Begijnhof, the hidden courtyard beside the Spui

Behind an unassuming door on the Spui opens a green courtyard surrounded by tall houses where the beguines lived, Catholic women who led a religious life without vows. Women still live here today, which is why you enter quietly and in small groups. At number 34 is the Houten Huys, one of the two wooden houses left in the centre, and in the middle, the English church. It is a twenty-minute stop between Dam Square and the flower market; enter only by day and without making noise.