Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the European capital that pays off best in the shortest time: the historic centre fits inside a semicircle two and a half kilometres across, entirely flat, crossed on foot in half an hour. The problem is not time, it is booking: the Anne Frank House sells out online six weeks ahead, and without a ticket you do not get in, and the same holds — with a few days’ notice — for the Van Gogh Museum.
In one day you cover the two great museums, the UNESCO canal ring and the Jordaan. In three you add Rembrandt’s house, the Jewish quarter, the north bank of the IJ, and a day out among the windmills of Zaanse Schans and Haarlem. In five you stop visiting Amsterdam and start visiting the Netherlands: Utrecht with its two-level canals, Delft and The Hague with the Mauritshuis, all by train and without ever changing hotel.
Each itinerary tells you how long every stop takes, how many minutes to the next one, what it costs, what needs booking and how far ahead. And one rule that always applies: the red tarmac belongs to the bicycle, not to you.