Amsterdam

One of the reasons for spending a year in Italy was to use it as a home base for seeing lots of other places in Europe.  To that end, we embarked on the Great European Tour in July.  Our first stop was Amsterdam.




A port city, Amsterdam has extensive canals laid out as concentric semicircles and spokes.  So a canal cruise was first on our agenda for discovering the city.

At one point in the cruise, you get a great view of six bridges down a canal.

There are lots of people living on houseboats on the canals.  They started as a cheap alternative for students and artists; now they are among the most expensive housing.  They range from spartan to luxurious.  Many have gardens.  The one below has a floating patio.

The canal cruise was great for seeing the architectural styles.  Virtually all the row houses had hoist beams sticking out from the peak of the roof, for lifting furniture to upper stories since it was impossible to carry them up narrow stairways.


















Amsterdam is a city with a large number of museums, from big and famous (the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum), to smaller specialized ones like the Museum of Cannabis, or this one we spotted from the canal boat:

Speaking of cannabis, we are sure you know that Amsterdam has some notariety in Europe because it is legal there.  We had a funny moment when it started raining and we went into a little souvenir shop to buy an umbrella.  Carmen picked one out without looking too closely and took it to the clerk.  She was a bit concerned about our choice and said, "Do you know it has weed pictures on it?"  We bought it anyway.

Number One on my list to see was the Van Gogh Museum.  Unfortunately, no picture taking was allowed inside the galleries, so we settled for this mural reproduction in the lobby.











The Van Gogh Museum is near the Rijksmuseum, which is the Netherlands national gallery.  They are separated by a big park with the iconic I Amsterdam sign.  This day, lots of people climbed up on the sign.  Kids could play in the adjacent playground.

The Rijksmuseum is the home of major works by the Dutch masters of the 17th century.  The crown jewel of the collection is Rembrandt's "The Night Watch".  I have seen Rembrandts before that were the size of normal paintings.  This thing is huge--3.6 x 4.4 meters (we use the metric system, remember?).  Photos were allowed here.

The Rijksmuseum houses more than paintings.  The upper floor has a World War I fighter plane.

Gary was inspired to do "Junior Birdman"

On our last day, we rented bikes and explored the town.  Bikes and bike lanes are everywhere in Amsterdam, and it is really easy to get around on them.  We stopped to admire hollyhocks (the most popular flower here after the tulip blooms fade), enjoy the Vondelpark, and have lunch at a sidewalk cafe.

Say, who took that last picture?  There's something funny about it...