My husband and I also had a day in Amsterdam on the way back from East Africa in 1998. Our first and most important destination for us was to see the Anne Frank House, in which Anne wrote her famous diary while hiding from the Germans during World War II. It is now a museum and the original diary is housed there. What is most chilling is, you can actually be in the rooms that are described in the book and feel the closeness of it.

We had in mind to take a canal tour, but the weather was quite raw at the end of February, so we opted for the Rijksmuseum instead. Lots of famous Dutch art and very big, but it wasn't overcrowded when we were there. August may be quite different. Also, we took a quick walk around the red light district and had a lot of fun watching the dynamics of the area. Amsterdam is a very casual city, so our camping clothes were not a problem. We just didn't eat in any upscale restaurants.

This website might help: http://www.amsterdam.info/ Have a great time!

Carrie, Bardonia, NY