The next morning, after eating our free breakfast at the hostel (good toast with dutch cheese on it) we set out for the Rembrandt house. We had planned on walking around and seeing the big flea market, but it was raining. Of course.
It was impossible to find the museum on the crappy tourist map we had been given at the hostel, so we stopped inside a souvenir shop to ask for directions. Outside, Ashley found some pretty big clogs.
We walked in the direction the man had pointed us and stumbled upon the same market that we had wanted to visit! We browsed for a little bit and bought some cheap souvenirs. I should say that my friends bought souvenirs. My family doesn't really need anything from Amsterdam--my dad goes there so often that we don't need a blue-and-white china bell to remember it by.
Even in the rain the canals were looking quaint.
The Rembrandt House was even cooler than I thought it was going to be, because it gave us a chance to look inside an authentic narrow house.
We started the tour in his basement kitchen. The house dates back to the 1600s, when Rembrandt built it. He never paid it off in his lifetime, so, at one point, an extensive inventory of all the items of the house was made to try to end his debt. This was bad for Rembrandt, but good for us, because the house has been restored as accurately as possible.
After the kitchen, we went upstairs to the main entry way. I liked the big green door.
Just beyond this room was another room they had set up with a demonstration of print making. Rembrandt is most famous for his prints, and it was really cool to see how it was done.
Below is a metal plate that a drawing was etched into. The etching was filled with ink, then covered with canvas and run through a press. After it was through the press and dried, it became a print.
Moving on was Rembrandt's bedroom. It was covered from wall to wall with extensive artwork. He was an art dealer as well as an artist, so I bet he got some good deals.
Up some precarious winding stairs was a gallery of his prints. I really liked this windmill one.
And the little self-portrait:
On the third floor was his studio. This room is even more accurate than the others because Rembrandt did a sketch of his studio. It has been recreated entirely.
My favorite room in the house was the room crammed with curiosities like the ones Rembrandt had collected for his teaching. It was floor to ceiling historical artifacts! Pretty cool.
There was a neat scale-model of the house:
Finally, there was a separate exhibit of modern prints that are inspired by Rembrandt's work. I really liked how realistic they were.
By the time we got out of the museum, it had stopped raining! I love when that happens.
We had an impromptu photo shoot.
Our main goal at this point was food. I had the name of a good dutch pancake house, so we made our way over there.We got distracted by all the cool shops along the way. There some accessory stores that I wanted to take home with me!!!
What was really cool was a modern furniture store that had a bunch of concept-design chairs and furniture set up museum-like, like this chair made out of legos!
I remember seeing this chair below on a blog I read. It's just a block of metal that has been hammered into a "seat". Not very comfortable looking if you ask me.
We found the pannekoeken (spelling, I know) huis. I was excited for this. I was imagining the kinds of dutch pancakes that come from the PannekoekenHuis restaurant in Minnesota (surprise pancakes). What I got were just regular pancakes (a little bit thinner than usual, but not as thin as crepes).
It all worked out though. The restaurant was really quaint. There were teapots hanging from the ceiling.
Once I got my apple-cinnamon pancakes, I was a happy camper.
I took this picture of my friends going down the stairs so people can see how steep they are. I am impressed more intoxicated people don't die falling down the stairs in Amsterdam.
The restaurant was just on a canal, and I made friends with this silly duck. It swam along side me hoping that I would give it some bread.
We trapsed up to Dam Square next. It was pretty cool.
We had been looking for the palace, but when we reached the central station (below), we knew we had gone too far. Later, we figured out why we had missed it. The entire thing was covered in scaffolding!
We went back to the actual Dam Square and saw A LOT of pigeons.
Also Batman and Darth Vader.
We went to another market area to look around. There was a hotdog cart there and it smelled so good that I had to get one. What a disappointment though. General advice: don't get a hotdog in Amsterdam.I ended up sharing the bun with a swan in the canal though. That was fun.
We had planned on going to an all-you-can-eat falafel place (yum!) for dinner that night, but we couldn't find it. We were also in an unfamiliar part of town, so we split pretty fast for the city center. We found a cheap restaurant where a whole Turkish pizza was only 5 euro, and each got one. It was delicious!After dinner, we went back to the fried food carts from the night before. I got a cream-filled powdered sugar covered dutch donut. AMAZING!!!
I was meeting my dad at nine o'clock sharp the next morning, so I went to bed super excited!
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