The Rijksmuseum houses over eight thousand works from a collection of one million, but its most extraordinary exhibit might be a piece of a ship. In 1667, the Dutch navy sailed up the Thames, raided English dockyards and towed home the Royal Charles, pride of the English fleet, as a trophy. The ornate stern piece has been on display here ever since.

The building itself demands attention. Pierre Cuypers designed it in 1885 to look like a cathedral crossed with a castle, all Gothic arches and stained glass, then returned later to design Amsterdam's Central Station in near-identical style. After a decade-long closure for restoration, it reopened in 2013 with its grandeur intact.

VoiceMap's Amsterdam tours use the Rijksmuseum to trace the Dutch Golden Age from its commercial roots to its artistic peak, connecting the Night Watch, the VOC's global trade empire and the naval audacity that humiliated the English Crown.