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<\/a><\/p>\nI wandered around the Museum Quarter for a bit and found a street lined with stores featuring expensive designers.<\/p>\n The Chanel store was rather pretty, faced with clear green glass tiles.<\/p>\n There are a bunch of food stands on the plaza between the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum. I’ve been pricing burgers for a bit and the burger I got here wasn’t cheap at 6 euros, but it was decent value for Amsterdam and tasty. It got cold fast, though! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I went next door and got a cafe cortado, which came with little cookies exactly like I fell in love with at the Mediterranean\u00a0place in Sarajevo<\/a>, and which was just 2.10 euros! I would never have guessed I’d find the best value of coffee so far in Amsterdam right on the Museumplein.<\/p>\n The lineup to get into the Rijksmuseum was interminable, a sharp contrast to the day I took this picture:<\/p>\n I got into the special line for folks who don’t need to go to the ticket desk. It wasn’t nearly as long as the regular line and it moved much more quickly. Can’t say the same for the coat check line and I kicked myself for forgetting I could have gotten a locker instead.<\/p>\n Since I’d already done a fast tour\u00a0of the Rijksmuseum<\/a>, I had a much better and more efficient plan of attack for today. I first headed to the special ground floor exhibits. I had no trouble getting in a second time with my Museumkaart, but some folks with a different card were told they had to get a ticket since their card was not scannable. The ticket was free, but they could not jump the queue to get it. I was devastated for them.<\/p>\n Like in so many museums, you can’t use a flash at the Rijksmuseum, so I’m going to try to be discerning and not show too many blurry ones.<\/p>\n So The ground floor has exhibits from 1100 to 1600, as well as special exhibits, where I started.<\/p>\n The first special exhibit I visited was the model ships. These were built true to life at miniature scale in the 19th century, a time when the technology of shipbuilding was growing in leaps and bounds thanks to such inventions as the steam engine. These scale models could be used to explain innovations to a lay person and to aid in the building of the full size models.<\/p>\n This is the figurehead from the frigate\u00a0Prins van Oranje<\/em>. As you can see, it’s a man in full armour.<\/p>\n A lighthouse model:<\/p>\n I wasn’t that interested in the gun gallery (armoury), but I learned that “the Netherlands was\u00a0once a leading centre for the production and trade of arms.” I have to say that some of the guns were works of art.<\/p>\n Then, I went to the pottery exhibit, one of my favourite parts of the whole museum. It’s actually broken into two parts, with other exhibits mixed in.<\/p>\n Blue and orange together make me happy.<\/p>\n This coffee and tea service shows that the application of enamel colours to porcelain was still a great challenge in the 1700s as evidenced by the fact that some of the pieces are more purple than pink.<\/p>\n This was an interesting object. It is a necklace made of four pieces of stovepipe. Surely meant as a concept and not something to wear!<\/p>\n The musical instruments were also works of art. They were mixed in with a few other exhibits as well.<\/p>\n Love this bat pin.<\/p>\n And the dragonfly pin. Lovely detail on the comb.<\/p>\n A group of violins.<\/p>\n The lute (I think) that has a face is a hoot!<\/p>\n One of the things that enchanted me on my first visit was the Magic Lantern exhibit. These were the earliest forms of modern projectors. Images on plates of glass were projected. When the plates were changed in rapid succession, you got a moving picture. Very cool! They date back to the mid-1600s!<\/p>\n Here are some magic lantern plates.<\/p>\n We got to see one in motion. The arms on this windmill appeared to be moving.<\/p>\n I then went into the Delftware (blue on white) exhibit, which had tiles and other decorative objects as well as practical items.<\/p>\n This is a roulette board.<\/p>\n This tile panel with a vase of flowers would have been fitted into a fireplace to give it interest when there was no fire burning.<\/p>\n I loved this dish with pomegranates and grapes because of the unusual colour choices the painter made. The grapes are orange and the pomegranates are blue and white.<\/p>\n This is a game box.<\/p>\n This is a beaker of ice glass, “an effect achieved by plunging the blown glass while still white-hot into cold water in order to produce cracks. When the glass is reheated and blown further, these cracks get bigger.”<\/p>\n There was a display of boxes.<\/p>\n Locks and keys:<\/p>\n There was an exhibit all about miniature silver things. Here are some mocked up in a dollhouse:<\/p>\n “Around 1700, porcelain vases of this size were\u00a0extremely rare and prestigious.”<\/p>\n Coming back out of the model ships, I spotted this one. See the little figures on the deck? They are holograms! They were 3D and moving around. I’d never seen anything like it.<\/p>\n Next up was the exhibit about the Middle Ages, which I was not impressed with when I went through last time as it’s all religious art and objects. Yes, I know that was the theme of the day, but there was art that showed common life as well. So I rather blipped through this part of the museum.<\/p>\n Loved the colours on this painting:<\/p>\n A scene depicting the St. Elizabeth Day Flood<\/a>.<\/p>\n The only known portrait of a black man in early European painting. He may have been been one of Charles the V’s archers, Christophie le More.<\/p>\n The ground floor of the Rijksmuseum has a picnic area for school groups and those with their own lunches. Look at that vaulted ceiling!<\/p>\n The Asian exhibit is tucked way in the back on its own. I don’t think people would know it’s there unless they studied the floor plan.<\/p>\n I loved the exhibit of kimonos.<\/p>\n This one was particularly unusual.<\/p>\n I was really impressed with this figure on my first visit. Look at the eyes!<\/p>\n I love Japanese pottery.<\/p>\n The museum has modern parts added to the old. So this would have been an exterior wall once upon a time.<\/p>\n Behind it was an exhibit of interesting photographs that did not photograph well. They were of collages of objects. The effect had a \u00a03D texture that seemed innovative.<\/p>\n I would later see many more cabinets in this style. I think this is my favourite.<\/p>\n I headed up this back, almost secret, staircase to see the exhibits from 1700 to 1900.<\/p>\n There was a very cool light fixture that would “blossom” as it dropped down.<\/p>\n I wasn’t the only one who as mesmerised by it!<\/p>\n The staircase is really lovely. 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