Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, has been called the "Venice of the North" for its more than one hundred kilometres of canals, about 90 islands and 1,500 bridges. The three main canals, Herengracht, Prinsengracht, and Keizersgracht, dug in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age, form concentric belts around the city, known as the Grachtengordel. Alongside the main canals are 1550 monumental buildings. The 17th-century canal ring area, including the Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht, Herengracht and Jordaan, were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2010

Amsterdam Centraal (code: Asd) is the central railway station of Amsterdam. It is also one of the main railway hubs of the Netherlands and is used by 250,000 passengers a day, excluding transferring passengers. It is the starting point of Amsterdam Metro lines 51, 53 and 54.

The Amsterdam Metro is a mixed rapid transit and light rail system in Amsterdam, and its surrounding municipalities Amstelveen, Diemen, and Ouder-Amstel in the Netherlands. The network is owned by the city of Amsterdam and operated by the Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf, the company that also operates trams, ferries and local buses. There are four lines in the metro system. Three lines start at Amsterdam Centraal, of which line 53 and 54 connect the city centre to Diemen, Duivendrecht, and Amsterdam Zuidoost in the southeast, and line 51 connects the city centre to Amstelveen in the south. The Ring Line, line 50, connects Amsterdam Zuidoost to the west without crossing the centre of the city.

Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP) or Amsterdam Ordnance Datum is a vertical datum in use in large parts of Western Europe. Originally created for use in the Netherlands, it was adopted by Prussia in 1879 under the name Normalnull, and in 1955 by other European countries. Mayor Johannes Hudde of Amsterdam in a way came up with the idea after he expanded the seadike after a flood in Amsterdam in 1675. Of course a dike should be storm-resistant to protect a city against flooding, and in this case a margin of "9 feet and 5 inches" was deemed enough to cope with rising water. So he measured the waterlevel of the adjacent sea-arm, Het IJ and compared it with the waterlevel in the canals within the city itself. He found that the water level at an average summer flood in the sea arm (when the water level reaches its maximum, not counting storms) was about the same as the level on the other side of the seadike, plus the margin of 9 feet and 5 inches. The quite constant waterlevel in the canals of Amsterdam, called Amsterdam Peil (AP), equaled the level at summer flood at sea in the sea-inlet, which changes throughout the year. The Amsterdam level (AP) was in 1860 carried over to other areas in the Netherlands to replace locally used levels. In this operation an error was introduced which was corrected (normalised) between 1885 and 1894, resulting in the Normaal Amsterdam Peil (NAP). Originally the zero level of NAP was the average summer flood water level in the IJ just north of the centre of Amsterdam (which was at the time, in 1684, the main shipping area, then still connected with the open sea). Currently it is physically realized by a benchmark in brass in the Opera Building cum City Hall of Amsterdam, which is a popular tourist attraction.

The Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre (Dutch: RAI Congrescentrum), or RAI for short, is a complex of conference and exhibition halls in the Zuidas business district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The complex gives its name to the nearby Amsterdam RAI railway station. In 1970 the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the RAI. Opened in 1961, the RAI welcomed its 75 millionth visitor in February 2001. Up to 2 million people visit the RAI every year. Some 50 international conferences and 70 trade shows are held at the RAI annually. The complex consists of 22 conference rooms and 11 halls and has a total floor space of 87,000 m². The largest hall can seat 12,900 people. The complex also includes a musical and concert theatre and underground parking space for over 3,000 cars.

