After breakfast at our hotel, the four of took a tram to The Rijksmuseum, which is one of Amsterdam’s biggest attractions. It had been closed for renovations for ten years, and only re-opened in April 2013. The most famous painting in the gallery is Rembrandt’s masterpiece, The Night Watch, and this is brilliantly displayed in its own gallery, the Night Watch Room, at the end of the Hall of Fame. This museum also houses The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer, another Dutch work of genius. This museum is one of Europe’s best, without a doubt, but suffers from being too busy, and too noisy. It is also difficult to find your way around, and some paintings attract crowds which can be ten deep, or even more for the really famous paintings. My other gripe was that you had to queue for everything. Queue to get in to the main gallery, queue to hand in your coat, queue for toilets, queue for the café and so on. Also, the information panels next to each painting were too small, and I couldn’t always get close enough to read them. We decided to leave the gallery for lunch, and headed off to find somewhere quieter.
