Things to do in Amsterdam that are not museums

Amsterdam has more museums per square kilometre than almost anywhere in Europe, and after the second one they start to blur. The city outside them is smaller, quieter and considerably more interesting, and most of it is free to walk into.

1. Spend an afternoon making something

The most underrated thing to do in this city is to sit at a bench with somebody who makes things for a living. Pasta, ceramics, jewellery, coffee, soap. Two hours, a small group, and you go home with something you made badly and love anyway. It is the only tourist activity we know of that produces a souvenir worth keeping.

2. Walk the Jordaan on a Tuesday morning

Weekends belong to everyone else. On a weekday morning the Jordaan goes back to being a neighbourhood: bakeries, a butcher, three people arguing pleasantly about a parking space. Start at Noordermarkt and get lost deliberately.

3. Ride the free ferry to Noord

Behind Centraal Station, the NDSM and Buiksloterweg ferries run constantly and cost nothing. Noord is where the studios moved when the centre got expensive, which means workshops, roasteries, and a skyline view back at the city that nobody photographs enough.

4. Eat somewhere with eight tables

Amsterdam's best food is not in the guides. Look for handwritten menus, a kitchen you can see into, and a room small enough that the cook knows who is eating. If you like what you eat, ask where the ingredients came from. You will usually get a name and an address.

5. Go to a market with no plan

• Noordermarkt on Saturday for the farmers, on Monday for the fabric and second-hand stalls.
• Ten Katemarkt in West for the everyday version, without the crowds.
• Dappermarkt in Oost, which is the least polished and the most fun.

6. Learn to brew coffee properly

Amsterdam roasts a lot of coffee. Most people drink it without ever finding out what the roaster actually intended. An hour with someone who cups for a living will ruin your home setup and then fix it.

7. Look up

The gable stones on the older houses were the address system before numbers existed: a ship, a cow, a pair of scissors telling you who lived there and what they did. Once you notice them you cannot stop, and the whole canal belt turns into a directory of old trades.

8. Forage in the city

The parks and the edges of the city are full of things you can eat, and Amsterdam has people who will show you which ones. It is the fastest way to stop seeing green as scenery and start seeing it as a larder.

9. Cycle out of town for an hour

Twenty minutes past the ring road the landscape flattens out into water, cows and enormous sky. Waterland, north of the IJ, is the easiest version. Take the ferry, turn right, keep going until the city noise stops.

10. Do one thing slowly

Whatever you choose, do less of it. The people who enjoy Amsterdam most are the ones who picked two things and stayed put, rather than the ones who ticked off nine and remember none.

Nobody goes home and tells their friends about the queue. They tell them about the afternoon they made something.