Central Station. The main hub of transportation in The Netherlands, this building was designed as a major architectural statement by P. J. H. Cuypers. Although sporting many Gothic motifs (including a unique wind vane disguised as a clock in its left tower), it is now considered a landmark of Dutch Neo-Renaissance style. Cuypers must have derived great smugness in having designed the city's other main gateway, the Rijksmuseum, which lies like a mirrored rival on the other side of town. The building of the station required the creation of three artificial islands and the ramming of 8,600 wooden piles to support it. Completed in 1885, it represented the psychological break with the city's seafaring past, as its erection slowly blocked the view to the IJ river. Other controversy arose from all its Gothic detailing, which was considered by uptight Protestants as a tad too Catholic -- like Cuypers himself -- and hence earned the building the nickname the "French Convent" (similarly, the Rijksmuseum became the "Bishop's Castle"). With more than 1,500 trains passing through daily, Centraal Station long ago learned to live with the guilt. And you should certainly not feel guilty about fighting your way through the street performers and backpackers who litter its doorways. If you have time to kill, perhaps take a return trip on the free ferry to Amsterdam North that departs directly opposite the rear entrance; or check out the rather sci-fi-looking multilevel bicycle parking lot to the right when exiting the front entrance.