Hotel Misc (formerly Zosa) by Philip Marsden

The Hotel Misc is typical of many of central Amsterdam's buildings - tall, thin and full of charm. It's in what was once the spice area, known for its pungent and exotic smells. Now it is a quiet, canal-side location, within walking distance of most of the city's sights. Just to the north is the bustling Nieumarkt area, south is the Munttoren while down the alleys to the west lies the heart of the old city and the red light district.

From the street you step straight into the hotel restaurant with its bareboard floor, bare wooden tables and banquette seating. The bar at the back is also Reception and to one side is the open kitchen. The atmosphere is relaxed, informal and friendly. Pepign has been a chef and he and his South African partner, Jo, bought the hotel only in 2004. "I want the restaurant to be like one of those 18th-century inns where everyone just came in and sat at big tables," says Pepign. In January 2005, the restaurant was not yet open, except for breakfast - excellent poached eggs and coffee.

A set of ladder-like stairs leads to six rooms on three floors. Pepign and Jo inherited a design hotel with each room themed. These include Lollipop (pink fridge, floral pictures, silvery paint), Retro (theatrical, dressing-room style), Rembrandt (vast kitsch reproduction of The Night Watch above the bed) Asian (mosque lamps, purple silks, shimmering gold bedspread). Several of these are pretty tacky, the carpet a little threadbare, the decor as much teenage-bedroom as hotel-chic. But there are plans to renovate them all. The best rooms are at the front, with canal views.

We stayed in Design, a bright, airy first-floor room with its cream curtains and a stylish chandelier of ranked milk bottles. It has a shower (but no bath). White chairs and a table in the big windows with a large vase of fresh yellow lilies. You could spend a lot of time here, reading or just looking down over the canal with its busy coots and its busy municipal barges while the chimes of the Zuiderkerk mark out the hours' fractions.

Like all the best cities, Amsterdam can match your every mood. After the heady pleasures of the Rijksmuseum, a bustling reataurant or a club, you can slow down and take in its more subtle features. Across the water from the Misc is one of the city's great town-houses. The Trip brothers built it during Holland's golden 17th-century when they controlled most of Europe's arms trade and the chimneys are in the shape of cannons. A fascinating sight to end your day with.