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Country Life's James Fisher has been to Amsterdam more times than he can count, but he's never stayed inside arguably the city's finest hotel. Until now. There are many things, some good and some bad, that Amsterdam is well known for.

But perhaps its greatest asset is taste. Wandering the streets and canals of this storied city, very few things look out of place, at least when it comes to the architecture and the people. I imagine it can’t be easy to build a city on top of a waterway, and I certainly don’t have any intention of trying.



But there’s no denying that it is a successful way to make people stop and appreciate a place. I’ve not been to Venice, but I’ve been here many times and always been more than impressed by the buildings, the waterways and the way it’s all laid out. It’s a way of making a big city feel very small.

London is a big city that feels very big, as an example of the opposite. Like all great cities, I find something new to discover each time I visit. This time it was the Hotel De L’Europe, Amsterdam’s oldest independent luxury hotel.

Built on the site of a 17th-century inn, the current 19th century red-brick building sits alongside the River Amstel in the heart of the city and is something of a grand old dame of Europe (much like Amsterdam itself). Except, this year, the hotel has emerged from the chrysalis of old-fashioned elegance to become something newer, something chicer, something more current. A reincarnation of sorts, where the.

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