After yesterday's humiliation with the belt (which by the way was reversible so I have no brown or black belt and yes I am a dork) I decided that this morning I would run. I had not run in five days so I wondered how far I would get. The weather was great--upper 50's and no wind. I ran along the canals and ended up doing 3 miles in a little over 27 minutes. This shocked me because I had not run at a 9 minute pace outside (i.e. not on a treadmill) in over a year due to various injuries. This day is off to a great start.

Our first museum of the day was the Rijksmuseum, which is the Dutch national museum of arts and history. This was a very cool museum and worth the effort of seeing. One of the exhibits centered on ships and had models of various ships used by the Dutch and other European countries as they developed their navies. One display was a cutaway showing life under deck of a working mid-19th century naval ship, and it had several scenes of the crew performing their daily tasks such as cleaning, cooking, and gunnery practice. All these scenes were in holograph Robyn took a video and I have attached.







There were also paintings by Dutch artists Van Gogh, van de Veld, Vermeer, and Rembrandt. Since we were going to the Van Gogh museum later that afternoon we didn't look for the Van Gogh's that were at the Rijksmuseum. We did find the Vermeer and Rembrandt works. Vermeer's painting have always fascinated me; because of the almost photographic quality of his works, everything is perfect. I have attached a photo of "The Milk Maiden." There were several Rembrandt's including "The Wardens of the Amsterdam Drapers Guild" and 'The Night Watch" which are attached. Willem van de Veld was known for his paintings of naval ships and I have attached "The Gust" which is of a British war ship floundering in a storm.









After we finished with the Rijksmuseum we walked over to the Van Gogh. It contains a large collection of his works and goes progressively through his art work up to his suicide. I have always liked his art and the way he used colors. I did not know that he was fascinated with Japanese art and it influenced many of his paintings. After learning that I could then see it his paintings. The unfortunate part of this museum is they asked no photos be taken which we honored, but many people used their smart phones to take photos. Oh well, at least we were honest. Therefore, we have no photos of his works which is why I now wished we had gone to see the Van Gogh in the Rijksmuseum.


Two years ago after the experience of the boat ride in Paris I had vowed not to do another boat ride. So after we left the Van Gogh museum we of course took a boat ride on the canals. I clearly have a lot of influence on my wife's decisions. It was okay, better than the disaster of Paris, but not something I would do again. I was in the sun for most of the 75 minutes without much wind, so I was sweating a lot. However, Robyn liked it and took many pictures of which I have uploaded a couple. I did learn a few facts about Amsterdam on the ride which I can use to my advantage. The most significant is that to keep Amsterdam from being continually flooded by tidal surges a dyke was built in the 1930's blocking the Zyder Zee from the North Sea and essentially turning this area into a giant fresh water lake because it receives output from I believe the Rhine River. Twice a year they flush the dirty water out of the canals and into the North Sea and refill with the fresh water. So does that make Amsterdam a giant European toilet? Just saying. Anyway this will be my last boat ride. One interesting thing we learned was about the buildings is that they lean due to foundation issues. We noticed our hotel leaned--the lean is visible in the picture Robyn took.








I am still without a belt. However, I am fat enough that I really don't need the belt except for looks. I could not locate a Kohl's in Amsterdam--imagine that. Maybe I can find some suspenders. Yeah, that's a look that could work for me (and embarrass my family). Tomorrow we take the high-speed train to Antwerp and then change to an inter-city train to Brugge where we will spend the next two days.