Escort Amsterdam Oost, Where the City Meets the Morning

The heart of the district is the Oosterpark, laid out in the English landscape style with a lake, old trees and a crowd of picnic blankets whenever the sun appears. On its northern edge rises the monumental Wereldmuseum, which older guidebooks still call the Tropenmuseum, and its great central hall is worth a look even if you never reach the galleries. A few streets away the Dappermarkt fills with stalls six days a week, and further east Park Frankendael surrounds an eighteenth century country house whose grounds now welcome diners on summer evenings.

By the water the mood changes again. The Eastern Docklands, once the quays of ocean liners and trading ships, were rebuilt as islands of bold modern housing, Java-eiland, KNSM-eiland and Borneo-Sporenburg, stitched together by striking footbridges. On the Funenkade the De Gooyer windmill stands over a brewery terrace, one of the most photographed corners of the east.

Oost suits guests who prefer a neighbourhood to a postcard. Business hotels gather near Amstel station and along the Wibautstraat, a few metro stops from the RAI and the Zuidas offices. Around the Oosterpark you find converted buildings and smaller design stays, while the Eastern Docklands and the Oostelijke Handelskade offer rooms with long views across the water toward Noord. Out on IJburg, apartments and holiday lets appeal to longer stays, and the Science Park in Watergraafsmeer brings academic visitors to the hotels close by.

The quickest starts come from De Pijp, straight over the Amstel, and from Amsterdam Centrum along the Weesperstraat. For hotels near the Oosterpark, Amstel station or the Plantage, allow about twenty to thirty minutes after confirmation. The docklands islands take a little longer because of their loops and bridges, and IJburg, reached over the long bridges across the water, is nearer thirty-five.

Rush hour on the Wibautstraat and the Piet Heinkade can add a few minutes, and so can a full house at a concert on the eastern waterfront. As always, the estimate arrives in the chat before your yes, never after it.

Evenings here are unhurried and slightly bohemian. Start with a beer beside the windmill or a glass on a dockside terrace as the light fades over the IJ, cross the serpentine red footbridge of Borneo-Sporenburg, then settle into dinner at a neighbourhood table nobody is in a hurry to turn. On a summer night the little beach at IJburg keeps its sunset crowd until surprisingly late.

Rosa, earthy and warm, loves galleries and collecting records, which makes the small venues and secondhand shops of the east her kind of territory. Thea cycles for fun and has a cheerful, unfussy manner that suits the long flat routes beside the water, and Lucy, an artistic dreamer, likes her morning run beside the Amstel and never refuses a proper espresso afterwards.

The Zeeburgertunnel runs under the water to Amsterdam Noord, the old centre lies just beyond the Plantage, and the towers of Zuidas are a short run along the A10. The full gallery shows every companion who can come east tonight.