Saturday, 23 August 2014
Amsterdam

After a comfortable night’s sleep, we wake to enjoy a full buffet breakfast at the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel.  By 10am we are out on the street and ready to catch a tram to the Van Gogh Museum, when we witness a collision between a car coming out of a hotel car park and a tram heading toward Central Station.  Although it looks like merely a fender-bender, and the tram is heading in the direction opposite to which we are going, the ruckus is enough to disrupt all traffic.  Fortunately the street is cleared pretty quickly and we board a later tram.  Although we have “skip the line” pre-paid discount tickets for the museum there is still a short wait, since the lines are very long and the museum is the most-visited tourist attraction in the city. 

The wait is well worth it; the museum houses the largest collection of Van Gogh’s in the world, including one only recently discovered and identified about 10 years ago.  Although the sun is shining on the way to the museum, the weather is very changeable, and a thunderstorm erupts while we are inside—luckily there is room in the self-service restaurant to enjoy lunch until the sun comes out again.  Next to the Van Gogh is the Stedjelik Museum, the city’s collection of arts and crafts.  Although we don’t visit the exhibits (I was here last August), we are able to explore the architecture of “the bathtub,” the immense addition to the museum that opened last year.  Pictures don’t do justice to the building, and it blends with the traditional architecture of the original building more gracefully than one would think.

From here it’s a short walk to the Rijksmuseum with its vast collection of Rembrandts and Vermeers.  Even the noisy crowds can’t destroy the effect of seeing Rembrandt’s large paintings exhibited in an appropriate setting.  Unfortunately everyone wants to take a selfie in front of “The Night Watch,” and there isn’t much opportunity to examine the painting in peace.  All three museums have excellent gift and bookshops—but browsing is better than buying.  Prior to leaving the US, we purchased a “Holland Pass” which allows us free entry (the museums charge about $18. per person) as well as “skip-the-line” privileges, which really come in handy.  It also allows us a free one-hour canal boat ride, which is a good introduction to the charms of Amsterdam.  This is one of the most popular attractions and there are many companies that offer the tour.  We unluckily choose Gray Line, which offers the most unhelpful and minimal narrative as we cruise through a number of urban canals.  The best perk of the “Holland Pass” is unlimited free transportation on all tram, subway, and bus lines in the city.

After the canal cruise, we head back to our hotel, just a few blocks away.  For dinner, we visit the rooftop restaurant in “Die Bejinkorp” (Beehive) Departrment Store, which offers a wide variety of individually prepared foods, from steaks to Asian to Italian.  You place your order at various stations, at which your food is prepared individually, and then pay when you are ready to leave.  Department stores in Europe are always a good bet for quick and well-prepared meals, especially when you are travelling alone. But since Will is with me on this trip, we can share two desserts.

It has been a long day and we have to put our bags outside the hotel room by 8am, so that they can be picked up for delivery to the cruise ship.  So it’s early to bed, with the aroma of marijuana, pervasive in the air all over Amsterdam, still wafting through our sensory systems.  Tomorrow morning we head for the port of Ijmuiden and the start of our cruise.