Amsterdam for The Solo Traveller: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

The free ferry crosses in four minutes; walk the old dike past Noorderpark as the city lights come on across the IJ.

A Friday house of stories on the eastern docks, told in English by anyone who signs up, with Iranian soup from the kitchen at the back.

A seat at the bar for oysters and small fish plates near Museumplein, quick and unfussed for one. Arrive before nine if you can, and ask what came in today.

Rent a bike and follow the river twelve kilometres out past the windmill and the rowing clubs to the village Rembrandt walked to, before the day's wind.

The 1614 Portuguese-Jewish cemetery with sunken stones, the oldest in the country, where Spinoza's parents lie.

A ramen counter in the Jordaan with one seating, the cook working in front of you; book, then arrive on time.

A sprinter to the Grote Markt and the Bavo, the organ Mozart played, and the hofjes that the Amsterdam ones imitate.

The oldest museum in the Netherlands, 1784, with its Oval Room of fossils and instruments lit only by the skylight.

An early dinner in a brewery that took over a church, a stool at the bar with a Koyt and a plate of stew, then the train home.

The white bascule bridge with nobody on it, the river flat, and the lights still on in the Carré theatre.

The 1656 admiralty arsenal with a replica East Indiaman moored outside; go below decks and count the hammock hooks.

A lock-keeper's house from 1695 that leans like a drunk over the Oudeschans; soup and a broodje on the terrace, then the train.