This town 20 minutes north of Amsterdam is a Netherlands tourist trap, according to Rick Steves, with its "hokey yet charming" museum and plenty of crowds.

I have a little ritual every time I step off the train in big, bold Amsterdam: I look over my shoulder to the lions of the city seal atop Amsterdam Centraal train station. They seem to roar, “Just do ...

Most of Europe’s major cities are a mix of old and new, elegant and rough-edged, traditional and forward-looking — but the contrasts you encounter in Amsterdam are particularly extreme … and unusually ...