Though pop culture has seemed to promote the view that Amsterdam is only worthy of visiting for those that are looking to participate in recreational drug usage, the citizens and officials within the city are taking in a completely opposite direction than what it has been popularized as. This progression of arts and culture is being deemed by some as Amsterdam's next "Golden Age." 

Amsterdam is a laboratory of progressive living and tolerance, bottled inside Europe's most 17th-century city. Like Venice, this city is a patchwork quilt of canal-bordered islands, anchored upon millions of wooden pilings. But unlike its dwelling-in-the-past cousin, Amsterdam sees itself as a city of the future. And after years of reshuffling and rebuilding, Amsterdam is coming together -- 2013 is shaping up to be a big year for finally completing several ambitious projects.

People who love Dutch art are thrilled that next April, the new, much-improved Rijksmuseum will open -- 10 years after it closed for a radical renovation.

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