Since we had such a short time in Amsterdam, we really had a lot planned in advance. For Friday, we left the morning open to see a museum and then had booked a food tour for the afternoon. We had discussed which museum ahead of time (SO many to choose from) and opted for the Rijksmuseum, which is gigantic:
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| We started the day with waffles (which are a Dutch specialty) from a street cart |
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| Outside the Rijksmuseum |
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| The museum does not have as many Van Goghs as the Van Gogh Museum (obviously), but it still had quite a few |
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| Dutch artists are famous for their still lifes (this one is by van Dyck) |
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| The Milkmaid, by Vermeer |
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| Also lots and lots of Rembrandts |
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| This is The Night Watch, which is the most famous painting in the museum |
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| This statue is called Two Drunks and I just thought it evokes that perfectly |
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| Things I didn't know I needed to see before we got to the museum: Dutch doll houses |
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| The level of detail is unreal |
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| These doll houses are so valuable, the owner commissioned a painting of them |
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| The library is always a favorite for us |
We were told not to eat before the food tour, so we had a little time to kill and walked around the Bloemmarket, which is the year-round floating flower market. We also took pictures at some of the canals before circling back to meet our tour:
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| The Bloemmarket |
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| These are called the Dancing Houses because of the way they lean every which way |
The tour was great. We tried (in order), Gouda (from a cheese shop), toasties (like fancy grilled cheese), stroopwaffle, french fries, bitterballen, and apple pie. Our guide Roman also gave us a bit of a regular city tour and had us duck into some cool spots:
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| Cheese shop |
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| Hidden cloister of houses for single women that has existed since the 1600s |
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| Roman pointed out that all of these houses have hooks on top for hoisting furniture into them |
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| Abby and I ducked into this "concept" store while the group was tasting herring |
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| Everything is prettied up for Christmas |
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| Warm, fresh stroopwaffle was divine |
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| The canals looked especially pretty at sunset |
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