Northern Europe Trip 2003
UK, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands
MONDAY - Amsterdam Museums
We wanted to get OUT of Amsterdam around 1:30 to give us time to make it back to Calais by 6. Originally we'd thought there was no time crunch on the chunnel ride, but it turns out the Hertz office closed at 7pm so we had to be back by then or not be able to swap the cars. I tried to get us all to therefore wake up to be at the museum by 10, but somehow we were a bit slower than that. It was around 10 when we checked out and packed up our car.
The "authentic" waffle stall we wanted to eat breakfast at was closed still, so we ate at a little cafe on the museum lawn. We had muffins and waffles and fed bits of them to the cute pigeons nearby. Our museum choices were:
Rijksmuseum Hours: 10-5pm daily
Stedelijk Museum: 11-5pm daily
Van Gogh Museum Hours: 10-6pm daily
So we thought we'd do the Rijksmuseum and then the Van Gogh and skip the Stedelijk. Into the Rijksmuseum we went!
We went right for the Night Watchman first. They did let you take photos in there.
It was HUGE. We were very impressed by that and by the other pictures in this area. Another one of my personal favorites was one of birds -
Bob liked the ones where it looked almost 3D by the use of texture and layers. We had coupons for free copies of the "Kitchen Maid" painting by Vermeer on postcards and got those. Downstairs were cool historical displays with uniforms, weapons, and historical information about the various invasions the Netherlands had survived. A big area talked about how the merchant power of the Netherlands was felt in all reaches of the world from Japan to South America and more, and showed items brought up from shipwrecks.
Soon we were done here and we decided we were too tired to walk around yet another museum and instead looked at the pond and shop.
Now it was time to find lunch!
Monday Day 5 - Finding Lunch
Main Europe 2003 Homepage