Their highlighted exhibit was 17th century art featuring Rembrandt. "Nightwatch" is their premier painting...several gentlemen paid Rembrandt 100 guilders each (not sure if that's a lot) to be included:
There were a lot of other very interesting paintings that might look familiar, I'll include a few pieces:
We probably walked around the museum for 4-5 hours, with a lunch break in the middle to take a canal cruise
during which we floated by many of the sites of the city including our hotel of the first night, which was recently bought by some Chinese company for about $70 million who then sunk another $25 million in renovations...apparently Mick Jagger visits frequently, and gotta have it nice for him!
We also floated by the Anne Frank House and some of the buildings from back in the 1600's when the Netherlands was one of the most powerful countries in the world due to their international trade. One of their most significant inventions was a lumber saw that was 30 times more efficient than other methods, enabling them to build a navy that was bigger than England's and France's combined
We were told that 1000 sq ft apartments sell for around $1M around town, so real estate here is crazy. Even the houseboats on the water go for hundreds of thousands. Gas is around $8/gallon, and you pay about $600/yr to park your car if you are a city resident ($6/hr if a visitor), so you can see why bicycles are preferred.
After our Rijksmuseum visit today, we took a bus to the town of Nijmegen Netherlands to meet the boat (which had already gone downstream)...we are now cruising toward our visit to Cologne, Germany tomorrow.
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