Friday, April 26, 2019
I know this post is just a little bit late, but I don’t want you to think I’ve given up on the project, so here I go again!
Where am I?
Today, I’m on the Amsterdam in Amsterdam. That’s kind of fun for me and it’s a big deal for the ship and the city. Today, we’re being treated to something really big and really special: we’ll have the Rijksmuseum all to ourselves!
What’s been happening?
Is the weather changing? I hope so. It’s still a bit nippy outside but the skies are clearing and the temperature is up just a little bit. Very encouraging!
This is what I saw as I stepped out onto my balcony this morning.
Disembarking from the ship, I was greeted with two icons of the Netherlands. My venture into the culture of the Dutch begins! (The cow, which represents cheese production, is delightfully wrapped in the colors of the flag of the Netherlands: red, white, and MOO!)
Amsterdam has been a port city for hundreds of years. At one time, the Dutch were the greatest sailors and navigators in the world which propelled them to great wealth and power. The City of Amsterdam shows reverence to their past sailing glory by maintaining the old Stad Amsterdam in the harbor. And, the Stad Amsterdam is no floating museum. No sir-ee bob! It is a fully functioning clipper ship that can be rented for special occasions, business meetings, weddings, or whatever! No doubt, she’s a beauty! However, I prefer to remain with the Amsterdam with which I arrived.
Taking in the sites around Amsterdam, I’m impressed with how similar the city is to Bruges. I mean, there are canals and parks seemingly everywhere and about a gazillion bicycles. (Actually, I’m told there are only 840,000 bicycles in Amsterdam, about 1.6 bicycles for each person who lives there!)
In Amsterdam, bicycles are more than just something people do on a nice summer day. Here, bicycles are a major form of transportation. In fact, bicycles are so much a part of the urban transportation scene that training for how to safely ride a bicycle in Amsterdam is taught to the children starting at a very young age! This is very much like “driver training” was for me when I was in school.
It was a very nice day in the area around the passenger terminal and the port, but the real thrill of our visit to Amsterdam was our very special night at the Rijksmuseum. For this evening, the doors are closed except to passengers aboard our ship. Let me tell you all about our unique evening!
Starting at about 6:30pm, busses were brought to the passenger terminal to take us over to the Rijksmuseum. The ride should have been about 15 minutes but our bus driver seemed to be a little confused about the best way to get there. It took about twice as long as it should have. (I later received reports that we were not the only ones with a confused driver, and that one of the busses was actually damaged in transit resulting in some excitement for the passengers.) So, as a result, I got to see a bit more of the city.
One thing that caught my attention was this wonderful service! I’m jealous of the Amsterdammers in this regard. On the other hand, if I could get wine delivered to my door this easily, I might never leave the house!
After our longer-than-expected ride to the museum we did, finally, arrive.
Once inside, the party started and it was very impressive. After visiting the coat check, I was immediately greeted by a server offering both sparkling and still wines. Other servers plied the room with great trays of hors d’oeuvers. And, if you didn’t feel like their service was fast enough for your rate of consumptions, bars and buffets were set up all around the main halls to quench both thirst and appetite.
The museum went all out to make us feel welcome. In fact they treated us as though we were very important people!
And, to help set a festive mood, a wonderful jazz band (The Tiny Little Big Band!) was set up on the mezzanine and they played some of the best live music I’ve ever heard. (Except, of course, for the Black Moods whose music would have been inappropriate for the setting.)
And all of this comes before the real treat of the evening: the Museum’s entire collection of Rembrandt paintings, sketches, and watercolors.
Here is a gallery of just a small amount of the marvelous art on display. In all, there were nearly 400 individual pieces handsomely presented on the walls of several very large rooms, and I was gobsmacked!
I especially like the two portraits in that last photo in the gallery above. They are nearly life-sized and they reminded me so much of the Gainsborough portraits known as “Blue Boy” and “Pinkie” that hang in the gallery at The Huntington Museum in Pasadena.
And speaking of life size, here are two of my new friends that aren’t! Or, are they?
By 11pm I was experiencing sensory overload! As the crowd had thinned out considerably (it was well past the bedtime of a majority of the passengers of the Amsterdam) I headed back to the bus to take the ride “home.”
Anything else?
Well, maybe one more thing. A number of people have asked me why I didn’t visit any of the places where marijuana is on sale, or why I didn’t go to the red light district.
Well, here’s my reason. The red light district is a place best enjoyed at night owing to the colorful lights and the increased activity during the evening and night. However, our expedition to the Rijksmuseum also took place after dark and we were only in Amsterdam for one night. So, I went to the Rijksmuseum.
Some of you, at least, are thinking I made the wrong choice.
So, what’s coming up?
Tomorrow, we have a day at sea. That’s not too interesting. But, our night at sea certainly will be!
Well, that’s a nice bit of foreshadowing! I can’t wait to hear what happens next!