Ten years ago my wife and I visited Amsterdam for a week. We will be returning to Amsterdam May 19, 2017 when in the afternoon we will board a cruise ship to the Baltic. Since it was a decade ago we last visited the city we thought we might arrive a day or two before the cruise (May 17 or 18) to visit places we missed on our previous visit (see below). I would be grateful for suggestions on what has changed in the city in the past 10 years including new architecture or museums that have opened over the past decade. I would also appreciate suggestions concerning lesser-known (but worth the visit) places we may have missed on our last visit. We’re also considering a day trip, so suggestions for this would also be appreciated—perhaps a day barge trip so long as we could return to Amsterdam in the evening. We’d like to reserve part of a day to re-visit the Rijksmuseum, an evening visit would be even better if open past 6:00 pm in May.
A brief overview of what we visited earlier is this: During the week we were there, we took many walks though much of old town enjoying lunch and dinner in many cafes and restaurants. We used the tram to visit the Rijksmuseum (under renovation at the time and only partially open) and walked to the Van Gogh Museum for a leisurely visit and on to the Vondelpark, enjoying the park with a picnic lunch. We visited the Anne Frank House, and walked serendipitously to Dam Square. We also walked the city center in the evening visiting the De Wallen and on to the Centraal Station where we took a tram back to our lodging. We took a boat tour through many of the canals and made day trips to Zaanse Schans and Haarlem. During the time in Amsterdam we stayed on a house boat (pre AirBnB) which was most enjoyable.
Any thoughts would be appreciated on places to visit, and, oh yes, any suggestions on lodging (local places not franchises) near the cruise port (or easily assessable to the cruise port by tram) would also be great to receive,