The Van Gogh museum had been completely rebuilt. The crowds were terrible - people with the audio tour headsets would stand in front of paintings for minutes at a time, causing road blocks.
We had casually noticed that there seemed to be a lot of really tall people in Amsterdam. But in the museum, we spotted a couple who were truly alarmingly tall. The woman (wearing flats) was easily 6 ft 2 inches, and her boyfriend was at LEAST a half foot taller than her. At one point I found myself standing next to them in an attempt to get closer to one of the paintings, when suddenly the woman put her hands on her hips and hit me in the head - with her elbow.
Oh, yes, and we learned that "Van Gogh" is not pronounced "Van Go". It's actually "Von chuch" - where the "g" is more like a Hebrew "chet" than anything else. At least "Vincent" is still pronounced "Vincent".
After 3 hours in the Van Gogh museum and after lunch, we went to The Hermitage Amsterdam - a selection of Impressionist paintings from the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. Once again we could not take photos, but at least I didn't get hit in the head by an alarming tall person.
We were pretty much museum-ed out at this point. We decided to walk over to the flea market before dinner. We got there just as the booths were beginning to close up, but it was fun - some of the best prices we've seen this entire vacation.
Amsterdam is just too scenic for words:
Ah well, all good things must come to an end.....
Next year - Jerusalem!
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