AMSTERDAM: The Rijksmuseum; The Albert Cuyp Market; The Oude Kerk Church and Bell Tower

Goedemorgen (Good Morning!) We arrived in sunny Amsterdam yesterday at 12:00 noon or so, and to our apartment around 1:30 pm. Once again, we are happy - it's lovely and full of light!

After settling in a bit, we walked through Vondelpark, which is quite close to where we are staying. This is a very large park of 47 hectares which originated in 1865. It's named Vondelpark after the 17th century playwright and poet called Joost van den Vondel. It was quite lush and green, although some trees didn't have their leaves yet. No palm trees here...

We found Cafe Oslo, which was recommended to us by our new landlord. We sat outside in the sun and had a delicious sandwich of roasted vegetables and hummus on brown bread. It was amazing and the hummus was homemade!

While we were eating our sandwich, we heard a loud dinging. We looked over and a section of road began to be pulled up to allow a gigantic barge to pass through the canal. One minute there were bikes, trams, buses, and cars driving on the road - and the next minute? The picture tells the story. I've never seen anything like that before.

After that, we took a very long walk to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum to see the area and the location of the museums. It was so busy around the area at that time. People, bikes, trams, vespas, cars! Bikes - everywhere! It is so unusual and very different from anything we are used to seeing. Here's a cute one!

This sweet lady went out of her way to help us with map and tourist information. She was quite happy to have her picture taken:

So, that was yesterday.. This morning, we awoke refreshed. The apartment is in a quiet, residential neighborhood and we certainly appreciated the calm. After 6 nights of waking up to shouts, singing, banging, clanging and the crashing noise of the market setting up every morning at 4:00 am outside our apartment on Cours Saleya in Nice, the quietness here was heavenly! (When I mentioned the racket from the market to Ruffin - our landlord in Nice - of course this is what he said, "Mais non! The noise has never bothered anyone before! Even the babies sleep through it!") Ya - right, Ruffin. Anyway - back to Amsterdam, It was quite cloudy and chilly this morning. We decided to head to the Rijksmuseum to which we had tickets. We arrived at 9:00 a.m., first in line. Our goal was to go straight to the 'Gallery of Honor' and see the very famous 'The Night Watch' by Rembrandt van Rijn. The Night Watch has its very own room. Rembrandt is considered to be one of the greatest painters in European history.

This is a self portrait of Rembrandt:

After we had looked at all the art in the Gallery of Honor, we back-tracked through the museum. We both agreed it was one of the most visually stunning museums we have ever visited. It is so exquisite with its blue/gray walls which are so complimentary to the wonderful works of the Dutch masters. We spent 3 hours in the museum, but could have spent the entire day. We were so happy to see that along side all the Dutch descriptions of the works of art, there are English descriptions as well. This was so refreshing after struggling with French for two weeks at every historical sight we came across. When we stepped outside the museum, a small ensemble greeted us playing some great classical music:

So we walked in the direction of the famous street market in Amsterdam called Albert Cuyp Market. It looks like a lot of other people had the same idea:

Albert Cuyp was a painter from the 17th century. As in other markets, there are the wide range of fruits and vegetables, clothing, etc. There was a huge selection of fresh fish and cheese also. It was just an amazing experience. There were so many new and interesting foods. Ron and I are going to go back as often as we can (since it's open 6 days per week). The first tasty experience we had today was called 'Stroopwafels'. This is a waffle made from two thin layers of baked dough. There was a caramel like syrup between the layers. The syrup was warm and dripped everywhere, but was so delicious!

We saw an inviting little restaurant called 'Eetcafe Moos', and decided to try it out for lunch today. The staff were so friendly. I tried the special of the day called 'crispy chicken with citrus mayonnaise'.

On we continued enjoying new sights. What is outstanding is how friendly and outgoing the Dutch people are. They are visibly happy. The vast majority speak excellent English, and they enjoy talking with tourists and helping out wherever possible. Ron saw a busy little shop called 'Haring Vers Van Het Mes'. He just had to try the famous herring snack:

Then we passed by a delicious looking sandwich booth. It was very different because there were fresh sauces you could choose for the bread and then your choice of olives, pickles, etc. Ron told this person how sad he was that he had already eaten lunch somewhere else!

We saw many flower stalls selling lots of tulips, not quite in bloom yet:

So, we wanted to see the 800 year old Oude Kerk church in Amsterdam today, if time would allow. This church was founded in 1213. It was wonderful to walk in the doors. It was mostly a large, empty, chilly space, but looking at the floor with its various etchings and engravings from the 1600's certainly attracted our attention. Apparently there are 2,500 graves under this church. An amazing fact is that Saskia Rembrandt (wife of Rembrandt, who painted the Night Watch) is buried here. Here is her grave stone in the floor:

I'm happy to say that we were also able to tour the bell tower of the Oude Kerk Church. With our guide and 4 others, we climbed 153 very narrow steps which wound up through the ancient tower to the bell. The bell weighs 3,700 kilograms and was made in 1659. We each took a turn giving it a soft thud to hear its glorious deep sound.

After listening to our guide explain the background, we then stepped outside onto the tiny, narrow platform to view the city of Amsterdam. This is a picture of our friendly guide, as well as a view of the city:

After this, we decided to take the tram back to the apartment. Amsterdam is exciting and absolutely buzzing with life. In the short time we have been here, we can see the Dutch are a happy, friendly people. If you look confused they will go out of their way to help you! They enjoy giving recommendations and we love that... Tomorrow morning we are going on a 'Hungry Birds Food Tour'! Goede Nacht (Good Night!)

Karen