A Gorgeous Walk: KLM Houses in Amsterdam

At the end of a flight, I sometimes hand out the Delft Blue KLM Houses to our World Business Class passengers. Each house is a miniature replica of an existing house, almost all of them in the Netherlands. Because I was curious to find out what they look like in real life, I devised this gorgeous walk through Amsterdam, using the KLM Houses to plot the route.

Every year, in October, KLM marks its anniversary with a new Delft Blue KLM House. There are now 97 of them. Hotel New York is the most recent house to be added to the collection. My personal favourite is house no. 82, which stands in my home town of Maastricht.

KLM houses

Because I live in Amsterdam, I decided to use KLM’s Delft Blue houses, to plot a route through the city. This turned out to be a gorgeous walk: the KLM Houses Walking Tour powered by DareSheGoes;). So, if you’re in Amsterdam, print out the map or track it on Google Maps. The KLM Houses app will give you additional information. The route starts and ends at Amsterdam Central Station, is about 13 km long, and takes just under three hours.

Below are some of my personal favourites. Ready for take off? Dare we go…

Museums we encounter en route

KLM houses Rembrandt

One of the first museums we encounter is the gorgeous Rembrandt House (KLM House no. 48) at Jodenbreestraat 4. I first visited this museum three years ago. What’s wonderful about it is that it gives you a really accurate view of Rembrandt’s world. Rembrandt lived here from 1639 to 1658 and this is where he painted the world-famous “Night Watch”. You can also see the studio where he gave private painting lessons.

KLM houses Van Loon

Next, take a look inside one of the most beautiful canal houses in the city, Museum van Loon (KLM House no. 83) at Keizersgracht 672. Its lovely garden is especially worthwhile.

KLM houses rijksmuseum

KLM House no. 76 is very special, because it is the subject of Johannes Vermeer’s painting “The Little Street” (c.1658), which hangs in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. The house itself was in Delft.

KLM houses Anne Frank

The Anne Frank House (KLM House no. 47) is one of the most popular museums in the Netherlands. Everyday, people queue for hours outside, waiting to experience the secret annex where Anne wrote her famous diary.

Warehouses

Frankfort warehouse (KLM House no. 54) at Prinsengracht 773 is identical to its neighbour at 771 (Elseneur). The name refers to the German city Frankfurt am Main.

KLM houses Sparre Boom

At Keizersgracht 487 and 403 we find two other warehouses – Sparreboom (KLM House no. 65) and Maarseveen with its spout gable (KLM House no. 66). For a long time, Maarseveen belonged to its neighbour Huis Marseille at Keizersgracht 401, which is now a photography museum.

Heineken

KLM houses Heineken

One of the most recent KLM House to be issued is the Heineken brewery (KLM House no. 95). Beer hasn’t actually been brewed here since December 1987. Now it’s home to the Heineken Experience, where you can explore this beer’s entire history.

Houses blog shop

Not to be missed: At some point you will pass Kramer Kunst & Antiek at Prinsengracht 807. This attractive little shop is run by the brothers Sebastiaan and Roeland Kramer, possibly the most fanatical collectors of KLM Houses in the world. Step inside and have a look.

Sleeping and dining

Should you ever want to sleep in a KLM house, you could rent a holiday apartment at Prinsengracht 969 (KLM House no. 68) .

KLM houses vlieghen

The restaurant and culinary museum D’Vijff Vlieghen at Spuistraat 294 is KLM House no. 2. This excellent restaurant is also home to four Rembrandt etchings and an original drawing in the visitors’ book by John C. Hench, who was one of Walt Disney’s most important artists for more than 65 years.

KLM houses steeg

In the middle of the buzzing city, yet oh-so quiet, is the Begijnhof where you will find KLM Houses no. 6 and 46. The tour ends at Pijlsteeg 31 with a glass of jenever gin in the tasting room of Wijnand Focking (KLM Houses nos 11 and 23). This is most appropriate, since nearly all KLM’s Delft Blue Houses are filled with this strong alcoholic beverage.

Cheers!

If you’ve enjoyed this blog, take a look at the blog “The 8 Most Desired KLM Miniatures

You can learn more about the KLM Houses by playing this game of happy families.

