Bloemenmarkt

The Bloemenmarkt has stood on the Singel since 1862, when growers brought flowers into the city by boat down the canals and sold from the barges where they moored - the stalls are still built on floating platforms against the quay, which is the basis of the floating flower market description, though they no longer move and the stock arrives by road. What it sells has changed. It was a working flower market for a century and is now overwhelmingly aimed at visitors: bulbs in packets marked for export, wooden tulips, seeds, souvenirs, and cannabis seed kits, with a diminishing amount of cut flowers. Several stalls have closed and the market's future has been publicly discussed in the city. It is worth ten minutes as a piece of Amsterdam and is not a place to buy flowers seriously; the growers' market at Aalsmeer is the real trade.

What you actually see

• Stalls on floating platforms - built against the quay where the barges moored from 1862.
• Bulbs packed for export - the main stock, with wooden tulips and souvenirs.
• A market that changed - a working flower trade for a century, now visitor-facing.
• A shrinking market - stalls closed and the future publicly debated in the city.

When to go

All year. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is a tourist market rather than a flower market, and it is crowded and thin on actual flowers. Check that exported bulbs are certified for your country. Ten minutes is enough.

Nearby

The Munttoren is at one end; the Rijksmuseum is a short walk south.