Some Old and New Masters

An array of Banksys

Because we turned in so early yesterday, I woke up before Kathy (something that never happens at home.) I took this picture out the window as the sun came up over Haarlem.

Sunrise over Haarlem

Yesterday we bought a museum pass and a three day transit pass. Our plan is to spend the next three days seeing the famous museums in Amsterdam and to visit some of the Calvary Chapel missionaries who live here for some fellowship. Walking to the train station, Kathy snapped a picture of this bike which would be perfect for our two granddaughters; one in front and one in back.

How They Roll in Haarlem

Today, our first stop was the Rijksmuseum to see some old masters. The train ride from Haarlem to Amsterdam Central Station took about 20 minutes (there are trains every 15 minutes or so). Once we got there, it took another 15 minutes on the #5 tram to reach the museum.

Visiting the Rijksmuseum

The big draw here is the "Gallery of Honor:" Rembrandt, Vermeer, Steen and Hals. We saw the young Rembrandt and the old Rembrandt.

Young Rembrandt

We saw the Night Watch (not as crowded as the Mona Lisa, but close).

The Night Watch

We saw Vermeer's Milk Maid ...

The Milk Maid

and Jan Asselijn's Threatened Swan.

The Threatened Swan

We saw some very cool still life paintings (this one has a dead frog).

Still Life with Dead Frog

We even had our picture taken with the worthy gentlemen who run the Draper's Guild.

Steve, Kathy and The Syndics of the Draper's Guild

Boy, did we see a lot of paintings. Boy, was I tired. Boy, was I hungry. Rick Steve's top-rated restaurant in this are was the Seafood Bar. Sounded good.

Fish and Chips at the Seafood Bar

You might wonder why we'd be eating fish-and-chips in a European restaurant. Absolutely everything else (literally) looked pretty much like this:

After lunch, I suggested a three-hour walking tour of Amsterdam, instead of riding the tram back to the station. Kathy, however, wanted to see the Banksy and Dali exhibit at the private Moco museum that is next to the Van Gogh museum. I'm glad she won.

Kathy Sitting under Banksy's Forgive Us Our Sins

Banksy is an anonymous England-based graffiti artist from Bristol. He is also a political activist and film director of unverified identity. You can Google "who is Banksy" and get back 4 million hits. When we visited Bristol, we saw his work all over town.

Banksy Graffiti

He paints a lot of rats and different versions of the same stenciled images. This is one of his more famous ones. We also saw many we had never seen before.

Rat with Umbrella and Briefcase

In addition to walls, he also painted the van below, with a little boy sneaking up behind a SWAT team, about to pop a paper bag.

Banksy SWAT Van

Finally, here's one of his paintings, which I thought was pretty good. Most of the work in the exhibit had been removed from the original site, such as a wall or fence, instead of painted on canvas.

The bottom floor of the museum was hosting a Salvador Dali exhibit, consisting mostly of drawings and sculpture, instead of the more famous paintings you are familiar with. This is called "Space Elephant".

Dali's Space Elephant

There were several sculptural representations of the "melting clock" for which he's famous. The only work I recognized, though, was the "Mae West" furniture from his house at Figueres.

Dali Mae West

It was 3:30 when we finished the exhibit and we still had to make our way back to the train station, then back to Haarlem, and then back to our hotel. Another early evening for the Gilberts.