(source: Book House No.90 published by KLM, KLM Houses App, Little Kingdom by the Sea – Mark Zegeling, websites Restaurant D’Vijff Vlieghen, het Rembrandthuis)

Posted by:   DareSheGoes  | 
Join the conversation Show comments

Maria Teresa Bracegirdle

Beautiful… could you raffle a couple among economy class passengers? :)

DareSheGoes

Thank you Maria! ;-)

Mati

Dang I didn’t know business class got those. Also do you guys do flights from Edmonton to Seoul? Thanks!

Theya

My favorite KLM New Post. KLM Blog A GORGEOUS WALK; KLM houses in AMSTERDAM
(and KLM PALACES).
I like it, Theya

DareSheGoes

Thank you Theya,

Hope someday you’ll enjoy this lovely route!

Rick Payne

Thanks for this “journey”(walk) through Amsterdam!
Our friends who live in Vlijmen gifted us with a “Small House” when they visited us here in Florida!!! What a treat!!!!
Look forward to exploring this route upon our next visit!!!
Hopefully soon!!!
THANK YOU KLM!!!

DareSheGoes

Hi Rick,

How lovely, which house do you have? Maybe I can give you some extra info on that one! ;-) Thanks for your message and enjoy the route on your next visit to Amsterdam!

kind regards,

Valerie (DareSheGoes)

Chiel Meinema

What a great idea! These city walk gives a very good impression of Amsterdam City Centre.

DareSheGoes

Thank you Chiel! And it really does, it’s a beautiful walk!

Cinette Wassing

Great idea this city walk. Would be nice if KLM adds this city walk to the Houses app.

DareSheGoes

Thank you! ;-)

Rudi Klumper

Hallo, I have two houses, number 15 and 45. There is no name on them and I would love to know what houses they are. (My wife would also like those between those numbers. Haha. But as we are pensioners our chances of flying are slim.) Thank you for the interesting articles.

DareSheGoes

Dear Rudi,

Thank you for your comment. I looked it up for you House #15 is from the city of Dordrecht near Rotterdam. House #45 is Keizersgracht 140 in Amsterdam!
I can imagine your wife would love them all maybe print out one of the pictures from the Blog and put them in between ;-). Kind regards also for your wife!

Valerie (DareSheGoes)

Roger Swaab

Hello Rudi,

House 15 is located in Delft a beautiful town in South West Holland.
House 45 located at Amsterdam Keizersgracht 140

For all information please look at the well known site for houses http://www.klm-huisjes.nl

DareSheGoes

Hi Roger!

Dank voor je antwoord alleen huisje 15 staat niet in Delft maar in Dordrecht (volgens KLM Houses App). Spaar jezelf ook KLM huisjes?

Fijne dag! Valerie (DareSheGoes)

Jerry Yao

Hi:

My name is Jerry. I am Adult fans of Lego. I am very interesting at the out-looking of the KLM houses mini models. May I ask for more pictures (if they are the PDF of elevation Archi-drawings, it will be more helpful.) for each house, 4 sides of the elevation are necessary to build them in Lego Parts. I will send the pictures back to you after I finished them in Lego Models.

Regards

Jerry

DareSheGoes

Hi Jerry!

Wow a KLM house in Lego! That would be cool. I need to check this special request.
Thanks for your comment!

kind regards,

Valerie (DareSheGoes)

Bonnie

Hi Jerry,

What a cool idea. I will go after some pictures here within KLM. I am afraid we don’t have them from different sides, but we might be able to photograph that. I’ll get back to you on the e-mailadres you used for your comment.

Johanna Soper

My father started collecting these houses since 1950’s. I love them and having a double row of them in my kitchen!

DareSheGoes

Amazing Johanna! Since 1950 those are the first ones, very special!:)

Lolita M. Balboa

THANK YOU FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL BLOG. I HOPE TO ENJOY THAT LOVELY WALK. IVE BEEN IN AMSTERDAM AND I ENJOYED WATCHING THOSE BEAUTIFUL HOUSES WHEN I TOOK THE CANAL CRUISE – BUT NEVER EXPERIENCE TO WALK THAT LONG BECAUSE OF TIME CONSTRAINTS. NEXT TIME, THAT WILL BE ONE OF MY ITINERARIES.
TY VERY MUCH FOR SHARING – – ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL BLOGS I’VE EVER READ.

