Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmusuem is huge - with 80 galleries and over 8,000 pieces on display - we resigned ourselves to only seeing some of the museum's highlights.

Grandma wanted to start with the Rembrants so we headed up to the second floor.

I was immediately struck by the size of some of the pieces. The Night Watch is 14 feet long and 12 feet high. - I had no idea! When you see the paintings in a book, you really don't get a very good idea of the scale.

You could get a small scale version to take home in the gift shop. I loved it that you could purchase a few of the most famous works in the museum as Playmobil people. How fun!

The Milkmaid was there too, smiling as she poured.

Marteen and Oopjen are currently at the Louvre, but we did get to visit with their doubles. No idea who Marteen and Oopjen were? Check out this video, it's hilarious.

S immediately noticed the gentlemen in The Sampling Officials all looked remarkably like the Pilgrims he'd learned about in kindergarten. It was the perfect opportunity for a refresher course on the Puritans and their search for religious freedom that eventually lead them to the new world (including a brief time in the Netherlands.) I know, I  know it's summer - but I just can't pass up a teachable moment.

With other collections to visit, we waved good-bye to the Rembrandts, and moved on; slowly working our way through the museum.

As it got later, we moved more slowly. We knew our day was over when we the kids started to finding the museum's benches more interesting than the art. Grandma and I got the hint and we all headed for the exit.