April 10
We decided to ride the bikes to the Central Station this morning to check out going to Amsterdam. More on the bikes later but it turns out we didn’t have any trouble a round trip ticket, so we were on the 9:08 train. After a very quick 27-minute ride we got off at the central station in Amsterdam and headed straight to the Rijksmuseum to visit the Dutch Masters. Lynn had been there in 93 and was looking forward to going back. We were very excited to see no line at the ticket office, so we picked up our audio guide and headed straight for the Great Hall where the 17th Century paintings are located. The star of the show is Rembrandt’s Nightwatch which is absolutely amazing! The way he painted the light was just incredible. There was a group of school kids sitting on the floor right in front of it so we couldn’t get close enough to take a great picture, but it was a joy just to stand there and look at it.
We spent the next 2 hours going through about 19 different rooms, but we barely made a dent. There was still another wing to see but by this time we were hungry and still wanted to take a canal cruise, so we decided that we had seen enough.
It was a beautiful day, mid 60s and sunny so we had lunch in an outdoor cafe on a canal. It was such a joy to enjoy a nice meal in the sun. After lunch we took a canal cruise which allowed us to see some sights without expending a great deal of energy as we both had tired feet from the museum.
Then it was back to the train for the trip home. Now for the bike adventure. Yeah, turns out that bike riding is not a strength for either one of us. We ride bikes at home but nothing like the Dutch, for which it’s practically a religion. It was only about 15 minutes to the train station, but it took closer to 30 because we had to keep stopping to look at the GPS and Lynn can’t ride very fast, or she’ll blow out a knee or two. Since it was morning rush hour, there were thousands of bike riders on the street and every one of them were much better/faster than we were, and they all knew where they were going. They were whizzing by us as we wobbled along. Once we got to the station we didn’t know where to park the bikes, so we just followed the crowd into a gigantic bike garage. It took another 10-15 minutes to figure out how to get our bikes in the rack, but we finally got them secured and headed for the station. It was easy to find the garage when we returned but what we didn’t realize this morning was that the garage we used was for the large bank building, not the train station and we didn’t have an ID to scan to open the doors. There had been such a parade going in that we didn’t realize that we would need an ID to get back in. Luckily it was 5pm so there were people leaving work and we only had to wait about a minute before someone came out. The ride home was a bit of an adventure as we made a couple of wrong turns and, once again, had to keep stopping to check the GPS. We thought about staying in Utrecht another day and taking the bikes around town but decided we didn’t want to risk life and limb by getting on the bikes again. Peter wasn’t interested in going back to Amsterdam, so we’ll head out in the morning instead.
Tonight, we are going to a concert here in Utrecht. About a year ago, Lynn saw a group on YouTube called Collabro. They were the 2014 winners of Britain’s Got Talent and they’re now the #1 musical theater boy band in the world. Of course, they could be the only musical theater boy band in the world, but Lynn is a big fan, and they just happen to be here in Utrecht tonight. So, when we realized the timing would work out, we got tickets and are excited about the show. Trudy, our host, is going to drive us down there and we’ll take a cab or Uber home. We’re actually going to be out after dark just like grownups. How cool! We’ll let you know how it goes. Have a great night everyone.