Amsterdam...land of Museums

Amsterdam is just filled with museums of all types - pretty much anything you'd like to see. You could check out Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Modern Art, as well as history of just about any period you'd want. We did check out a few - my limit for the short trip this time.
Van Gogh was my favorite one - amazing to see so many of his pictures up close - and the huge variety of other works I had never heard of before - including a number of Japanese subjects! They also had some fascinating close-ups of paintings. He famous bedroom picture has print from the newspaper he wrapped the painting in on the orange blanket. A number of his paintings have sand or grass in them because he painted outside so often. It was fascinating to look through a microscope and see the brush strokes he used - and the "extra" stuff included.

In one of the history ones - I think it was Rijksmuseum - there was an old library - with a wonderful circular staircase up in a corner. Sadly we couldn't roam the shelves but we could look over the area.

There were huge collections of different famous paintings, sculptures, wonderful doll houses and beautiful replicas of boats - sailing vessels figured big in this part of the world! The doll houses were unbelievable - taller than any kid who would use them and filled with wonderful replicas of furnishings, paintings and life-like dolls. The attention to detail was astonishing. Absolutely exquisite!

Amsterdam - Land of Canals

Amsterdam is absolutely amazing! The network of canals completely boggles your mind...and makes it quite easy to get lost because, just like all cream colored houses, all canals look the same (or pretty darn close). Fortunately, they do have road signs to help.
We stayed in a very small apartment, in the heart of old Amsterdam; a great jumping off point for exploring the old town area. The intricate network of canals weave you through various shopping and eating areas - everything was outside during the wonderful, warm weather. We took a great boat trip through the canals, weaving past old homes and businesses, Anne Frank's home, old churches, and numerous other sites.

They had some interesting old bridges - balanced with different weights to allow ease of opening them. They used it for both foot bridges as well as roads for cars - a very interesting design.

The reflections on the water were gorgeous - far better than our pictures show. We dined on the canal, watching the various boats cruising up and down the very busy waterways. The most amazing one was this guy with his boat. Most of the turns were 3 point turns where the drivers had to jockey the boat back and forth to make it. Not this guy - he had just the right pivot point to make it around - phenomenal watching him...and he knew it too! Click on the picture below to see his amazing turn.