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SHOPPING IN NETHERLANDS (AMSTERDAM)

From its earliest days Amsterdam has been a trading city. First, trade centred on the fish that the original dammers of the Amstel caught in the rivers and the Zuiderzee; later, during the 17th century, on the spices, furs, flower bulbs, and artifacts carried back to Europe by the ships of the Dutch East and West India companies.

The fish were sold on the spot where a major department store now stands, and the early townspeople brought calves to market on the same street you will walk along to begin a shopper's walking tour through Amsterdam. The luxury items you buy today are the same sort of goods Dutch merchants sold to each other in the Golden Age of the 17th century, and the junk you buy in the flea market at Waterlooplein is much the same as it has been for hundreds of years.

Adding a modern dimension to this tradition-laden scene are the funky boutiques you find scattered around Amsterdam, and adding sparkle are the diamond cutters. Still, Amsterdam has the full range of shopping facilities, from small and highly individualistic, not to say eccentric, boutiques whose designers are often small name, through chains and department stores to malls.

STREET MARKETS
Amsterdammers are traders to the tips of their fingers, as you quickly see if you visit a street market, but they won't try to bargain with you -- they have much less interest in the sport of haggling, or margin in their prices, than their counterparts in countries farther south. They're simply too practical to quote a ridiculous price in the expectation that it will be cut in half or that you'll be fool enough to pay it. No, the Dutch street merchants exhibit their enthusiasm for trade in a more stolid way -- simply by being permanent. Many of Amsterdam's open-air salesmen are at their stalls, vans, tents, and barges of the city's 26 markets 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year. In all, there are more than 50 outdoor markets every week in Amsterdam and its outlying neighbourhoods, and on any given day, except Sunday, you have a choice of several.

Looking for a bargain-basement souvenir is made easy at the Waterlooplein Flea Market, on Waterlooplein -- naturally enough (Tram: 9 or 14). You find all kinds of stuff here, not all of it junk, and a constant press of people with good buys on their mind. This is the classic market of Amsterdam. It's often said that in its glory days before World War II, when it was a fixture of the city's Jewish community, you could find amazing antiques among the junk and possibly even a proverbial dusty Rembrandt. Today your luck is more apt to run in the opposite direction. Most of the merchants now work out of tents, and some sell patates frites met mayonnaise (french fries, eaten Dutch style, with mayonnaise) from vans that are a long way from the pushcarts of yesteryear; but among the old CDs and leather jackets, you still find cooking pots, mariner's telescopes, coal scuttles, bargain watches, nuts and bolts, and decent prints of Dutch cities. The market is open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm.

Awnings stretch to cover some 15 stalls of brightly colored blossoms, bulbs, and potted plants, at the Bloemenmarkt (Flower Market), Singel (tram: 4, 9, 14, 16, 24, or 25), at Muntplein. Floating on a row of permanently moored barges, this is one of Amsterdam's stellar spots, though you might find it overrated, especially since it's not easy to see that it's actually floating -- which indeed most of it isn't. Still, this is probably the most atmospheric place to buy cut fresh-cut flowers, bright- and healthy-looking plants, ready-to-travel packets of tulip bulbs, and all the necessary accessories for home gardening. A stroll down that fragrant line is surely one of Amsterdam's most heart-lifting experiences. Tulips here cost a few cents less than at the flower stands around town. The market is open daily from 8am to 8pm.

You find just about anything and everything your imagination can conjure up at the 350 stalls of the colorful, kilometer-long Albert Cuyp Markt, Albert Cuypstraat (tram: 16, 24, or 25). Different types of foods, clothing, flowers, plants, and textiles are all for sale. Cheese sellers slice wedges from Frisbee-shaped disks of Edam. The market is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 6pm.

The Friday book market at Spui (tram: 1, 2, or 5) usually has around 25 different booths that offer secondhand books. Often you can find some great deals (even for books in English), perhaps even a rare book or two. Just about any subject is available, both fiction and nonfiction. The market is open Friday from 10am to 6pm. Local artists mount outdoor exhibits at the Spui Art Market, April to November, Sunday from 10am to 6pm.

