Flights from Amsterdam to Ottawa

On November 29, we flew from Amsterdam home to Ottawa via Newark, New Jersey.

The weather dawned really nice once we had to leave!  Here we are taxiing over a highway as the plane heads for the runway from the terminal at Schiphol Airport:

The countryside sure is flat:

The countryside north of Amsterdam, as we head out towards the North Sea:

We were in cloud after that for a while, but it opened up a bit again as we passed over England.  These are some windmills on the northern coast of England, on the North Sea:

Northern England:

Northern England or the south of Scotland:

Over Scotland now:

Then we were back into cloud again, and no more views for the rest of the transatlantic flight.

On the last leg home to Ottawa out of Newark, New Jersey, it was very clear and I got these photos of Manhattan:

And that is that.  That really is the end of the trip to Switzerland, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

Rijksmuseum

After the cruise on November 28, we spent the rest of the day at the Rijksmuseum.  Here are a couple street photos from the walk over there:

I posted a photo of the museum exterior a couple of posts back.  Here are some of the interior:

This is an art research library in the museum.  Real researchers are doing their work while there is a gallery for museum visitors to enter and view the library from an upper level:

I liked this painting, and apparently I am not the only one, it has its own Wikipedia page, Fishing for Souls.

... and that was it for our fabulous European Rhine river cruise vacation!  Tomorrow we fly home, some photos from the flight will be up next.

Amsterdam canal cruise

On November 28, we did a cruise of the canals of Amsterdam.  Weather was imperfect, but better than usual, I don't think we were actively rained on at all for the hour or so that we were in the boat.

It took us a while to find the right dock for the boat, as the one we had first gone to was closed for the season.  These first few photos are from as we walked around on the way to the dock, and puttered around a bit while we waited for the cruise.

I liked this bike parking corral:

Off we go on the cruise.  We had audioguides that told us what buildings were, but I don't remember most of it.

I think this is a parking garage, it's near the central train station:

Buildings in the inner harbour of the city:

One of the houseboats:

The Montelbaanstoren, a tower from 1516.  The top decorative part was added in 1606.  It was a defence tower for the harbour and city, back in the day.

This clothesline was some art or activist installation, we didn't figure out exactly what for though:

Another houseboat, looks fairly luxurious!

It was fun, and a great way to see the canals.

Amsterdam: Museum District and Canal Houses

On November 27 we walked to the Museum District.  Here are some pictures from along the way:

There were gardens and open green spaces near the musuems:

This is the Rijksmusuem, the main art and history museum of the Netherlands (mostly art), but we are just passing through today on our way to the Van Gogh Musuem.

This skating rink was behind the Rijksmuseum.  Temperatures were above 0, probably around 10 C or so, so it reminded me of the rink they freeze in downtown Los Angeles.

After a while a few skaters came out:

I didn't take any photos at the Van Gogh Museum.  Here are a few more photos as we walked to a couple of Canal House museums that are back in the central part of the city:

This canal house museum we went to as we had free tickets from the history museum we visited the previous day.  It was a lot more interesting than I had expected.  The house is filled with art and artifacts, but the rooms and fixtures are mostly true to the 1800's when it was an upper-class house.

Hallway:

I loved the curved and carved staircase:

On the right side of this fireplace are portraits of the women of the family who owned the house.  The men are on the left, outside of the picture; this whole room is the "portrait room" for the family:

Painted ceiling in one of the rooms:

View of the canal from one of the upper floors:

The top floor had some temporary exhibits, this one is something to do with the Holy land:

Empty top floor room, facing the canal at the front of the house:

The next house we visited was one that was left to the city by a wealthy childless widow (she was from a wealthy family and it was her family home).  I didn't take many photos here as there were a lot more people visiting this one, but I did find this scullery off the kitchen to be interesting:

After this it was dark and rainy as we walked back to the hotel.  (It rained off and on our whole time in Amsterdam, but that is normal for November).  Coming up next is our canal cruise that we took the following day, along with a trip to the Rijksmuseum.