Dam & Spui area

Dam + Spui Area
Dam square is the main square in town, it is where you find the Royal Palace is is easily reached walking straight over the Damrak coming from central station. On Damrak you find the usual tourist related shops and all the food-chains. Not really the best first impression for a city as old as Amsterdam. But the good news is that the street is slowly changing, to give it some more grandeur. You really should have a look at the fashion related Concept store Options at Damrak 49. I love this relative new store for its changing themes, the industrial character combined with Scandinavian and some Japanese design and the store staff being very nice and beautiful dressed in black. Attached to the shop is restaurant Stock where they serve breakfast, sandwiches and soup all day. And finally there is Hotel Exchange being part of this amazing concept. A hotel with a special love of fashion. Students of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute dressed the rooms like models on the catwalk. The result: a hotel where architecture meets fashion.  

  Options above - The Exchange and Stock below

On Dam square you will find the biggest store of all called Bijenkorf a famous and recently modernised store with everything you can think off. There is a floor filled with lamps and mostly contemporary design and kitchen tools. But also many clothing brands, books parfum and many many more things. On one of the other corners of Dam you will find H&M with on the third floor the only H&M Home store in the Netherlands. The shop is tiny and you shop with a magnetic board where you add a magnet of the item you want to buy on. Around the Dam square you will find the main shopping areas with all the brands you will probably also find in your own hometown.  

At Spui square you will find 2 large bookstores The ABC (American book centre and Waterstones (UK Bookstore) Just behind the Spui on Singel 391 you’ll find Zafra-Amsterdam a tiny beautiful restored store in a 16th century canal house. Filled with local designer items from all the big world cities. Across the canal the colorful store off Mariska Meijers. Mariska is an Amsterdam based artist who works and sells her own (and some from others) designed cushions and other home decor.
Options-Exchange and Stock Damrak 49
Bijenkorf Dam
H&M Home Dam
Zafra Amsterdam Singel 391 Design, Home accessories, and coffee-Tea corner
Mariska Meijers 434 Mariska Meijers Flagship store