{"id":848956,"date":"2022-06-07T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T06:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-blog-post&p=848956"},"modified":"2022-06-07T15:36:46","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T22:36:46","slug":"exploring-amsterdam-with-microsoft-soundscape","status":"publish","type":"msr-blog-post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/articles\/exploring-amsterdam-with-microsoft-soundscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring Amsterdam with Microsoft Soundscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Amsterdam, Breakfast, Museums, and Soundscape – the perfect weekend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hi, I\u2019m Frazier from the Soundscape Team. One of my friends is going on a city break to Amsterdam next month and asked me for some tips of things to do there, as they know I\u2019ve been before. Today, I am sharing how I did this using Soundscape’s latest feature, \u201cRoutes\u201d. In this blog, I hope you will not only learn about this amazing new feature, but how much fun it was to revisit my trip and be able to share a few highlights with my friend. Soundscape will work anywhere in the world, so you can travel with it and have your familiar experience in your language of choice.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n My friend only has a weekend in Amsterdam and wants to pack in as much as possible. My plan was to create a walking itinerary for a day using a Route, and then also share some Markers of other places they might like to visit while they are there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the bottom of this blog, you’ll find links to all the Markers mentioned, so you can try them out for yourself!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soundscape Routes are like a trail of Audio Beacons \u2013 a feature of Soundscape which plays a sound which always comes from the direction of the place it\u2019s set on. (Read about Audio Beacons in our \u2018Getting Fresh Air with Microsoft Soundscape\u2019<\/a> blog<\/em>). In fact:\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Soundscape \u2018Route\u2019 is a personal experience and can be tailored to individual preferences, whether you are creating it for yourself, or to share with someone else!\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n I visited Amsterdam with my girlfriend between Christmas and New Year, it happened to be the time of year that they have their annual Light Festival with several light installations around the city. My first recommendation was to go while this was on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n My plan for the day was to grab a filling breakfast, go to a museum or two, walk around the city to appreciate the architecture, finishing with a boat tour to see the fabulous light installations, all while keeping well-fueled at some caf\u00e9s and restaurants I had particularly enjoyed while I was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beginning with breakfast, the first Marker I\u2019m creating is for \u2018Bakers and Roasters\u2019. This is a great spot for a hearty breakfast to start the day! My friend is staying over on this side of the city, so launching the Route when he leaves his hotel should give him a nice simple walk to the caf\u00e9. Plus, it\u2019s only a few minutes’ walk from Amsterdam\u2019s Museum district so it fits in perfectly with the plan for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first stop after breakfast is the Rijksmuseum, while it\u2019s still early in the day. This is one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands! It is the national museum of the Netherlands and is dedicated to Dutch arts and history. The museum is in a huge, grand building, I’d make sure to allow plenty of time to walk around the grounds and take in the architecture!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the museum, along with all the exhibits, you will also find the \u2018Research Library\u2019, the largest art history library in the Netherlands. This was one of my favourite parts of the museum \u2013 after walking around looking at all the art and historical artefacts, this picturesque, working library was somewhat unexpected!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are several other museums in this area, such as the Van Gogh Museum, so if my friend would like to visit somewhere else then they can easily try a different museum without going far from the Route. In fact, the beauty of a Soundscape Route is that it doesn\u2019t matter how far from the Route you might want to venture as the Audio Beacon will always be audible from wherever you may be. You can make a little detour and then just follow the sound of the Audio Beacon back to where you branched off! In this way, Soundscape gives you the freedom and flexibility to explore and discover a place on your own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next up on the day\u2019s itinerary is the Anne Frank house museum. The museum is in the lovely neighbourhood or Jordaan and is about a 30-minute walk from the Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam is a very pedestrian friendly city due to the concentric nature of the waterways, all arcing around the city centre, you can get to virtually anywhere by walking along the canals, so I suggested to my friend that they walk between the two to really take in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I placed a couple of intermediate Markers to help guide my friend between the Rijksmuseum and Jordaan, along with another in the centre of Jordaan to give them the opportunity to explore the neighbourhood some more and take in the sights of the tree lined canals and visiting the many independent shops in the area, and possibly grabbing a light lunch in one of the many tempting cafes. They can always skip this last Marker and go straight to the museum when they are ready if they prefer and come back another day when they have more time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: it is said that the houses have so many windows because the windows are lighter than walls, and this helped to stop the subsidence caused by soft ground that the city is built on.