Wednesday, August 21

The one thing that the Bauers wanted to make sure they did during this visit was to visit the Rijksmuseum. It is newly opened after 10 years of renovation work has kept it closed. We drive into Amsterdam with the invaluable help of Louise and orbit the museum until we find the parking garage. Its under the park where the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh museum, and the concert hall are located. All in one. The building is beautiful and big. 

We stop at a cafe on the edge of the park for a coffee to energize ourselves. As we approach the museum there are modern sculptures and a small park down a few steps. Over to the side are two lovely looking women named Vonder and Bloom singing and playing a guitar and keyboard. I buy their CD. As we get closer to the main entrance, we see a long line of people waiting to enter. This is a great feeling: we walk past them and are told to enter by the door across the driveway right into the large visitor welcome center with a four story glass ceiling. We decide to buy the audio tour guide iPhones for 5 euros apiece. After figuring out how it works -  mine needs to be replaced - we select the 90 minute highlight tour and off we go by starting on the second level (3rd floor). 

There is so much. The Night Watch, of course, Waterloo, the woman with the water jar, a huge doll house (Lynda Adamson would have liked that), stained glass windows, and a scale model of a 17th century Dutch man-of-war with lots and lots of cannons. It had three and 1/2 rows of cannons and two in the stern and places for two more. I have never seen cannons in the stern. But, then you have to ask yourself "why not?". Seems like a good idea. Especially, if you're running away. Plus there were Rembrandts and van Goghs. I always thought that Dutch painters of this period used too many dark colors. But, these were well-lit even with the use of so much black paint. The detail and the different types of brush strokes used was impressive.

At the end of the tour was the mandatory visit to the museum shop. They have one inside and outside. We visited the one inside for coffee mugs and stuff. We walk slowly back across the park to the car and Louise gets us out of the city very quickly. 

We have not had any real food since breakfast, so after a quick stop at the market in Soest for eggs and milk for tomorrow's breakfast, we agree its time to eat at the Luykje restaurant. This is where Dan Dodds had eaten a meter of meat a couple of weeks ago. And, this is where Dan Bauer did it too along with Linda. I had a certain kind of schnitzel and Janie had lamb chops. I helped Linda with her pork. She took care of the beef, turkey, and speek (special type of bacon with lots of fat - yummy, I didn't get any of that). We were feeling pretty good and ended the meal with everyone but Dan having an Irish Coffee. Thank goodness the house was only about 1 km away.

The TV only seems to have cop shows on this time of day, so Dan and Linda and I went to bed. Another great day in the Netherlands.