Stenelux

Great! I saw this place years ago, but it was closed. I’m glad I came back. The minerals are great, and extremely reasonable. The owners are also wonderful. Worth a visit for any amateur naturalist.

A dream shoppe for scientists, naturalists and explorers!
Seriously, it was like stepping into a wonderful fictional shoppe from Jules Verne’s imagination, or maybe Charles Darwin’s cluttered study.
Stenelux is a charming little, independently owned purveyor of rock, mineral, fossil, seashell, and taxidermy specimens located in a several centuries old corner boutique next to a scenic, medieval canal bridge. Part retail store, part workshop, part natural history museum, the creaky wooden floorboards of this enchanting little four room store is filled to the rafters with interesting geological specimens and meteorites in display cases, skeletons of birds and mammals, seashells, mounted taxidermy including exotic insects, and some amazing fossils, like an ammonite the size of a Fiat tyre and wicked looking dinosaur teeth and claws.
Much to my delight, I found the prices to be very reasonable also. Most items were IMO below the market price and if I wasn’t on a strict vacation budget, I would have bought up a good chunk of the specimens and lugged them home. I had to actually ask the very friendly proprietors (an elder couple) over and over if I was reading the handwritten price tags correctly because I could not believe they were selling such wonderful treasures so cheaply!
Whenever I return to Amsterdam I make it a point to visit this shoppe of my boyhood dreams.