We arrived in Amsterdam today! We took an overnight flight from Houston and got in about 9 am local time. Had a heck of a time trying to get a train ticket terminal to take a credit card without a PIN number (we don’t have PINs for any of our chipped credit cards, but the ticket machines required them and for some reason it would’t accept the PIN for our ATM Visa card)…eventually gave up and took a cab in to our hotel. More $$, less hassle.

We are staying along one of the canals and our room looks out on to it. It’s a big room by European standards and a nice hotel. We hit the ground running and headed to some museums. We stopped at a small burger/sandwich shop in the Museumplein, a park where multiple museums are located. There also are the I amsterdam letters. They’re over 6 feet tall and a big tourist spot for pictures…with tons of people in front of and on the letters every time we went by.
I took a couple of pictures from out in front, but you can barely see the letter. Much clearer from the back and easy to mirror flip the picture!

We started out at the Rijksmuseum. In 1808, the museum was commissioned by Louis Napoleon to Amsterdam. It has been independent since 1995. They, naturally, have tons of works of art…mostly focusing on Dutch artists. One of the main focal points of the museum is Rembrandt’s “Night Watch.” It is 12 x 14 feet and is hung at the end of a large gallery. There are tons of other well known paintings and lesser-known paintings from many prolific painters. This is a great museum and you can get right up close to see everything (well, at least if you are patient for the better known pictures).

We then went to the Van Gogh Museum. Naturally, this contained mostly Van Gogh paintings. At this point I’m pretty sure he was his own favorite subject! It also had paintings that had inspired him. Another really good museum! Not only did it have tons of his paintings, but it also had letters he had written family and other artists of the day. Big downside? You can’t take pictures. They’re serious about this and actually have employees posted everywhere to stop you! I did take a few pics, but it was a bit challenging.

After the museums we decided it was time for a nap. I had been up for over 24 hours and Paul was close behind. A little sleep sure helps! We got up about dinner time. We walked around some of the shops near our hotel and found a restaurant in a small square. We ate out on the square: somewhat reminiscent of eating out in Prague, but with a much different cultural feel.

Soooo…If you missed it on Facebook, I managed to leave the house without my camera. More technically, without my camera bag which contained 2 cameras, multiple lenses, accessory camera gear, backup phone batteries/chargers, backup photo ID and CC/cash, and snacks for the plane. So, stuff I clearly didn’t need. Today I went the all iPhone photo route. Not terrible, but I am a big camera snob. For much of what I will see on the trip, the iPhone will be acceptable, even if it can’t get quite the photos I would prefer. We are, however going to have a day on the Rhine where we sail by a bunch of castles. iPhone won’t do as well for that. I may get a decent point and shoot when we are out tomorrow. We will see what we find!