Fodor's Expert Review Spiegelkwartier

A William-and-Mary-era harpsichord? One of the printed maps featured in Vermeer's Woman with a Lute? An 18th-century bed-curtain tie-up? Or a pewter nautilus cup redolent of a Golden Age still life? All these and more may be available in Amsterdam's famous array of antiques stores in the city's "Mirror Quarter," centered around Nieuwe Spiegelstraat and its continuation, Spiegelgracht. If perusing fine art is more your scene, the Spiegelkwartier also houses around 20 contemporary art galleries and 10 ethnographic and Asian art specialists. But—with five double-sided blocks' worth of shops and galleries, from the Golden Bend of the Herengracht nearly to the Rijksmuseum—this section of town often requires a royal House of Orange budget.