Amsterdam Centraal is the main railway station of the Dutch capital Amsterdam. With 151,112 passengers per day (2022), Amsterdam Central Station is the second busiest railway station in the Netherlands after Utrecht Centraal.
As one of the most important long-distance railway stations in the Netherlands, Amsterdam Central Station is a stop for the high-speed trains Eurostar, ICE International and Thalys. The station connects Amsterdam with major European cities such as Paris, London, Berlin, Cologne, Copenhagen, Munich, Basel and Vienna. It thus connects Amsterdam with European long-distance traffic, was and is the starting and end point of passenger trains of Deutsche Bahn, the French state railway SNCF and the Belgian NMBS/SNCB. Amsterdam Centraal is also a hub for regional and urban transport. Many buses, trams, the city metro and Amsterdam ferries stop there.
On my photo walk through the city of Amsterdam, I was very impressed by this huge hall with its numerous railway tracks. Flooded with light, huge windows at an enormous height give the platform hall an eerily fascinating lighting atmosphere. The countless steel girders give the visitor the feeling of being inside a huge hull.
Although the station was designed by the architect Cuypers, the two large, tubular-looking platform halls were planned by the railway engineer L.J. Eijmer. The first hall on the city side was completed in 1889, the narrower and longer hall on the IJ side (facing the water) was finished in 1922.
Just visiting the Central Station as an active shopping centre with shops, cafés and fast-food restaurants as well as bicycle cellars with bicycle rental is a worthwhile destination in Amsterdam.
"For me, photography feels like really capturing the moment - like a kind of alchemy where time is physically captured."
Silva Wischeropp was born in the Hanseatic city of Wismar in the former GDR. Today she lives and works in Berlin. As a passionate travel..
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