Nieuwe Spiegelstraat

A holdover from Holland's past, the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in Amsterdam is lined with arcane antique shops, each one a museum to an obscure corner of history.

Particularly worth visiting is Thom & Lenny Nelis Antiques (541 Keizersgracht; 31-20-623-1546) which holds a collection of medical instruments, dissection kits, dental tools, apothecary jars and "a dinosaur-sized plaster tooth that once hung over a dental office."

Also worth seeing is Staetshuys Antiquairs (Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 45a, +31(0)20 6200300) where you can find globes, sextants, telescopes, planetariums, telluriums, and other nautical and scientific instruments of all kinds.