Busy day in Amsterdam

We pretty much hit the ground running. After a decent continental breakfast, we headed to the museum area for our 11:00 reservation at the Rijksmuseum, which has been completely renovated since the last time I visited in 2005. It's a beautiful space, and the really interesting addition until September is a number of large post-its throughout museum commenting on the purpose of art in the 21st century. The comments were tied to specific pieces -- art as therapy, not something to impress your neighbors.

Here's Bob next to a favorite...

This museum has 4 floors, 3 of which have rooms full of art -- according to a friend we met, it was way more packed with art before the renovation. Here are some of our favorites. 

Apparently, the Dutch enjoy their alcohol.

This is the Dutch equivalent of the fake binocular flask popular at college football games, but this is a "book" flask.

And of course there's Rembrandt's famous Night Watch.

This painting was one of the last major works we viewed. Now it was time for a late lunch. I checked Trip Advisor and found a seafood place not too far from the museum. We arrived at The Seafood Bar at about 2:30. We had successfully gone from carb meals every two hours to two meals per day!

The menu was large and varied.

I chose oysters and we shared grilled calamari. We both had a Neptune platter for lunch: smoked eel, Dutch shrimp, crab salad, and two kinds of smoked salmon with a tasty dipping sauce. Everything tasted fresh and delicious!

We then trudged back to the hotel for a nap before our concert.

We both napped!! Then we got on the tram and bought 48-hour passes. We got off the tram too soon but were still 2/3 of the way to the Concertgebouw. Because I misread the starting time (you should plan to ARRIVE at 7:30 but the concert didn't start until 8:00, we had plenty of time to enjoy some cappuccino before show time. 

The concert was quite good. The conductor was very energetic and fun to watch, and the Dutch twins (Arthur and Lucas Jussen) were talented and so cute!  Apparently the Europeans also give lots of standing ovations, only in Europe the musicians always play encores. So we were treated to two encores from both the twins and the Bamberg orchestra.

The venue is beautiful.

Here's a shot of the audience area.

We took the tram to the stop nearest to our new favorite beer place, watching the US lose to Belgium and chatting with the two gentlemen we'd met the night before. The English guy recommended trying Rochefort beer, and he was " spot on." Here I am enjoying said beer.

We finally got into bed at 1:00am.