Day 3, the last & final day at Amsterdam was dedicated to the museums. On my list were the Rijksmuseum with its collection of Rembrandts & the Van Gogh museum.

There was a lot of ground to cover. I had planned to take in both the museums before lunch & keep the afternoon spare. Knowing that time flies in a museum, I started my day early so as to be at the first museum at its opening time.

A quick breakfast later, I walked out of my hostel to the nearest tram stop. A magnificent building came into view which was the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

The Royal Palace of Amsterdam in Amsterdam is one of three palaces in the Netherlands which are at the disposal of the monarch by Act of Parliament. The palace was built as a city hall during the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century. The building became the royal palace of King Louis Napoleon and later of the Dutch Royal House.

The palace aroused my interest but I had more important things to do! I found the tram stop, hopped on to the desired tram number & reached the Rijksmuseum in about 10 minutes.

The Rijksmuseum possesses the largest and most important collection of classical Dutch art. It opened in 1885. Its collection consists of nearly one million objects. The artist most associated with Amsterdam is Rembrandt, whose work, and the work of his pupils, is displayed in the Rijksmuseum. Aside from paintings, the collection consists of a large variety of decorative art. 

I already had an advance online booking of the tickets. Rembrandts were on the first floor & I climbed excitedly.

Here are some pictures of the paintings by the master artist.

I was surprised to come across a painting of Indian miniatures by Rembrandt!

Do read the description below.

Rembrandt’s over, I moved on to the museum’s art collection. Here are some examples of the treasures on display.

There were paintings by other famous artists too but I still had a date with another legend & hurriedly exited Rijksmuseum for the Van Gogh museum situated not very far away.

Here are some Van Gogh’s for you to admire.

A painting by James Ensor also caught my eye.

It was now almost 1.30 pm. I bade adieu to the museums & caught a returning tram to my hostel.

The afternoon was spent in packing & souvenir hunting. A surprise meeting with an old Army friend over dinner added the cherry to the cake.

So that rounded off my trip to Amsterdam & to this part of Europe. Over the last 10 days or so I had managed to cover many cities, seen many beautiful palaces, happened to be at the right time & place for the carnival at Prague & the bloom of tulips at Amsterdam & had the good fortune of seeing in person some of the most famous works of history’s greatest artists.

Early next morning I checked out of the hostel, walked to the train station to catch a connection to the airport & checked-in for my return flight to India.