May 19, 2025

Weather sunny and 60’s

Canal in the Morning

We awoke to another beautiful day weather-wise and ate another tasty breakfast in the company of Bob and Anna. Of course, we had our luggage consolidated and out the door by 7 AM. We checked out before the rush and got our bill for the upgrade and the meals.  We were pleasantly surprised (having thought it would be much more).

We has some time to kill before our Golden Age tour and so took a nice walk by the canal. Then we met the group in the lobby at the appointed time and were whisked off in a Mercedes van to the Rijksmuseum, or first stop of this 4 part adventure.

The building is huge. It was designed to be a cathedral of art, and so the entrances are vast with (untypically) Catholic murals.  One depicting the conversion of the Celts was very prominent. 

Entering the Cathedral of Art

After a short side trip to show us a couple of Van Gogh’s we scaled the 40 steps to the second floor and the Golden Age painters, Vermeer, Rembrandt and company. This gallery was like a cathedral with many side altars and a central focus. The Central focus was the Night Watch. Sicco, our guide was obviously passionate about this period and had a lot of information about the artists and the times which he shared with us.

 

The Dutch Masters (really – the principals of the Draper’s Guild)

No one can paint faces like Rembrandt. The six men and one servant show such emotion that one can tell what sort of men these were, I mean their real personalities. The interesting factoid for this one was how the Dutch were primarily about money and religion did not matter like it did in the rest of Reformation Europe. He painted 2 Catholics, a Jew, a reformed Protestant and something else.

We saw other famous paintings like the Milkmaid, skating in the winter, many self-portraits of Rembrandt, The feast of St. Nickolas and the lady in blue. But the highlight is the Night Watch. It was being restored!

Restoring the Night Watch

This was actually really cool as we got to see the process and the supporting gear the 2 restorers got to use.  The two independent, automatic and adjustable platform with microscopes tables and tools were state of the art! Even the T-Shirts the restorers were wearing were special: “Rijksmuseum, Operation Night Watch”. This was very serious work on a priceless Masterpiece!  How special that we got to see that! In the wings on both sides of the Night Watch Display, they offered life-sized replicas of the painting.  We had to get a group photo:

The Group in front of the Night Watch

There was much more to see. For instance the founders of the Museum also meant it to be a place for research and so they added a library. We were not allowed there, but were able to view a collection of very rare coins, for those of you into that sort of thing.

The Library

According to the app, we walked 2 miles of corridors in the museum. It is a big place! And after that it was time for lunch.  And so another short walk to a street of restaurants we went. Viking had picked a place that featured traditional Dutch cuisine. 

The Blaurve Hollander

Salad, potatoes mashed with carrots topped with a giant meatball covered in beef gravy.  No wonder there are so many tall people in Holland! Then, for dessert, we were given mini-pancakes dusted with powdered sugar.  It was quite good. Now sated, we made our way down the gentlemen’s canal to our waiting boat.  The skipper, Fritz, helped us on and away we went.

Our route

Sicco kept a running travelogue as we cruised up and down the various canals.  We went under cool bridges, past amazing architecture and noteworthy sites. One was a site that was painted by Monet. (does this picture strike a chord?)

Monet’s Painting

And the “dancing houses”.  We were told about how the foundations of the houses had become unstable and tilted houses in a previous tour.  Here we saw the most glaring example:

The Dancing Houses

The only one that was straight was the Irish pub in the middle!   The canal boat let us off neat the Von Loon mansion. The Von Loons made a lot of money selling arms back in the day and their mansion was quite lavish.  We toured the various rooms and gardens seeing how the really really rich lived.

And by now we were really really tired. And just like that several Mercedes vans appeared outside the mansion and sped us to the port where the Viking Herja was moored. We checked in, stowed our stuff and met in the lounge for the send off toast.  After the spiel and the toast it was time for dinner.  Then a short turn around the sundeck before turning in. What a wonderfully full day!