DareSheGoes

What a sweet message you left me Lolita! I hope you’ll next time! Thanks for your compliment regarding the Blog, makes me happy people like it and want to explore Amsterdam in a different way!

kind regards, Valerie (DareSheGoes)

DINO

SUPER! LOVE IT! Tell me when is the next ( walking )program? I would like to join :o)

Thank you

DareSheGoes

Hi Dino,

THANK YOU!
My next blog is planned for 27th May ;-)

Maureen

How lucky your Business Class passengers are!! I so admire these beautiful objects whenever I see them and as a lover of Delft blue, would like to know whether they are available to purchase and where.

Alexander P

Flighing KLM is a nightmare!!! We are with our little baby son since 2 days in Aruba without laggage!!! No baby cloths, no underwear, no toothbrush etc. We were forced to start shopping and spend alteady more than 800$ on just the basic staff since Aruba is expensive. We won’t fly KLM another time!!! They even can not locat our laggugae, tell stories and ask us to fly back to

Alexander P

Curacao to pick up our lagguage even though they do not know if the lagguage is there!!! just a nightmare. DON’T FLY KLM, particular not with a baby!!! Just an aweful experience! They seem just not to care and leave you starving without lagguage!!!

KLM

That doesn’t sound good, Alexander. We are sorry to hear you have this experience and understand this is an inconvenient situation. If you would like us to check the status of your delayed luggage, please send us a message on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. We are more than willing to help you. Besides, you can request for compensation of your first needs via http://klmf.ly/1tGqMON. We hope you will be reunited with your luggage soon.

Dineke Verhoek

COOL!! GREAT KLM BLUE HOLLAND PROMOTION!!

PROUD TO BE PART OF THE BLUE KLM FAMILY!!

SUNNY REGARDS,
DINEKE VERHOEK

DareSheGoes

Thanks for your sweet comment Dineke!
Sunny regards,

Valerie (DareSheGoes)

Suzi

Heel goed.

Liesbeth

These KLM houses are just lovely! If you want to read about the illustrious inhabitants of the 17th century canalhouses, and the history of the houses, this is all in Little Kingdom by the Sea: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VXQV00O/

ENJOY!!!

Lize van den Berg

My dad have four of them 66, 71, 85 and 93.

Hans Rijnbende

Hallo, zelf bezit ik een klein aantal van de echte Rynbende exemplaren. Ik denk dat een echt serieuze verzamelaar van alles van Rynbende Wouter Rijnbende is. De wandeling langs de items in Amsterdam ga ik beslist een keer doen. Bedankt voor de info.
Hans Rijnbende

SEKYU

Wow, really beautiful KLM house. I will board KLM on this saturday(From Seoul To AMS.) Can I buy those?

Seija Ignatius

We got two houses on the flight from Singapore, 68 and 57. In which address is house 57 ?

Alain Michael

Hello Valerie;

I love KLM miniature houses. I have two of them in my collection of treasures: houses number 76 and 79. I have enjoyed this creative and lovely tour !!! I love history and you have contributed to enrich my background knowledge when it comes to these beautiful KLM houses that do exist in reality.

Best regards,
Alain.

Tonneke brander

I have the KLM houses complete, it is a wonderful collection, now I have to find nr.97

Walter Fokkens

Sweet memories…

Can I have buy one on my next flight from Geneva to Oslo (via AMS) next Monday:-)

Groetjes, Walter

(economy, I’m afraid…)

Trish Sherk

My husband and I had the opportunity to visit The Netherlands and absolutely loved it! We love the canal houses and all the bicycles. It is our dream to one day move to Holland and live there for a few years. Since I doubt that we’d be flying Business Class, we’ll just admire the photos of the canal houses.

Marie-Claire Abercrombie

I have #56….is there a listing of all the houses?
Is there any other way of obtaining this collection?
Most of my travel is domestic . Would love to add to my one KLM house!

Teresa Maas

Thank you posting, we will be in Amsterdam for a few days at the end of October- early November. So looking forward to visiting several of the places you have mentioned.

Pam & Keith Watts

My husband and I took a break in Amsterdam to find the houses we have collected during our travels with KLM. Thank you Valerie for supplying this interesting tour of the history of the houses.
Thanks to your magazine we have just returned from a stay in Volendam where we explored several of your recommended water villages. We were not disappointed and plan to explore more of Holland in the future.

Valerie

Hi Pam & Keith!

That’s wonderful to read sorry for this late reply but I am very happy IFLY Magazine inspired you to walk this lovely route. Thanks for visiting our small but beautiful country :)

EMUAKPEJEKESSENA

HI

EMUAKPEJEKESSENA

HI KLM EMUAKPEJE KESSENA LOVE

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