Kunst- & Antiekcentrum De Looier, Elandsgracht 109 (tel. 020/624-9038; tram: 7, 10, or 17), is a big indoor antiques market spread through several old warehouses in the Jordaan. Individual dealers rent small stalls and corners to show their best wares. The old armoires and other pieces of heavy Dutch traditional furniture are too large to consider buying, but many dealers offer antique jewelry, prints and engravings, old porcelain table settings, bathroom fixtures, 19th-century tin toys, Delft tiles, furniture, the omnipresent Dutch knickknacks, and much more, all of which can make good buys and great souvenirs. De Looier is open Saturday to Thursday from 11am to 5pm.

Local artists come and show off their wares at the Thorbeckeplein Sunday Art Market, Thorbeckeplein (tel. 075/670-3030; tram: 4, 9, or 14). Picking your way through the artists' tables, you find sculptures, ceramics, paintings, graphics, jewelry, and mixed-media pieces. The market runs from April to October, Sunday from 11am to 6pm.

The Boerenmarkt (Farmer's Market) at Noordermarkt (tram: 3 or 10), also known as the Bio Market, caters to Amsterdam's infatuation with health foods and natural products. It takes place on Saturday from 9am to 5pm. A similar Farmer's Market at Nieuwmarkt operates on the same day and hours.

Other markets you might enjoy visiting include the street market at Noordermarkt, on Prinsengracht, Monday from 9am to 1pm, and the associated textiles and clothes market that extends along Westerstraat; the garden market, at Amstelveld, on Prinsengracht near Vijzelstraat, Easter to Christmas, Monday from 3 to 6pm; and the stamp market, around Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 276, on Wednesday and Saturday from 1 to 4pm.

SHOPPING AREAS

The easiest way to approach shopping in Amsterdam is to devote a day to the project, put on your most comfortable shoes, and walk. You can window-shop all the way from the Dam to the Concertgebouw if you have the stamina, and as long as you remember a few key jogs in the path, you won't even need to consult a map. A few shopping streets are pedestrians-only, some are busy thoroughfares, and others are peaceful canal-side esplanades or fashionable promenades, but each segment in this ever-growing network of commercial enterprises has developed its own identity or predominant selection of goods as a specialty. To get you on your way, here are three suggested shopping walks:

If you're looking for jewelry, trendy clothing, or athletic gear, begin at the department stores at the Dam and follow Kalverstraat to Heiligeweg; turn right there and continue shopping until you reach Leidseplein. Heiligeweg becomes Leidsestraat after it crosses Koningsplein, but it's really one long street, so you can't possibly get lost.

If you're feeling rich or simply want to feast your eyes on lovely things (fashion, antiques, and art), begin at the Concertgebouw and walk along Van Baerlestraat toward Vondelpark; turn right on elegant Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat. At the end of the street, by the canal, turn right again and walk to the Rijksmuseum, then turn left across the canal. Straight ahead is the Spiegelgracht, a small and quiet bit of canal that's the gateway to the best antiques-shopping street in Amsterdam, if not in all of Europe.

Finally, if your idea of a good day of shopping includes fashion boutiques, funky little specialty stores, and a good browse through a flea market or secondhand store, cut a path from west to east through the old city by beginning at Westermarkt and crisscrossing among the canals. Reestraat, Hartenstraat, Wolvenstraat, and Runstraat are particularly good choices with lots of fun stores, including one that boasts Europe's largest selection of ribbons and braid, and another with elaborately painted toilet bowls. At the Dam you can take Damstraat and its continuations (Oude Doelenstraat, Hoogstraat, and Nieuwe Hoogstraat) to Sint-Antoniesbreestraat, and its continuation, Jodenbreestraat, to Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat, to Waterlooplein and the flea market. Or, at the Dam, follow Rokin to Muntplein and walk from there, or take tram no. 9 or 14 to Waterlooplein.

