Spot a barrel organ (draaiorgel)
Find a Dutch street barrel organ (draaiorgel) playing in a Amsterdam square or shopping street. The big painted box on wheels with the brass pipes. Photograph it.
Spot a brown café (bruin café)
Find a classic bruin café with dark wood interior, smoke-stained ceilings and a beer pump on the counter. Photograph the doorway or interior.
Spot a canal bridge with bikes
Find a canal bridge with bicycles parked along the railing. Almost every central bridge has them; photograph the lineup of frames over the water.
Spot a canal reflection
Find a still canal with houses reflected on the surface (early mornings and evenings work best). Photograph the mirror image.
Spot a coffeeshop sign
Spot a literal coffeeshop (the green-cross marijuana variety, not a regular café). Photograph the storefront from across the street.
Spot a Dutch cheese wheel
Find a cheese shop window or market stall with stacked yellow Gouda or red-wax Edam wheels. Photograph the stack.
Spot a Dutch sprinter train
Walk to Centraal Station or any track-side viewpoint and find a yellow-and-blue NS sprinter train. Photograph it pulling in or out.
Spot a Dutch upright bicycle
Find a classic Dutch omafiets or opafiets (upright step-through bicycle, often black with a basket). Photograph one parked or in motion.
Spot a FEBO snack wall
Find a FEBO snack-bar wall of glass coin-operated doors with kroketten, frikandellen and burgers behind them. Photograph the lit-up wall.
Spot a gable hook
Find a wooden or iron hook sticking out at the top of a canal house facade, used for hoisting furniture up the narrow stairwells. Photograph it against the sky.
Spot a Heineken sign
Find a Heineken sign on a café awning, a window decal or a brewery flag. The red star is hard to miss in Amsterdam. Photograph it.
Spot a houseboat
Find a woonboot (houseboat) moored on one of the canals. Bonus if it has plants, a chimney or a cat on deck. Photograph it.
Spot a narrow Amsterdam staircase
Look up through a canal-house doorway and find an Amsterdam staircase: nearly vertical, narrow, often dark wood. Photograph the steepness.
Spot a stepped gable
Find a step-gable (trapgevel) or bell-gable (klokgevel) on a canal house facade. Photograph the staircase silhouette at the top.
Spot a stroopwafel
Spot a fresh stroopwafel: in a bakery window, at a market stall, or in someone's hand. The thinner the wafer and the more syrup oozing out, the better. Photograph one close-up.
Spot a Vondelpark cyclist
Walk into Vondelpark and find someone cycling through the park (more cyclists than pedestrians on a sunny day). Photograph a bike on the path.
Spot an Albert Cuyp market stall
Walk down the Albert Cuyp market and find a stall with stroopwafels, cheese, raw herring or fresh stroopwafel-iron in action. Photograph the stall.
Spot an Amsterdam tram
Find a GVB tram on its route (the white-and-blue carriages). Photograph one rounding a corner or stopped at a halte.
Spot bitterballen
Find a plate of bitterballen on a café table or in a snack-bar display, the crispy breaded meatballs that arrive with mustard. Photograph the lineup of golden balls.
Spot canal-house cornice letters
Find a canal house with letters or numbers carved or painted on the gable, year of build or owner's initials. Photograph the typography.
Spot Dutch fries with mayo
Spot a cone of Vlaamse frites with mayonnaise (Manneken Pis on Damrak or any frietkraam). Photograph the cone with the dollop on top.
Spot orange Dutch fan gear
Find someone wearing or selling orange Oranje fan gear (Koningsdag tat, an Oranje football shirt, a tour-group cap). Photograph the orange. King's Day on April 27 is peak orange.
Spot the Begijnhof courtyard
Find the entrance to the Begijnhof off Spui, step inside and photograph the quiet inner courtyard with the wooden house (Het Houten Huys).
Spot the Dutch tricolor
Find a Dutch flag (horizontal red-white-blue) flying on a houseboat, balcony or government building. Photograph it.