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The sixth waypoint is the Anne Frank House. This is the very house in which Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution during the Second World War. I didn\u2019t get to go here myself when I was in Amsterdam because I hadn\u2019t booked a ticket and the queues were very long. So, when I created this Marker, I added an annotation to make sure to book your ticket in advance to avoid disappointment! I did also let them know this in the email I sent when I shared the Route, just in case they don\u2019t look before they get there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Image caption:] The distance shown on this screen will always be to your current location. Here it is showing the distance from where I was creating the Markers, but once you are in Amsterdam, the distances will be more meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last activity of the day is a boat tour around some of the canal-side light installations of the Light Festival. Before this though, it\u2019s time to get some dinner. The boat tours leave relatively early, but after all the walking I\u2019m sure they will have worked up an appetite! I created the Route\u2019s fifth Marker on \u2018Jacketz\u2019, a restaurant in central Amsterdam which serves jacket potatoes with all kinds of toppings! When I went, I had the pulled pork filling, topped with a lot of cheese which was delicious and incredibly filling. It’s a good hearty meal, but it will be quick enough to eat and make it to the boat tour on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From Jacketz, it\u2019s just a five-minute walk to the boat tour. The tour takes in some of the best sights of the festival and will give a perspective that you only get from canal-level. On the tour, you also get a commentary explaining what each bit of art represents \u2013 some of them can be incredibly abstract! I even thought about creating my own Soundscape Markers along this canal tour to share with my friend just so that he could point out a few things that don\u2019t get mentioned on the actual tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the walk back from the boat tour to the hotel, it is worth checking out what other Light Festival installations are on the way \u2013 there are a number that aren\u2019t visible from the canals, so even after the boat tour, there is still more exploring to be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After I had created the day\u2019s itinerary for my friend, I then created some more Markers just in case they had time on their other days to check out some more of my recommendations, plus a couple of interesting facts I had learnt while I was there! <\/p>\n\n\n\n First up, the narrowest house in Amsterdam. Houses in Amsterdam used to be taxed based on the size of their fa\u00e7ade, so it was cheaper to have a very narrow house, even if it went back a long way. This resulted in some tall and thin houses! I added this as a Marker for my friend to discover while they\u2019re walking around!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also added another couple of food spots \u2013 one unassuming caf\u00e9 in a library that served a simple but incredibly tasty breakfast, and a burger restaurant which has a wide selection of burgers to try, they offer a trio of mini-burgers as a sampling platter to make the mouth water! It\u2019s a great spot for a quick and tasty meal that isn\u2019t \u2018fast food\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After this, I added another couple of museums. The Amsterdam Museum is a museum all about the history of Amsterdam. Whenever I visit a new place, I love to learn about the history of the area, so I thoroughly recommended this if they have time. Another museum is the Van Gogh Museum, which I didn’t get a chance to visit, but is very much on my list if I return. And for something slightly different, I also created a Marker for the Heineken factory tour. I have heard that this is a fun way to spend a few hours if the weather is bad!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, I added some Markers for some interesting landmarks I\u2019d seen while I was there. The first of which is the Magere Brug, or \u2018Skinny Bridge\u2019 in English. It is a very pretty bridge built on the site of a bridge from the 1600s which is said to have been so narrow that pedestrians could only cross it in one direction at a time. The bridge is also illuminated at night, making it a lovely place to go for an evening walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second of these landmarks is Dam square, the historical centre of Amsterdam which dates back to the 13th<\/sup> century, when the Amstel River was dammed. At one end of the square is the Royal Palace, a magnificent building, and around the rest of the square there are several other tourist attractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating these Markers and putting them together in to a route took me about 15 minutes, but it was great fun to revisit my trip from a few years ago. Once I was finished, I shared these with my friend. They have checked them out and added a few of their own, now they are ready to go and explore Amsterdam! Once they\u2019ve been, we will get them to provide an update on how they found using Soundscape to explore a new city as a tourist using Soundscape Routes and Markers, so check back in the future for an update!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Links to Markers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
What is a Soundscape Route?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Starting the day off right<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Waypoint 2: Rijksmuseum<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Jordaan<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Waypoint 6: Anne Frank House<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Dinner & boat tour <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n
Other Markers to explore<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sharing the route<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n