Rooms and doors of Nieuwmarkt
This is a neighbourhood of apartments more than hotels. The canal houses around the square were built narrow and tall, so a rented flat often means a steep staircase, a front door shared with two or three neighbours and a bedroom at the back, away from the terrace noise. The small hotels that do exist here occupy one or two joined houses, with a reception that closes in the evening and a code for the street door. On summer nights the square can stay loud until after midnight, and readers who have booked a room facing it sometimes ask whether the session should wait until the terraces close. It does not need to. Windows shut, a lamp on low and the phone face down are enough, and by one in the morning the square is usually quiet anyway. The metro station under the square brings visitors in from the Zuidas business district in a few stops.











