Beyond the west side of the square sits one of Amsterdam's shopping spectaculars, the Magna Plaza. Built inside the city's 19th-century post office -- designed by Cornelis Hendrik Peters in "post-office Gothic" (sort of like London's House of Parliament) -- this gigantic structure looks like a fairy-tale frontispiece. Set behind the Royal Palace, this is now a top place for A-to-Z shopping in a wide variety of distinctive stores, including Villeroy & Boch; Sissy Boy Home and Fashion Decoration; Tolhuysen (soooo cute "Dutch Kitsch," including sailboat-wooden clogs, pottery cows, and porcelain windmills); Ordning & Reda (Swedish paper merchants); fashion boutiques like Björn Borg, Velvet, and Replay; fabulous wooden toys at Pinokkio and kiddie couture at Bam Bam Kinderwinkel. The central Romanesque-columned, three-story atrium is a knockout.