Amsterdam; Tuesday, 10 April, 2007

I headed out into town and first stop of the morning was going to be the Anne Frankhuis, home until her capture by the Nazi's of one of Amsterdam's most famous residents. However, on arriving the queue was already well over 90 minutes long, so I decided to try back later. Instead, I walked round the corner and stopped to write some postcards in front of the Westerkerk, which then opened, so I had a quick look around inside. As the queue for the Anne Frankhuis was, if anything, longer I decided to abandon that for now and try later in the day. Instead, I walked back up towards the central station, through the Red light district, which even in mid-morning was still doing a brisk trade. The whole area is a combination of all the "Liberal Dutch" I.e. Prostitutes and pot. Consequently it's packed to the gunwales with pissed up tourists on extended Stag parties (the fact that Monday had been the Easter bank holiday, and consequently a very large number of people took the week off !), most of them British, and by appearances most of them off their faces (or still off their faces from the night before) at 11am, it doesn't make you want to stop, or admit your nationality.

At the central station I boarded one of the many canal tours that run around the city. The museumboot has seven stops at many of the major sites in the city, taking a little over two hours to do a full circuit. It has the advantage over some of the other cruises in that you can hop-on and off as you wish. Despite this I still did a full tour, ending up back at the central station about two hours later. After a brief pause for a late lunch I caught the metro and tram out to the main museum area of the city.

The Rijksmuseum is Amsterdam's largest and most important museum, housing many of it's most famous art treasures. The building is massive and covers many floors. Sadly, it's also undergoing restoration and renovation that means nearly all of it is closed to the public until 2010 at the earliest. The small wing that is still open (and still charging a stonking €10 entry fee!) houses a collection of "the best", which is a fair comment with some of their most famous art works from the Dutch masters. Whilst there is no set route through the exhibition, the way it is laid out effectively forces you to follow a set route, which ends in a room with one single, large picture - Rembrandt’s "Night Watch" dominating.

From the Rijksmuseum it's a short walk further on to the most visited attraction in the Netherlands. The Van Gogh museum (for another €10, at least all of it is open!) houses many of the artists works, as well as sketches and has some background historical information on the artists, and his relationship with is brother Theo who kept much of the collection during Vincent's life (he only really gained any appreciation after his death). The museum also has a recently built annex which houses temporary exhibitions.

I was just in time to catch the last Museumboot of the day back to the central station, and thought it would be useful to catch it round to the Anne Frankhuis to go and visit, but before the boat even moored, it was obvious that the queue was still well over the hour, so instead I stayed on and went back to the central station. From there I took the tram out to Waterlooplein and had a wander around some of the canals, before reaching the most famous bridge in Amsterdam, the Skinny Bridge. From there I walked for a bit longer before heading back towards the centre and stopping for some dinner.

After dinner I quickly headed back to the hotel to drop my bag (and posters I had brought at the Rijksmuseum and had been carrying around for the previous 4 hours or so!) and quickly freshen up before heading back out again, this time for an evening canal cruise.

The cruise follows round a similar route to the museumboot (and many of the other boats), but shows a different side of the city with all the bridges lit up (and the red light district truly lit up in red!).

The cruise finished a little before midnight, and I managed to catch one of the last trams back to the hotel and bed.