Museums

I am back - I've been away from a computer (in Paris) and having too much fun (in Veen) to blog. So now I will bore you with more than a week of photos and news.
Before I left Amsterdam I did a last burst of museum visiting - the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh and the Stedelijk (well, it's being reconstructed, but this was a few special shows held in the old Post Office sorting building by Central Station. I was thrilled to find lots of sailing ship paintings and associated stuff in the Rijks - I seem to have developed a weird interest in Dutch maritime history after the whole Batavia immersion. I head straight for those items first. Also a Peter Greenaway interpretation of The Night Watch where he's used lighting and sound effects to animate it. It works. Apparently it's really a depiction of an assassination which had been hushed up. After painting this Rembrandt was persona non grata. There is a gun going off in the painting and PG asks 'where did the bullet go?'

The Van Gogh was wonderful of course. Although I did get told off for taking a photo - it was confusing as you are allowed to take photos without a flash in the Rijks but not in the Van Gogh. No signs to tell you that, they just wait until you do it and then tell you off.
Some interesting bits in the Stedlijk. I wished Jake had been there with me.
That evening I caught up with my dear friend Libby (Liz) Melchior for dinner beside the Prinsesgracht. She had just arrived to take part in a conference on dance in den Haag after an amazing holiday in Italy, France, the UK and Denmark.