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Published: October 30th 2021
The rain that falls today, doesn’t fall tomorrow.- Dutch saying
Well, I’m not sure about that proverb, because the forecast is for rain again tomorrow. Ah well, we are used to rain and at least we got a mostly sunny day yesterday.
We started the day very early, as we both woke up basically in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. It’s hard adjusting to the 9 hour time difference. Later we enjoyed a very lovely breakfast in our B&B. Katrien left us a tray with an assortment of breads and croissants, butter, jam, two different cheeses, boiled eggs, yogurt with fruit, sliced ham and roast beef, juice, and oranges. What a feast! There is coffee and a coffee maker in our room, so we also had some very good coffee with “koffiemelk” (kind of an evaporated milk, which was very good).
Thus fortified, we set out, in the rain (it was a gloomy rainy day all day today), to the location for our covid tests, which were quick and easy. Nothing like the time we got tested at home, back in 2020. That was quite horrible, very uncomfortable, but this time they
Kitchen and dining area
Beautiful old ceiling beamsdidn’t stick the swab in so far and it was just fine. An odd tickling sensation, but nothing much. We had some time after our appointments, before our 10:30 timed entry to the Van Gogh museum, so we wandered over to an Albert Hejn, a very nice grocery store chain, to have a look. They have very inexpensive wine, and very nice looking products. We had thought we would take an Uber to the museum, but we decided to walk instead, and this time we didn’t get lost! Google maps led us there quite nicely. It was about a 30 minute walk (in the rain). We both wore our new Vessi shoes, which I found very comfortable (and they are waterproof which is a necessity what with the rain and stepping in lots of puddles).
It was good we had booked our tickets online ahead of time, as the museum was sold out for the day and I saw several people who wanted to visit being turned away. We got in quickly, picked up our prebooked multimedia guides, and spent a couple of hours seeing the highlights of the museum. The museum has free lockers, which was very handy
to store our coats and umbrellas. We really enjoyed the museum, and the multimedia guide was excellent. It not only explained the various paintings (you could choose highlights of the museum, or just enter the number of the particular painting you wanted more information on), it also provided clear directions to the various paintings. I definitely recommend the multimedia guide. We also enjoyed the very nice gift shop on the way out. We had a couple of hours until our 2:30 timed entry to the Rijksmuseum, and we really wanted to sit down for awhile, so we wandered over to the Rijksmuseum cafe, hoping to have lunch, but unfortunately there was no availability (we should have reserved when we booked our entry tickets). We found another restaurant close by, and shared a sandwich and fries, washed down with a Heineken for Susan and a glass of rosé for me. We finished with an excellent cappuccino.
After lunch we headed over to the Rijksmuseum (we were 1/2 hr early for our entry but that was no problem). The Rijksmuseum was also sold out for the day. The lockers were all taken but we hovered around for awhile and pounced on
one as soon as someone was leaving theirs. We picked up our prebooked multimedia guides, and we were off on our highlights tour. We also enjoyed the Rijksmuseum, which is located in a very beautiful building. The grand hall is quite something. The museum’s most famous painting, Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” is undergoing detailed examination, so it is behind plexiglass and there is a machine partially blocking it. Like many of the Rijksmuseum paintings, it is huge!
After we finished the highlights tour and collected our things, we had had enough of walking (plus it was pouring out) so we took an Uber back to the B&B, and had a short rest. A bit later we headed out for dinner (we had 6 pm reservations at Jottum, a tapas restaurant in the Jordaan neighbourhood). It was about a 20 minute walk, but the rain had mostly stopped at that point. We shared four different tapas dishes, along with draft beer, then walked back to our B&B. The streets are very busy, there are obviously lots of tourists in Amsterdam (weekends are particularly busy), and there are large crowds everywhere. We avoided getting run over by cyclists, and made it
Me on the walk to the Van Gogh museum
Navigating with Google maps on my phone. back to our B&B safe and sound. We are located in a busy area, and the view of the canal and the Oude Kerk is fantastic, but it is quite noisy at night. Because it is a Saturday (and Halloween) it is particularly busy and noisy tonight. Ear plugs and a sleeping pill tonight should ensure a very badly needed good night’s sleep!
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Joan
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Memories
We are enjoying your blogs. It brings back memories for us. Thanks ?. Joan.