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Rijksmuseum At breakfast I tried kiwi jam. It was tart. Girard drove us to the train station. Five minutes later Sharon and I were headed for Amsterdam. We asked a young woman for the right train and she said "Follow me." She went to college in Amsterdam, training to become a sports teacher. Diana turned out to be a neighbour of the Schrik's. She played on the same competitive inter-club team as Paula. We transferred trains in Haarlem. In a total of twenty minutes we were at the central train station in Amsterdam. The VVV tourist info had several lines of tourists with backpacks. I tried buying a map from the coin operated machine but it wouldn't take my money. A sticker on it read: "In case of malfunction inquire at desk." I looked at the long line-up and decided we really didn't need a map. After all, wasn't that why God created other human beings? As we walked past the "toilettens" I glanced in. Showers: $14. Figured. People travelled on the train at night to avoid the cost of a room so they charged $14 for a shower. Outside the station we saw rows and rows of bikes with three locks. Most buses and trams went downtown from the station. There were fun-looking canal buses too. We hopped on a bus and got off downtown near the Rijksmuseum. Rail lines, bike paths and car lanes crisscrossed the street. I wasn't sure which way to look as everything appeared to be coming from every direction simultaneously. We spent the day exploring the museum. Many paintings were Rembrandt's including his famous Night Watch. It was unbelievable that part of it had been cropped because it was too large to hang between two doors at city hall. There were many paintings by Dutch masters. We also visited the study hall paintings, having to turn over our passports to get in. I asked the woman guard why the paintings were there instead of on display. "Because they're old," she said. We took a tram back to central station and even stamped our ticket correctly. Half an hour later we were home with Tiny and Girard enjoying a supper of rice with sweet and sour sauce. Strawberries and rhubarb were dessert. After supper we went to Haarlem to visit Tiny and Girard's eldest daughter, Lina, her husband Hank, and their two sons Vincent and Mel. Lina had a studio on the third floor where she gave Yoga and meditation lessons. Lina was artistic and several of her impressionistic paintings hung in the house. She had done some Native style and colour paintings that reminded me of Navajo. Hank had a grocery truck that stocked everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to canned goods. He said milk was his staple. Hank gave us a bunch of different Dutch candy to sample as well as a wooden butter mould in the shape of a lamb. |
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