Another hotel with a great breakfast.  Many choices from the buffet, plus they will make you eggs or pancakes.  Fresh squeezed orange juice is also available, which is the way I like to start the day.

Really enjoyed our first full day in Amsterdam.

We took the tram to the museum quarter – home to the Van Gogh museum,  Rijksmuseum, the ‘I Amsterdam’ sign, a nice, grassy park, and a concert hall at the far end.  Lots of people in the area and shade is at a premium.

We are going to the Van Gogh Museum today.  We pre-purchased our tickets so we don’t have to wait in the ticket line.  Since we were not sure how timely the tram would be, we arrived a little early, so we have about a half hour to kill before our time in the museum.

Whenever they were available, we pre-purchased our tickets and really saved time not having to wait in the long lines.  That was especially true in Paris, as the lines at the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay were long.

The Van Gogh Museum was very good. There were paintings by Van Gogh, plus others that he bought or were from his friends.  We had the multimedia guide and found it to be very useful and extremely well done.  We spent about 1 1/2 hours in the museum and felt that was adequate time to fully enjoy it.  Overall, it’s a wonderful museum and it’s well organized.  Unfortunately, they don’t allow you to take photos of the paintings.

We walked around the area a little bit before hopping on a tram back to the hotel.  As it was a warm day and hydration is important, we stopped for a couple of drinks in the hotel’s library lounge.  Sue had a glass of bubbly, while I was introduced to Dutch gin in my gin & tonic.

Up to the room to clean up before heading to dinner.  We decided to walk down to the restaurant as it was a nice night.  Tonight’s restaurant is called “Der Silveren Spiegel”, which roughly translates to the “silver mirror”.  It’s a highly rated restaurant that has been around for many years and the building dates to the early 1600’s.

For the weekend evenings, De Silveren Spiegel only serves specific meals based on a number of courses.  We chose the seven course menu and absolutely loved it.  We started with an Amusé-bouche, then a smoked Dutch trout, a vegetable medley, mussels in champagne cream sauce, a cod dish, braised lamb, duck pate, and finally berries & sorbet.  Each course was paired with a light pour glass of wine.  Every course was delicious and rich in flavors.

We walked back to the hotel.  Even though it was 10:30, it was still a little light out.  Our walk took us past the edge of the redlight district, where we saw one of the women in her room waiting for a customer.  Sue said she didn’t want to wait around for three minutes, so we just continued back to the hotel.

We were both a little tired, so we washed up and went to bed.