After a pleasant night in our small but comfy suite, we were ready for the morning’s tour to the Rijks Museum. The Ramblers had never explored Amsterdam on their other stops, and their attempts to see things on their own this time had mixed results.  The senior Rambler grumbled about taking this Uniworld tour. He is not a big fan of art museums, despite spending a good bit of his working life as a commercial artist. He was talked into going, when I pointed out, he didn’t have to go inside if he didn’t want and the museum had a beautiful garden. True to his word, he didn’t go inside, although I think he would have enjoyed it. I know i did.

As a life long student of history, this Rambler has toured many museums and the Rijks Museum is one of the most beautiful I have visited. Even before entering a visitor can’t help but appreciate the  newly restored exterior, white tuck pointing gleaming in the sun. The one complaint most visitors seemed to have was that it was hard to determine just where the entrance was, so they wandered around a bit. However, the Ramblers didn’t realize this until later as we had special access and didn’t have to wait in line to enter but walked right in. This was a plus as more than 2 million people visit the Rijks museum every year and it can be very crowded.  Luckily this was not the case when we visited as we were able to get quite close to the major Dutch masters and never felt crowded.

You may wonder why the Netherlands, a small densely populated country has such a major collection of art? Well, the Dutch were a major naval power with trading posts all over the world in the 17th century,  their golden age.  Unfortunately, they eventually  lost out to the British and the Dutch Republic was even  ruled by Napoleon  for a time. Nevertheless, the Dutch did not lose their sense of identity nor their pride in their golden age art of art and architecture. Unlike most of Europe at this time, the great works of art by Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, et al., were owned by wealthy  stadtholders, officials appointed to keep order in the provinces . Most of them were fiercely republican and not from the aristocracy, although there were exceptions.  The public museums that we take for granted today began to appear at the end of the 18th century and the Dutch thought a national museum like the recently opened Louvre, would be good for the country. Some  stadtholders then allowed their cherished paintings to be  displayed at the new museum.

Thus the precursor to the Rijks Museum opened in May of 1800 as the National Art Gallery in The Hague. When Napoleon established the Kingdom of Holland in 1806, the museum was moved to Amsterdam and paintings then owned by the city, such as the Night Watch were exhibited there. The exhibits of paintings and art objects were moved several more times until  a new building was constructed in 1874. It would be decorated inside and outside with references to Dutch history. This building which opened in 1885 became the Rijks Museum. However, over a century later, it needed some refurbishment and in 2003, the main building was closed for a total renovation. Some 400 of the most famous artifacts were displayed in the wing next door until the Rijks Museum re-opened in November 2014. The renovation took over a decade to complete and cost 375 M Euros, but the money and time was well spent. The interior glows with light and the center atrium gives the museum a spaciousness not often found in museums. Not surprisingly, over 2 million people a year have visited it.  After the renovation, the most famous Golden Age paintings were grouped in the Hall of Fame, anchored by the most famous of them all, The Night Watch. This makes it easy to see some of the greatest Dutch masters in a relatively short time.

Thus  the senior Rambler was left to wander around outside, and with hopes I would find him when we were done with the tour. I joined the Gentle Walkers group in the atrium where we met our guide Aida. The guides at the Rijks Museum are a very highly trained bunch who have considerable understanding of art. Aida was extremely knowledgeable and easy to understand and made our visit very pleasant. We  of course, had limited time in the museum so Aida led us on one of the special tours for groups like our Uniworld bunch.

We were able to see some of the Netherlands’ greatest paintings in the Hall of Fame, which probably pleased the majority of the tourists. This Rambler, however, wished she had more time to check out more of the galleries, especially the arms and armor and ship models. However, Aida provided us with a delightful hour’s worth of knowledge about the Dutch masters of the Golden Age. The paintings were indeed masterworks.

We learned that The Night Watch was actually not a night scene but had been  coated with a dark varnish which was since removed. It is justly famous for its large size, 11.91 x 14.34 ft., its wonderful use of light  and shadow and the life and motion that Rembrandt has given what was a portrait of a military company. It has been vandalized several times. In 1911, it was slashed with a shoemaker’s knife, by a bread knife in 1975; although it was restored, some evidence of the damage is still visible. Finally in 1990, it was sprayed with acid. However this time, the guard quickly sprayed water on the acid and no serious damage resulted.

Feeling very cultured, I located the senior Rambler and we headed for our bus. We had quite a long walk past dozens of busses which had arrived after ours. It was obvious that the attendance figures for the Rijks Museum had not been exaggerated and it was a good thing we had an early special entry.

Back on board the River Queen, we watched the crew get ready for our departure. They worked in precise order to lift the gang plank and move it into its travel position, lines were cast off and we said good-by to Amsterdam.  Sometimes river cruisers sail at night if the landscape is not interesting but this time there was much to see. First the outskirts of Amsterdam, with many quaint buildings and finally into the country side where windmills still turned in the distance. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we lingered on deck to watch the countryside scenery flow past.

Eventually we headed to our cabin to change. Tonight was the Captain’s Welcome Dinner, with a meet and greet before hand in the lounge. Our Captain for this trip, Hendrick Fennema, was a tall, lanky Dutchman, one of the most out-going and personable we have encountered on our Uniworld cruises. He would always be visible and approachable during the cruise which we all appreciated. We also formally met our Cruise Manager, Tabea Bramberger, another very important person on any cruise. Young and pretty, we found she was also an accomplished organizer and tour guide. It looked like the Ramblers would be in good hands as we cruised towards Basel.