Hotels on the north bank of the IJ, a ferry ride from Centraal

For a long time the north bank was the side of the IJ where ships were built and oil was stored, and the city hardly looked across at it. That has changed. On the waterfront facing the station stand a white, angular film museum and a tall former office tower that now holds a hotel, restaurants and a lookout deck at the top. Further west lies the old shipyard wharf, where vast sheds house studios and flea markets and one hotel has been fitted into a former crane. Between the two, new apartment blocks and offices line the water.

The ferry as the last leg

From the airport the train runs to Centraal, and the ferries leave from the quay behind the station, on the water side. The crossing to the film museum is over almost as soon as it starts and runs at all hours; the boats to the shipyard wharf take longer and sail less often late at night. A suitcase on a ferry is an ordinary sight here, and nobody asks for a ticket. A taxi can also reach the north bank directly through a road tunnel under the river, which suits a late landing with heavy bags.

What the rooms are like

Almost everything on this bank was built or rebuilt in the last few decades, so rooms are generally larger than in the canal ring, with lifts, wide corridors and windows that take in the river traffic and the skyline of the old city. Some buildings are design hotels with a bar on the top floor; others are long-stay apartments with a small kitchen. Key-card lifts are common, which makes the lobby the natural place to meet her.

Timing the message

Send the first message from the airport train, with the hotel's name and the side of the water it stands on, since a hotel described only as being in Amsterdam is easily pictured in the old centre. The reply names who is free and proposes a start, and she will be at the door forty to sixty minutes after you accept it, with her own way across already counted in that window. The first-visit page sets out what else an opening message should carry.

An evening on the far bank

Dusk is a fine hour on this side of the river, as the lights of the station and the old centre come on across the water. A drink on a terrace near the ferry landing, a short walk along the quay, then the room: that is a calm first evening for anyone whose body still runs on another clock. Tantra massage, which moves at an unhurried pace, sits well in a spacious room with the river outside the window.