Spot a coffeeshop sign

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 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.

Spot the I-amsterdam letters

The big I-amsterdam letters at the Rijksmuseum were removed in 2018, but smaller replicas appear around the city (Schiphol, the EYE, on Rijksmuseum souvenirs). Find one and photograph it.

Spot the Magere Brug

Find the Magere Brug (Skinny Bridge), the white wooden drawbridge over the Amstel. Photograph it lit up at night for bonus points.

Spot the Royal Palace on Dam Square

Walk to Dam Square and find the Royal Palace (Koninklijk Paleis). Photograph the limestone facade with the team or Dam Square in front.

Spot the Westerkerk tower

Find the Westerkerk tower in the Jordaan, the church Anne Frank wrote about. Photograph the imperial-crowned spire against the sky.

Spot tulips for sale

Find tulips at a flower stall (the Bloemenmarkt has them year-round) or a bouquet in a shop window. Photograph the colours.

Spot wooden clogs (klompen)

Spot wooden clogs in a souvenir shop, a flower-shop display or as planters on a windowsill. Photograph a pair.