Blogs from North Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 5

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After so many days of running around we really needed to get some stuff done here. There was some washing of clothes to do by hand, shopping, that sort of thing. Also, we were just tired and after breakfast went back to sleep. One of the women who works at the front desk had sent me a list of restaurants that specialized in gluten free food. One of the places was across the street, Mediterranean, with lots of gluten free options. We decided to try that. Also, we’d found an organ concert at a church nearby, and wanted to attend. We went shopping and got some more French wine that we have been enjoying in the evening then went across the street to the Mediterranean restaurant. Wow, what amazing food they have. We decided that we’d ... read more

Today was forecast to be sunny, no clouds and warm, a perfect day to spend outside. Of course, most of Amsterdam felt the same way but it wasn’t so crowded. After a leisurely breakfast we walked over to the botanical gardens, stopping to shoot photos on one bridge over a canal. The sun was so bright with people walking and biking every which way. The gardens are not on a large area but very efficiently planted. There are areas of evolution, and then categories of plants. The whole thing was started in 1638. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hortus_Botanicus_(Amsterdam) If you know us well, you know that we can’t grow much of any kind of plant, even when we try. And what we know about plants we could write in 1 word, nothing. So, starting with this it was going to ... read more

We had a reservation for 10:30 a.m. at the Rijksmuseum. This museum is about a 30-minute walk from our hotel and has paintings of Rembrandt, Vermeer and other Dutch Masters. Additionally, there are exhibits of furniture, silver objects and other things. It isn’t as large as the Louver in Paris but large enough to be too much for 1 day. It is interesting as there is a passageway thru the middle for bicycles and pedestrians to use to get to the other side instead of having to go all the way around. A café is on one side of the passageway and the entry is on the other with 2 stories above with the exhibits. We got to the museum at 10:30, entered with only a small bit of hassles when the tickets didn’t download until ... read more

We started at the Rembrandt house; this was the house that he lived in from 1639 to 1656 when he went bankrupt. The home is set up the way it was when he lived there. It was so amazing to see where he lived and how he lived. The items inside are not his but as close as possible to the same as there is a detailed inventory that exists from when he filed bankruptcy. https://www.rembrandthuis.nl/nl/ We spend an entire morning in the house, admiring the paintings done by Rembrandt’s pupils and his own etchings. We tried to find where he stood when painting, as there isn’t a mark in the flooring but we could only guess in the end. We love Rembrandt and are looking forward to seeing his paintings in the museum. For now, ... read more