Amsterdam Day 2 (continued)

The Rijks Museum, while housing great works, is a work of art itself. The stained glass illustrating great Dutch artists, and paintings in the vaults and landings themselves are works of art.

The audio accompaniment talks about the cheeses, the fruits including the apple peel sliding off the table and the silver plate balanced on the edge of the table. We did the highlights tour which described about 5% of the collection. There is a Rijks Museum app in the app store on the iPhone App Store. under Rijksmuseum.

There was accompanying text for each work, giving background and author. Note the number at the bottom which allows you to find the individual work in the Rijks Museum app.

Rembrandt was apparently the go-to guy for a group portrait of your organization to hang in your clubhouse.

In one room they had ship paintings, with a fully rigged model that was built by the shipwrights who built the original ship. This was from the high point of the Dutch power when Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the local Indian population for 60 guilders of trade goods founding New Amsterdam.

A couple of Rubenesque nudes.

This is a painting of the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo by Pieneman. It is the largest picture in the Rijks Museum.

After the Museum tour we grabbed a light lunch at the cafe just outside. You can see the Rijks Museum out the windows behind Kate. I was continuing my attraction to Aperol Spritz.

Being old hands at the tram system, we walked out the back of the Rijks Museum and across one bridge to catch the Number 1 tram a couple of stops to the cross street, walked a block up to the stop to catch the Number 4 train three stops and walked 3 or 4 blocks back to the hotel.

I took a brief nap and then it was time to pack. We organized our baggage and set the alram for about 4:40am to meet downstairs at 5:30am.