Amsterdam; Monday, 02 December, 2019

As part of the I Amsterdam City Card you get free entry to a number of the big museums of the city, and for the Van Gogh museum the ability to get priority on timeslots for the ticket – all entry is via timed ticket and at busy times you could have a lengthy wait to get into the museum even after you’ve purchased a ticket. I’d booked the 11:30 slot for my visit to the museum so I was able to have a bit of a lie-in and a later breakfast before checking out and heading back into town.

In turned out that I probably should have started moving earlier as the problems with the overhead power lines for the tram had reoccurred and it was buses once again replacing trams, so I had to wait for the – already overcrowded – bus back towards the Zuid station where I changed onto a different tramline to head round to Museumsplein – Museum square.

I arrived with enough time to spare to have a look around the Stedelikj Museum, which focuses on Modern art, including the usual selection of installations as well as lots of displays of early 20th century Dutch furniture design.

I left the Stedelikj museum just in time to walk next door to the Van Gogh museum at the time of my ticket and headed in there. Whilst the timed tickets do stop everyone trying to get in at once they don’t prevent a build up of visitors inside and the museum was pretty much rammed with tourists looking around – making it difficult to see most of the paintings and to read any of the explanations, so I probably didn’t get as much out of the museum as I would have done if I’d been able to get there at a quieter time.

From the Van Gogh museum I walked across Museumsplein to the Rijksmuseum. This is the biggest of the museums and galleries in the city and despite being busy felt less packed than the Van Gogh museum, except around The Night Watch, which is the museums equivalent of the Mona Lisa and has everyone making a beeline to it.

I spent a long time looking round the Rijksmuseum, including stopping for a quick lunch in their café before heading on into the centre of town. I caught the tram up to the Damrak area of the city and was going to go exploring when the weather started to take a turn for the worst. I was right by the landing stage for another of the city’s canal cruise companies, with a tour due to depart within 10 minutes so I decided that was probably the best way to wait out the rain, and a couple of minutes later my choice was confirmed when the skies opened and a massive downpour, that continued for most of the hour of the tour, started.

Tour completed I had about an hour to spare before I had to start making a move towards the airport, but with the weather still wet and my experience of the tram in the morning I decided it was probably a good idea to start making my way back then. I hopped on a tram from the centre out to Leidseplein where I was able to change onto a tram heading towards the hotel. The rain had eased off to a light drizzle as I got off the tram and walked the 6 minutes or so over to the hotel to pick up my bags and then another 6 minutes back to the tramstop where I headed south to Amstelveen and picked up the bus back out to the airport.

Almost with perfect timing, once on the bus the skies opened once again and it was still chucking it down as I walked under cover from the bus stop into Schiphol airport to start my journey home.