Day two in Amsterdam

This morning we visited the van Loon Museum. The Van Loon family were a very wealthy family who were partners in the Dutch East Indies Trading Company. Their house is the only one left in Amsterdam that still has a coach house (that's where they use to house their horses and coaches) at the back. It is vey fancy.


That's the coach house in the background.



That's me sitting like a lady.


I'm getting good at this.


The shiny pots and pans in the kitchen.


The matching wallpaper (made from fabric) and bedspread.


Afterwards we walked to the Rijksmuseum.



It was under renovation so only a small part of it was open.


One of the first things we saw were these beautiful dolls houses. They cost as much as a real house to make and were owned by the wives of rich merchants.


This is a famous painting by Vermeer.


This is one of Rembrandts most famous paintings. It is very big and took him over a year to paint. It is called " The Nightwatch".


Can you see dad and me?


Next we went to the Van Gogh Museum. He is another famous Dutch painter. He only lived for about 37 years. He thought he lost his talent for painting so he shot himself and died two days later.

A lady gave me a activity sheet to fill in as we walked around the gallery. I had to find paintings and answer questions about them. By the end I was an expert and got a sticker saying so!


He did many self portraits.


And did 5 paintings of these sunflowers!!


This was his bedroom. They recently cleaned the painting and reckon the walls were more a lilac colour.


This is a painting of blossoms. He liked painting these as he thought people would buy the paintings of them.

We had dinner at Wagamama's and then went home. We saw these wonky buildings near the railway station.

Location:The Netherlands

Our first day in Amsterdam

Today, we caught the train from Zandvoort into Amsterdam.

We went on a canal cruise.







We saw bridges that lift up to let boats through.



Lots of thin and tall buildings...



....more bridges


More fancy buildings...


Can you see the squashed up kitten in the window?



...and house boats. Did you know there are 2,500 houseboats in Amsterdam?



We also visited the Rembrandt House Museum where Rembrandt van Rijn use to live. He is a famous painter from Holland.




This was his kitchen. This picture reminds me of his paintings.


This was his print room.



These were some of the things he collected.


A still life.


Here's Dad pretending to be Rembrandt about to paint in his studio. he got told off for sitting in Rembrandts chair!


Colours ready to be mixed into paint.


Here I'm listening to a man talking about how colours are made. Did you know that blue was the most expensive colour because it had to be made from the gemstone lapis lazuli?


This is a self portrait of Rembrandt.

Location:Amsterdam

Madurodam

Today we left the Biesbosch and drove to Zandvoort (a seaside town near Amsterdam) and visited Madurodam and Katwijk on the way.

Madurodam is a miniature Dutch city which had famous buildings from all over Holland in one place.




Me in klompers....





I am a giant!











Ooooh, isn't this fascinating!



A man painting one of the model houses.



Aaaahhhhh.... Relaxing in Katwijk where my Oma lived as a child.


Getting friendly with one of the locals.


A cool fountain with a wave machine!

Location:The Netherlands

Deltaworks - Neeltje Jans

Today we went to Neeltje Jans Delta Park in Zeeland. (Did you know that New Zealand is named after Zeeland?)

In 1953 there was a huge flood in Zeeland because there was a big storm and the old dykes couldn't hold back the sea water.

The Deltaworks are new dykes and big gates to stop the sea water from flooding Zeeland when there is a big storm. This happens once every one to two years.



Some of the gates on the Deltaworks.



This is a skeleton of a woolly mammoth called Max. They found his bones when they were digging to build a dyke. He lived about 50,000 years ago.



There were performing seals. They were sooo cute! One was only 4 years old.



I liked the water activities. Most of them were about pumping water.







This pump was really hard to turn!


We even saw a performing sea lion. Do you know what the difference is between a seal and a sea lion?
A sea lion has ears that stick out and it walks on its flippers. A seal just has holes for ears and wriggles on it's tummy.

Location:Zeeland

Relaxing at last

Ahhhhh.... At last a sleep in, a chance to play in the play ground and then a short bike ride, an even shorter walk and then another short bike ride and another play in another playground and then back to the youth hostel for another play in the play ground.























"Hic!"

Location:Biesbosch