What's New

The old IJ waterfront docks west, east, and north of Centraal Station now serve as a giant redevelopment zone for residential and commercial properties. This is a new kind of Amsterdam -- modern, bright, shiny, often impersonal, and on a gargantuan scale that's not typical of the Dutch. Touring these areas will give you a good idea of where Amsterdam's headed.

Oosterdokseiland, just east of Centraal Station, is the latest piece in the rapidly filling harbor redevelopment jigsaw. The city's giant new Centrale Bibliotheek (Central Library) opened here in 2008; it has an excellent English department, good for anyone who wants to spend a rainy day browsing the bookshelves. Nearby is the shiny new Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the city's music school, where you can take in concerts staged by the students in their fine new concert hall.

Smoking -- Secondhand smoke no longer gets in your eyes and up your nose as much as formerly, in this city where rolling one's own cigarettes from foul-smelling loose tobacco known as shag is almost a traditional craft. Since July 2008, smoking has been banned in restaurants, bars, cafes, clubs, and other places, and in public spaces in hotels. There are exemptions only for separate enclosed spaces where smokers are kept (and taken care of) by themselves. In a typically Dutch compromise, the tobacco ban applies to drug-selling "smoking coffeeshops," where patrons are still permitted to puff joints, but not cigarettes, cigars, or pipes.

Getting Around

An obstacle to getting around smoothly is the ongoing construction of the underground stations and tunnels for a new subway line, the Noord-Zuid (North-South) Metro line. The line will bisect the city from Amsterdam-Noord and slice south through the center city, via Centraal Station, all the way to Station Zuid/WTC (World Trade Center). The line was originally due to be completed in 2011. Then the due date got kicked back to 2013, and now to 2015.

Centraal Station itself, the hub of the city's transit net, is still in the throes of a massive construction project. The new Noord-Zuid Metro line station is being fitted out at the front, and the waterfront zone and harbor-ferry docks at the rear are being completely rebuilt. Two harbor-ferry routes have been discontinued -- and wouldn't you just know they were the ones that afforded the finest harbor views? Trams and buses now serve the redeveloped islands of the Eastern Docks zone, and the ferries have been retired.

From the start of 2009, all Dutch public transportation will use the new national OV-chipkaart. This stored-value smart card is loaded up with a preselected number of euros, which get automatically deducted each time you ride.

Lodging

There are probably a few hotel proprietors who would like to do as one of their number has done -- pick up their beds and move to a new location. Of course, as a floating hotel, the Amstel Botel, NDSM-Werf 3 (tel. 020/521-0350), has some advantages when it comes to mobility, and the retired river cruise-boat made light of its voyage from the south bank of the IJ waterway to a new home on the north bank.

Dining

Gaining a coveted Michelin star can be a mixed blessing. After all, what happens if you lose it? That was the fate of the new owners of elegant French restaurant Christophe, Leliegracht 46 (tel. 020/625-0807) -- probably because they were new and Michelin wanted to wait and see how things turned out. If it's any consolation to them, Frommer's Amsterdam thinks chef Jean-Joel Bonsens and sommelier Ellen Mansfield are doing a standout job.

At a time when it seems that virtually all of Amsterdam wants to remove to the redevelopment zones along the IJ waterfront, the rigorously traditional Japanese restaurant Osaka has moved from its former seat atop the Harbor Building to a new home across, but well away from, the water, in Amsterdam-Noord (North), at Rode Kruisstraat 22 (tel. 020/638-9833). It's worth the trip.

What to See & Do

In what has become a modern Amsterdam tradition, several museums have announced further delays in emerging from years-long renovation projects. The nation's top museum, the Rijksmuseum, Jan Luijkenstraat 1B (tel. 020/674-7000), is still restricted to showing off a selection of "masterpieces" in a single wing of its vast building at Museumplein, while the target date for reopening the remainder has slipped back to 2013.

Likewise, the city's stellar modern-art Stedelijk Museum has missed any number of deadlines for returning to its permanent home at Museumplein. They now say they'll get there by December 2009, when the refurbishing and partial rebuilding there is due to be completed (don't hold your breath). Meanwhile, the museum has had to move out of its alternate base on two floors of an office tower east of Centraal Station, where it operated for several years as Stedelijk Museum CS. If you're a fan of modern art, look out for a series of temporary exhibits at various venues around town, aimed at keeping the "homeless" museum in the public eye until it moves back to its old digs.

These two institutions are at least faring better than that harbor landmark, the Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime Museum), which has secured its hatches entirely until sometime in 2010 -- unless contrary winds should cause delay -- while the refurbishing of its home in the former Amsterdam Admiralty Arsenal (1656) continues. In the meantime, you can still go on board the museum's full-size replica 18th-century, three-masted sailing ship, the Amsterdam, just across the water outside Science Center NEMO, Oosterdokskade 2 (tel. 020/531-3233).

After Dark

An, ahem, much-loved fixture of the city's platinum-card nightlife scene has vanished from these pages, having been forced to go, though not gentle, into that good night (apologies to Dylan Thomas). There are surely those who will rage, rage against the dying of the (green) light outside Yab Yum, which I described as "the most celebrated Amsterdam bordello." The city council concluded it was a front for the Hells Angels and pulled the plug.

Farther down the money ladder from Yab Yum's lofty heights, hard times have come to other parts of the city's flesh trade. In an assault on human trafficking and other criminal activities, the council has cut the number of red-lit rooms in the Red Light District, in favor of small fashion boutiques and other wholesome stores. There are even proposals to shutter two of the leading "live-show" operations, the Bananenbar and Casa Rosso.