We had a busy and fun weekend! The girls did not have school on Friday, and originally we were planning to go on our first “real” trip on our first 3 day weekend of the school year. Then we found out that Saturday was “Dag van de Chemie” at the plant, where the plant is open to the public for the day and they provide tours of the plant. It happens every 2 years, and MyMan had to be there. We were bummed to say the least. But we decided to make the most of it anyway.
Friday, MyMan took the day off work, and we decided that since the girls had been studying Vincent Van Gogh in school, we would take them to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. It’s a little over an hour’s drive from here to get to Amsterdam, so we decided to just head up that way and visit the museums. We lucked out in that the weather was great, and it wasn’t too crowded. We ended up visiting the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Modern Art Museum, and we were able to get through about half of the Rijksmuseum before it closed. That a massive museum, and can’t wait to get back there to tour the rest of it! I didn’t take many pictures inside the museum because I wasn’t sure what was allowed. And I figured that since in the states, you usually aren’t allowed to take pics inside museums of the artwork or artifacts, I would just be safe and not take any.
The Van Gogh Museum – the girls LOVE Vincent van Gogh. And they thoroughly enjoyed this museum. It’s very well layed out, and goes through his life. The museum also has little listening ipod devices with headphones for kids that have treasure hunts and find-and-seek games that they can play where they have to search for an art piece that had a clue or matched a small picture they had on their device. So it really kept them engaged as well.
There is a gorgeous, enormous lawn outside the Rijksmuseum. And the girls had fun running around on it. There was a guy there letting kids blow HUGE bubbles!
Some houses near the museum district in Amsterdam
There was a lovely garden with beautiful flowers and statues and fountains outside the Rijksmusem
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
And when we left this museum, we saw these beauties trot by
And we stopped to have lunch at a café nearby, and I ordered a BLT. And this is what it looked like:
Had to eat it with a fork and knife – because the Dutch just don’t really eat food with their hands all that much! But it was really good! A little lettuce with my bacon, bread and tomato….just the way I like it!
All in all it was great day, and we saw quite a bit. Can’t wait to go back and see more of Amsterdam!
From Here to There - A Move Across an Ocean 