Friday, October 25, 2013

Oct. 24 - Discover Amsterdam

Farm along the main road to Amsterdam
We headed out early today, hoping to get to Amsterdam by noon so we would have lots of time to explore today and still have all day tomorrow for more fun here. I had been interested in getting off the main highways and mapquest had found a route only a few minutes slower than the highway, but Liesel went WAY into the backroads and added an hour to the trip, so we switched back to the highway. Unfortunately, we probably would have been better off on the backroads as we encountered a major traffic tie up resulting from a crash and car fire involving 4 cars. It added 45 minutes to the trip. The frustrating thing was there was no point to tuning to a radio station for information, because there is no way we would have understood more than a word or two of Dutch.

Rijksmuseum
The hotel staff was very helpful when we arrived and showed us how to take public transit to the museum area AND how to get back. We unpacked, relaxed a bit, and set off for the Rijksmuseum. We had bought tickets in advance, but there was still a long line of people waiting to get in with their tickets. I had read that crowds were worse on Friday and the weekends as well as between 11 am and 3pm, so we timed our arrival to 2:30ish Thursday -- and it was still packed. Here it is late October! Apparently no one read the memo about not being here or they are all trying our dodge.

Vermeer Painting
I found the museum very confusing. The guide to what is on each floor is completely wrong and the floors have a warren of galleries. It is tough to be sure you have seen them all without some level of backtracking. My primary interest was the Rembrandts and the Vermeers. There are lots more of the former than the latter, but eventually we did find them both along with Van Gogh. We should have just looked for the REALLY big crowds. Friends had warned me about the ABC syndrome in Europe -- "Another Boring Castle/Cathedral/Church". I very quickly got ABP -- another boring painting. You have to remember, we saw everything we wanted to in the Louvre in two hours. The Rijksmuseum took about an hour and a half. Amazingly, we were allowed to take photos (no flash) and I actually got to see three Vermeers and three Van Goghs, at least of one which was new to me. And more fun to see the real thing than a photo. You, on the other hand, will only get to see my photos.


Van Gogh Painting


Homes along a canal
Out of the museum, we decided to walk along the canal area of the city -- there are lots more than I realized -- both concentric and intersecting canals. My thought was to amble toward the Anne Frank house, where we plan to start tomorrow, and see about how long it takes to walk back the the Museum Square, because I was planning on visiting the Van Gogh Museum. We never did find the house, but we located the area and caught the combination of trams back to the hotel.

Narrow houses on the canals

A REALLY tiny car -- smaller than a smartcar
Bird near our hotel -- I was about 10 ft away and he
was patient, posing while I prepped my camera.
Our hotel is quite nice, but in a totally residential area that has VERY few restaurants -- both the ones we found are Asian and only one appeared to be open for dinner. There were no visible grocery stores or self-service laundries or coffee shops or bars. We wondered where people shop! We opted for the hotel's buffet dinner, which was ok, but does not bear repeating, so we will have to get more creative tomorrow night or have a big lunch. Dinner did include a number of Chinese options, so I broke my 'no Chinese food in Europe' rule and had egg rolls, sweet & sour chicken, and spare ribs, all of which were reasonably good.

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