Yesterday, we had plans to go to the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam with our friends Hetty and Michiel.
We met them at the Haarlem Train Station at 10:00 a.m. Andrew and I traveled by bus while they rode their bicycles to the station. Hetty had bought our tickets to Amsterdam Centraal for us, so we were set to go when we arrived!
Walking in.....
The Hermitage is a beautiful old building which was once a home for women Alzheimer's patients
View from inside:
Looks like we arrived just before the crowds!
On display inside works from Vincent van Gogh and Peter the Great. I didn't take any pictures of the van Gogh collection, but I did take a couple from the Peter the Great. I hadn't realized pictures were not allowed, so they aren't many!
Peter the Great's riding outfit:
After visiting the Hermitage Museum did a little walking around,
bought some chocolates....
then found a nice little "very Dutch" place for lunch!
Hetty and Michiel know a lot about Amsterdam....we went through a nice outdoor market on our way to the Eye Film Museum :
To get to the Eye Film Institute we had to take a ferry...which was free! It runs every few minutes from behind Amsterdam Centraal:
The Eye Film Museum from across the Amstel River:
The Eye Film Museum:
The EYE is more a temple of cinema, than a museum or cinémathèque. There is a lot to see and to do: permanent exhibit in the basement and art installations are fun, selection of movies is great, while the museum’s restaurant on the waterfront is an ideal place to rest after a busy and tiring day in the Old Amsterdam center.
The EYE is probably one of the best film museums in the world, but while the other are located far across the oceans, if you visit Amsterdam or live in the city, this one is a must to see.
The view from the offices:
We sat outside in the sunshine and had a bierje!
On our way back to the Amsterdam we had a beautiful view of the Eye once again
the back of Centraal Station:
a bicycle parking lot:
We did some more walking around Amsterdam in some beautiful neighborhoods:
and more bicycles behind Centraal Station:
What a great day we had with our wonderful friends!
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This morning we looked at the weather and decided to take advantage of a relatively warm dry day and go to the beach in Zandvoort. We decided to bring Sammy with us......as it is the last day till after October that you can have dogs on the beach there.
Soooooo, we took the bus....yessss with Sammy......to the Haarlem train station. We had to buy a special ticket for Sammy for €3.50!
checking out the schedule...
then going up to wait for our train:
Getting on the train:
The weather report said partly cloudy....it was very cloudy and windy, but relatively warm compared to how it's been here. It felt nice to be on the beach! We found that it smells much different than the California beaches. The air doesn't smell as salty and you don't see kelp on the beaches, so you don't get that smell.
We walked along the beach...
Sammy had a great time running with his new friends!
We stopped at our favorite restaurant: Le Haven (#9) for a beer and some bitterballen!
while Sammy chewed his bone next to us!
We got a bit of sunshine today......it was nice spending the day outside in the "warm" weather!
