Culture Day!

We have a great sleep in our guest house. There are only two rooms in the old traditional tall house owned by Petra, who lives on the 2nd and 3rd floor . I must say though, the stairs are steep! Not sure how they manage to get the furniture up.

Today we went to the Rijksmuseum, having booked an entry slot at 10am. It was a half hour walk from our place, through the Vondelpark, which is teeming with cyclists early morning on our way. We had to cross the road in the park at one point and it was dicing with death trying to navigate our way over as a lot of the cyclist are MANIC the speed they go at, a lot are electric going at full pelt.

I found a nice coffee place three quarters the way to the museum. Nice place, good coffee and pastries. Anyone that knows me knows how much I like a good coffee and pastry, I don’t drink alcohol so this is my thing.

We had a short walk to the Rijks. The building itself is stunning set in beautiful gardens. We put our coats and rucksack in the lockers and headed upstairs first through the Great hall, beautiful stain glass windows and on to the Gallery of Honour to see the works of the Dutch Masters. My favourite is Vermeer, there is something extraordinary about how he gets the light just perfect in his paintings. The Night Watch has its own special gallery and this famous painting is under protective glass. It was pretty quiet at this time so was able to get close immediately without crowds. I had downloaded the Rijks app so it was good having the number next to a particular painting punched in to the app and a story being told of what the painting is about etc. lucky I had my earpiece with me.

One that I spent a lot of time looking at as there is so much in it was by Hendrik Avercamp, Winter Landscape with skaters. I loved it!

After a couple of hours we went to the Cafe for some refreshments. We were sitting next to an older couple from Sydney who were spending 3 months cycling round Europe, I was amazed at this how hardy they were.

Ben and I carried on our tour of the museum. I was quite surprised at how much Ben enjoyed it. I suppose there is so much to see not just paintings. We especially wanted to see the plane in the modern section. On our way up there on the top floor we were next to a lift and I said we will get the lift up so we stood on each side of the sliding doors. The doors opened and a lady came out and she said excuse me to Ben as his foot was a wee bit outstretched . He pulled it back but she still tripped over it. She started shouting at him and then came back and prodded his arm. I said ‘do not touch him’! She then said I should be educating him properly. I was annoyed at her attitude and her shouting. I told her that she should be educating herself on manners and how to behave in public. She then said . Look at him, he enjoyed tripping me up. I said this was ridiculous he didn’t do it deliberately it was an accident. A young girl appeared who worked there and came into the lift with us and was horrified at the woman’s attitude. She was completely bonkers! lol!

Well we spent four hours in the Rijks! And enjoyed it. We were needing food so headed to the Albert Cupymarket for some street food . We had some chicken dish in a long roll which was delicious. We had more walking and then headed back to the lodgings for some chill time.

Later we headed out for a walk by the canals in the evening. It’s a nice atmosphere and seeing the boats all lit up along with the bridges.

Back in the tram and later up tonight.