Canal Tour and Rijksmuseum

Tuesday we spent most of the day in class and then visiting the art history library.  (Where this window is.)  It was a lot of sitting around so we were kind of anxious to explore a little that evening.

Luckily we had a free canal cruise voucher that was given to us by the City of Amsterdam.  It was a gorgeous sunny day so we decided it would be perfect to spend it on the water. 

We biked down to the pier and hopped on the Holland International Cruise Boat.  Minus the kid who threw up a few rows behind us the entire time it was a nice relaxing trip.

We saw one of the old East India Company boats.

And tied up next to it was a couple of naked (?) guys drinking beer.  I guess everyone wanted to enjoy the sun.

This is a spot in Amsterdam where you can see through seven bridges.  Except there were stupid boats in the way and it was hard to get a photo.

We went through the super rich part of town.  They all have staircases leading up to their doors.  Apparently the city used to tax people by the stair so the more you had the richer you were.  Notice the door inside the staircase.  This is where the servants entered the kitchen.  When the canals flooded the rich people stayed dry while the poor got wet.

At the top of almost every house is a hoisting pole.  It usually has a hook attached to it.  It is the white thing above the top window.  This is used to move stuff in and out of the house because the doors and staircases are too narrow.  Instead they use the windows.  Its kind of entertaining to see people move.

See the tiny little house between the other two houses?  The Dutch also used to tax people on the size of the front of the house.  So people would build these tiny little fronts and then the houses would get bigger as you went back.

This guy kept standing up right in front of us to take pictures out of the roof.  I couldn't resist.

This is the church that is down the street from the Anne Frank house.  It is called the Westerkerk.  Anne Frank refers to it in her diary as the only thing she can hear to remind her of the outside world.  Rembrandt is buried here. (Plus check out how awesome that shot is.)

After the canal tour we were starving so we biked down to a bar.  Turned out to be a pretty hipster-ish place with everything from a dog running around to a brass band playing.

But the food was good (despite the wait.) And so was the beer.  And yes.  That is mayo for my fries.

Wednesday we went to the Rijksmuseum.  It is normally a huge museum but it is under construction right now so they only have their highlights on display.  But their highlights are pretty impressive.

Our professor, Steve, walked us through some of the paintings there.  He is so geeky and excited about the paintings that you can't help but get excited too.






He showed us this piece which is like Where's Waldo, except you get to find all the bad things people are doing, like peeing up against a tree and a naked butt.

We then got to talk to the curator of prints for the museum.  He just put together a small exhibition showing the career of Hendrick Goltzius.  It was unfortunately a very dark room and people kept moving, so that is why they are all blurred.

This is one of the engravings that Hendrick Goltzius did.  It is of the artist Karel van Mander who wrote a book basically telling artists how they should paint.







After the Rijksmuseum we headed back to the dorms.  Everyone is starting to get sick and I will not let that happen to me so I will probably just spend the rest of the day reading and relaxing.