Mari and I got up at 8:30, and the kids got up around 9. It was a rainy morning.
We all had breakfast at the table, sans Artur, who left earlier to get to work.
We left the house around 11 and took a tram to the train station (that's the one in the photo above).
When we got to the Hague train station, we ran to catch the 11:33 to Amsterdam, and this time we made it.
By 1 pm, we'd made our way by train and tram to the Rijksmuseum: the first destination I visited in Amsterdam on my first visit to Europe in 1983. The building itself has undergone a huge renovation since then and was closed for 10 (!) years (from 2003 to 2013). One of the challenges faced by the architects was that the people of Amsterdam insisted that the redesign not change in any way the cycle lane that runs underneath the building.
Inside the museum, Pabi and Mari enjoyed a museum-designed scavenger hunt challenge, while I accompanied Emi and Nina, who opted for the audio tour headphones. They loved it, and for the first time I ever, I want to leave one of the museum rooms before they were finished.
That's a 1525 oak statue of our friend Saint Ursula with some of her handmaidens under her cloak in the photo above.
That's an alabaster statue of the Virgin and Child completed in the first quarter of the 16th century.
At 3, we took a lunch break in the cafe at the Museum. The tomato soup that I ordered was a trip highlight. Emi had sugar bread and jelly and a glass of milk. Nina had bread, peanut butter, chocolate sprinkles and strong apple juice. Mari had roast beef with pickled onions. Pabi had contraband peanuts and apple juice.
After lunch, I was dismayed to learn that the museum closes at 5 and not 530, which left us with an hour to see the third floor highlights.
Above: "The Nightwatch" or "Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq," (1642) by Rembrandt van Rijn.
Commissioned to paint a portrait of the Civic Guard, Rembrandt was "the first to paint figures in a group portrait actually doing something," according to the Rijksmuseum website. Click
here to see close-ups.
Above: "The Sampling Officials of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild,"(1662) by Rembrandt van Rijn.
Like "The Nightwatch," this group portrait conveys movement. Viewers get the sense that they have just walked into the room and attracted the officials' attention.
Above: "The Threatened Swan" (ca. 1650) by Jan Asselijn.
As some of the readers of this blog may remember, Nina was once nipped on the leg by an aggressive goose at Wintersmith Park in Ada and has no love for our feathered friends. According to the Rijksmuseum's website, the white swan in this painting symbolized "the Dutch statesman Johan de Witt (assassinated in 1672) protecting the country from its enemies." This painting was the very first acquisition made by the National Art Gallery (the Rijksmuseum's predecessor) in 1880.
The spiky head band Nina is wearing was given to her by Pauli. The device she is looking at is an audio guide to the Museum. Behind her: "Woman Reading a Letter" (c. 1663) by Johannes Vermeer.
When I saw this painting--"Portrait of Peter Courten" (1617), attributed to Salomon Mesdach--I was immediately struck by Mssr. Courten's likeness to my sister-in-law Melissa. According to the Rijksmuseum, Courten is the "scion of a wealthy family of merchants in Zeeland," the westernmost province of The Netherlands, not far from Brugge.
When I pointed out the likeness to Nina and Emilio, they agreed with my observation. Later, when they told Mari that I had taken a picture of someone who looked exactly like Melissa, Mari's first reaction was concern that I was taking pictures of strangers. When she later saw the photo I'd taken, she had some difficulty maintaining her composure
Emi and Nina were still going strong when the museum closed at 5. They wanted to hear everything; Rijksmuseum: Success.
Outside, we struggled to take a photo with the "I am Amsterdam" sculpture, which was installed here in 2005.
The woman in white pants in the photo above spent a long time on top of the "e."
Rooftop sculpture at the Rijksmuseum, which was built in 1885.
Nina explored a Banksy gallery.
At 49 Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. We walked from the Rijksmuseum to the train station.
Gusts of marijuana wafted through the streets.
On the aluminum bridge over the Kloveniersburgwal, on our way to the Rembrandt house.
Rembrandt was a successful, 30-year-old painter when he and his family moved into this building in 1639. He and his wife and his son lived here until 1656, when he went bankrupt and was kicked out. It is now a museum, which was closed when we got there.
On our way back to the train station, we walked through the red light district. Business was not booming, but we saw two prostitutes working windows. Nina asked Mari some questions. Nina: Why are those women wearing so few clothes? Mari: They want to look pretty. Nina: So that men will pay to talk to them? Mari: Yes. And I don't like it when women are viewed as pretty objects.
If I had realized this conversation was going on , I would have added, as I have on other occasions when the subject of prostitution has come up, that they will pretend to be your girlfriend if you pay them to.
The boys didn't notice a thing.
After 7, we boarded a train to Den Haag and arrived at 811 pm. After taking a tram to the house, we enjoyed a late, vegetarian dinner featuring a pasta-free "lasagna," corn-on-the-cob, leftovers from the Chines restaurant, salad with pomegranate, and a popsicle dessert. We were in bed by midnight.