To plan your own shopping route through Amsterdam, here are brief descriptions of the major shopping streets and what you can expect to find along each of them:

Kalverstraat
This is the busiest stretch of pedestrian shopping in the city. At one end is the Dam with its department stores; at the other end, the Muntplein traffic hub, also with its department store. In between, Kalverstraat is a hodgepodge of shopping possibilities. Punk-tinged boutiques for the young and athletic-shoe emporiums are side-by-side with stores selling dowdy raincoats and conservative business suits, bookstores, fur salons, maternity and baby stores, and record stores, plus everything in the way of fast food, from frites to poffertjes. Something big and brash on Kalverstraat is the Kalvertoren Shopping Center, a multistory mall with 45 stores, cafes, and restaurants.

The big and busy Vroom & Dreesman department store has its main entrance on Kalverstraat, as does the elegant Maison de Bonneterie en Pander. Something big, brash, and new on Kalverstraat is the Kalvertoren Shopping Center, a multistory mall with 45 stores, cafes, and restaurants, including the cheap 'n' cheerful department store Hema.

Rokin
Parallel to Kalverstraat and also running from the Dam to the Muntplein is Rokin, one of the busiest tram routes in the city. Along here you will find art galleries and antiques stores, and elegant fashion boutiques.

Heiligweg & Leidsestraat
The fashion parade that begins on Kalverstraat continues around the corner on Heiligeweg, across the Koningsplein and along Leidsestraat, all the way to the Leidseplein. But the mood changes: The stores are more elegant.

Pieter Cornelisz Hoofstraat & Van Baerlestraat
Known locally as "P. C. Hooftstraat," or just "the P. C. Hooft" (pronounced pay-say-hoaft), the former is the diminutive Madison Avenue of Amsterdam -- it's not so wonderful, really, but it's about the nearest Amsterdam gets -- where well-dressed and well-coiffed Amsterdammers buy everything from lingerie to light bulbs. Along its 3 short blocks you find stores selling furniture, antiques, toys, shoes, chocolates, Persian rugs, designer clothes, fresh-baked bread and fresh-caught fish, china, books, furs, perfume, leather goods, office supplies, flowers, and jewelry. Around the corner on Van Baerlestraat are more boutiques, shoe stores, and enough branches of the major banks to guarantee that you can continue to buy as long as your traveler's checks hold out.

Nieuwe Spiegelstraat & Spiegelgracht
This is the antiques esplanade of Amsterdam, and though it covers only a short 4-block stretch of street-plus-canal, it's one of the finest antiques-hunting grounds in Europe. At one end of this shopping street is the Rijksmuseum; at the other, the Golden Bend on Herengracht, where Amsterdam's wealthiest burghers once kept house. It seems that, now that these beautiful gabled homes have been turned over to banks and embassies, all the treasures they contained have simply found their way around the corner to the antiques stores. Among the items you might expect to see are dolls with china heads, rare editions of early children's books, Indonesian puppets, Persian tapestries and rugs, landscape paintings, prints, reproductions and modern art, brass Bible stands and candlesticks, copper kettles, music boxes, old Dutch clocks, and, of course, the little spiegels, or mirrors, that give this street its name, and which the Dutch use beside upper-story windows to see who's knocking at their door.

Amstelveen
Amstelveen is a new town built around an old village in the polderland south of Amsterdam. Think of modern, clean, efficient living in a garden city. The shopping center here has many of the nonspecialist types of outlets -- department stores, boutiques, toy stores, and the like -- that you find in Amsterdam. Here, however, they're in an enclosed mall and you can get around them all a lot quicker. So if you don't like shopping, but can just about tolerate it if you get through it quickly, this may be the place for you. Take the no. 5 tram from Centraal Station to the terminus, which is right beside the Amstelveen shopping center; the journey lasts about 25 minutes.

Other Shopping Areas
For more antiques stores, look along the Prinsengracht between Leidsestraat and Westermarkt. For the up-and-coming funky boutiques of Amsterdam, look among the canals east and west of the Dam, or in the nest of streets beyond Westermarkt known as the Jordaan.