Our European Adventure 2018
Amsterdam Day 2
Up early, breakfast of toast, cheese, ham, yogurt blueberries and coffee, catch the tram and meet our guide, Kees Kaldenbach, at the Rijksmuseum. Kees is a excellent art history tour guide and an expert in Vermeer. Checkout his website at https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=www.johannesvermeer.info&data=02%7C01%7C%7C4bed1dea63f44de3433808d5b51ee6cd%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636614066676375286&sdata=rg7YZmsPALZLC3%2Fzcc15E1tZxxCtJBChp%2FtRabWaG2c%3D&reserved=0.
The Rijksmuseum underwent a 10 year, 375 million dollar renovation and reopened in 2013. Kees spent about 5 hours, giving us wonderful information about Vermeer, Rembrandt and other Dutch Masters.
Kees also arranged a canal tour on a beautiful old restored wooden boat The Peridiso with captain Laura. We learned a lot about the history of Amsterdam and the buildings along the canals that flow into the Amstel.
The Paradiso, our cruise ship!
Kees also gave us a tour of the Rembrandt House. Although all Rembrandt personal possessions were sold when he went bankrupt, the property lists used in the bankruptcy auction has allowed modern day curators to find similar objects and furnish the house the way it must have looked in Rembrandt’s time.
Kees is a very expressive and knowledgeable guide and we were thoroughly entertained with his stories and humor throughout the 5 hours we spent with him.
After our day with Kees we Ubered back to the Rijksmuseum for 2 more hours of some things we didn’t want to miss including the portrait of the Dutch admiral Michiel du Ruyter, the wooden ship carving from the English ship he defeated, and the paintings of some of the famous sea battles.
(A side note about the Rijksmuseum. There is a wonderful app for your phone or notebook with museum information, identification of the most notable pieces within the collection and videos explaining the pieces in great detail. I highly recommend downloading the app if you are thinking of traveling to the museum. One site that I found is: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio/works-of-art/masterpieces ).
Tram home, pick up some groceries, off to find Indonesian food. We shared a sampling of both vegetarian and meat dishes at Long Para at Rozengracht 46-48.
Another full day of walking, site seeing and experiencing the art of the Dutch Masters.
Greg (and Shelley!)
P.S. Here are few bonus images from our visit to the Rijksmuseum along with a few others. Click on an image to enlarge. Enjoy!
