A less than enthusiastic day's outing

Thursday evening

I slept well last night, even though it rained quite loudly on the metal blinds in the room. I did decide to go to the Rijksmuseum this morning, getting there in drizzly weather at about 10 am. There was no line, but it was pretty crowded in the relatively small exhibition space. As I mentioned, I was aware that because of the renovations, only the "masterpieces" were on display, however I failed to realise that they were restricted only to the Dutch Golden Age. Since I don't really like landscapes or 17th century art or Rembrandt, I was a bit disappointed to have shelled out 14€ to see it, especially in the relatively unpleasant cramped exhibition space. Oh well. 

After the museum, I walked in to town and had a nice lunch of chicken parmigiano, and then walked to the Oude Kerk. Not to sound like a sour old stuck record, but it was a bit underwhelming as well. It's pretty much empty, since the Protestants destroyed most of the old artwork in it, and you have to pay to get in.

So yeah, that and watch the gymnastics final was pretty much all I did today. Sorry it wasn't very interesting.

Sorry for the slightly random order of the photos below, I forgot to group the Rijksmuseum ones together when I was naming the files.

This made me laugh

Incredible doll house at the Rijksmuseum

Dollhouse detail

My Latin's more than a little rusty, but I think this means 'Hope of another life' or something like that

A spot of cat torture by Jan Steen

Detail of Rembrandt's Night Watch

Another Night Watch detail

The Oude Kerk

Inside the Oude Kerk. It was quite hard to photograph, it's just kind of like a big empty barn or ship or something

Carved choir stalls in the Oude Kerk. Many of them illustrated proverbs, but the guide didn't tell me what this interesting one may be

This, however, is "money doesn't fall out of your arse", apparently the Dutch version of "doesn't grow on trees"

St. Nicholas church

St. Nicholas church window

Okay, I'm not a style maven, but this guy was such an uber tourist it made me laugh - from the shorts to the white sneakers to the black knee socks to the floppy hat... Unfortunately, he did have his camera around his neck but must have taken it off

This was my favourite picture in the Rijksmuseum, by Caesar Van Everdingen

This dude looks way more pleased with himself here than I would be if I were him

This seems to depict starving naked children begging for food?