So on our second day it was boiling outside and our english skin couldn't really take it so we decided to wait out the sunshin inside the Rijksmuseum.
We took the tram out of town. I guess getting used to any foreign transport system is kinda confusing but oh my goodness we had a hard time. It seemed to work on some sort of honour system where you chose whether to buy a ticket by the hour and then upon entering the train you scanned it which activated it and then when you left the train you scanned it again and paused it. Or you could just not. No one seemed to check and for a while we just rode the tram and thought it was free.
The Rijksmuseum was really cool. I'm a fan of the Dutch masters any way but they had made it so accessible to everyone by providing large laminaed copies of the major paintings which were annotated helping you read the paintings and telling you interesting facts. Did you know that the price of a portrait was decided upon the number of people in the painting? Unless the painting features a sole man without a hat, in this case he is a servant and does not have to pay. Interesting huh?
A quick note to my mum who I know is reading this, to get more pictures you have to click below. Love you mum!
We also saw this cool china violin...
And this fab Yves Saint Laurent dress which I have seen countless times on the internet and have now seen in real life. Note the smug face.
Now this will seem really materialistic but one of my favourite things about museums are always the gift shops. I love them. They always have really cool and cooky gifts like all these amazing art books.
There was a section to read through art books...
But I preferred the kids books...
After a few hours in the museum we walked accross the road and had a bit of a laze in the Vondel Park. We watched the multitude of people and cyclists passing by as well as overseeing the most amazing kerfuffle between some buskers and an overly enthusiastic drunk man who was insisting upon singing tunelessly along to the saxophonist. It is really hard to look pissed off with a saxophone in your mouth but golly he managed it.
We were feeling a little bit hungry by then so we stopped off at an amazing little cafe called pompa which is just off the museum's exit...
We had yummy cheese tostis and lemon sorbet. Yum yum yum.
We then walked back to the boat before heading out in the evening. It's the gay pride festival at the moment so all the way around the city centre there were drag queens strutting their stuff. I swear it is impossible not to smile when the streets are filled with men wearing six inch heels and the campest wigs money can buy. It's great.
