteen-kilo-heavy wind vane in the shape of a 17th-century merchantman crowns the roof. Do note the Jan van der Heijden streetlights close to the entrance of the coffeehouse. These are replicas of famous oil lamps which illuminated the city around 1682. |
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