The Amsterdam Museum, until 2011 called the Amsterdams Historisch Museum, is a museum about the history of Amsterdam. Since 1975, it is located in the old city orphanage between Kalverstraat and Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. The museum opened in 1926 in the Waag, a 15th-century building on Nieuwmarkt square. It has been located since 1975 in a building that was originally constructed in 1580 as Amsterdam's orphanage. The building was extended by Hendrick and his son Pieter de Keyser before Jacob van Campen rebuilt it in 1634. The orphanage continued in this building until 1960

The Amsterdamse Bos (English: Amsterdam Wood) is an English park or landscape park in the municipalities Amstelveen and Amsterdam. And although most of the park is located in Amstelveen, the owner of the park is the City of Amsterdam. Annually, almost 4.5 million people visit the park, which has a size of 1,000 hectares and is approximately three times the size of Central Park

The Anne Frank House located on the Prinsengracht canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank, who hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the building. As well as the preservation of the hiding place — known in Dutch as the Achterhuis — and an exhibition on the life and times of Anne Frank, the museum acts as an exhibition space to highlight all forms of persecution and discrimination. It opened on 3 May 1960 with the aid of public subscription, three years after a foundation was established to protect the property from developers who wanted to demolish the block.

Apenheul Primate Park is a zoo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. It specializes in apes and monkeys. It opened in 1971 and was the first zoo in the world where apes and monkeys could walk around freely in the forest and between the visitors. It started with just a few species, now it displays more than 30 different primates, among them bonobo, gorilla and orangutan.[1] In summer 2011, three adult male proboscis monkeys joined the collection from Singapore Zoo to commemorate the zoo's fortieth anniversary. They are the only known living specimens outside Southeast Asia.

Artis, short for Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for "Nature is the teacher of art"), is a zoo in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the oldest zoo in the Netherlands. In addition to the zoo, Artis has an aquarium, a planetarium, a geological museum, and a zoological museum.[6] The zoo is a member of the Dutch Zoo Federation (NVD), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), the International Species Information System (ISIS), and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA).

The Basilica of Our Lady (Dutch: Basiliek van Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Kerk is a Romanesque church in the historic center of Maastricht, the Netherlands. The church is dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption (Dutch: Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Tenhemelopneming) and is a Roman catholic parish church in the Diocese of Roermond. The church is often referred to as the Star of the Sea (Dutch: Sterre der Zee), after the church's main devotion, Our Lady, Star of the Sea.

Basilica of Our Lady in Maastricht - Limburg, Maastricht. Impressive, unusual Romanesque basilica with blocks from Roman buildings. Constructed in early 11th - 12th century. Beautiful, sophisticated sculptures.

Basilica of Saint Servatius - Limburg, Maastricht. One of the best examples of Romanesque architecture in Netherlands. Built in 11th - 12th century, although church is standing here since 4th century AD. Contains grave of Saint Servatius (310 - 384) - Armenian saint, first bishop of Maastricht.

Safaripark Beekse Bergen is the largest wildlife zoo of the Benelux region and provides a home to approximately 1,250 animals from over 150 species, varying from small mammals to large birds. It is located between the cities of Tilburg and Hilvarenbeek in the south of the Netherlands, in province of North-Brabant. The visitors can for instance watch zebras and giraffes on the spacious savannahs. Safaripark Beekse Bergen offers te possibility to explore the park on numerous safaris: walksafari, carsafari, bussafari and boatsafari. The park is owned by the company Libéma Exploitatie BV, which is one of the largest leisure-related companies in the Netherlands.

Beemster  is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Also, the Beemster is the first so-called polder in the Netherlands that was reclaimed from a lake, the water being extracted out of the lake by windmills. The Beemster Polder was dried during the period 1609 through 1612. It has preserved intact its well-ordered landscape of fields, roads, canals, dykes and settlements, laid out in accordance with classical and Renaissance planning principles. A grid of canals parallels the grid of roads in the Beemster. The grids are offset: the larger feeder canals are offset by approximately one kilometer from the larger roads:
*Criterion (i): The Beemster Polder is a masterpiece of creative planning, in which the ideals of antiquity and the Renaissance were applied to the design of a reclaimed landscape.
*Criterion (ii): The innovative and intellectually imaginative landscape of the Beemster Polder had a profound and lasting impact on reclamation projects in Europe and beyond.
*Criterion (iv): The creation of the Beemster Polder marks a major step forward in the interrelationship between humankind and water at a crucial period of social and economic expansion.