FRIDAY'S HUNT and WEEKEND REFLECTIONS - Amsterdam

We are back to the beginning of the alphabet with the letter A, Sunset and Inside for Friday’s Hunt and of course a Reflection shot for Weekend Reflections.  No prizes that I have chosen AMSTERDAM as my word this week as I and my ART group visited there recently. For the INSIDE I am showing you the Rijks Museum and just a few of the many hundreds of different art works that I photographed that day, the most famous probably was Rembrandt’s The Night Watch.  

I cannot imagine you finding bigger letters for the word AMSTERDAM.

That day we left our hotel early and passed this square and unbeknown to 2 of the groups, the other 2 who were photographers, captured them at the sign.  You can just see one of their legs protruding from the D.  I know I have photographed this from the opposite side but the other side was in shade!.

ABOVE is the front of the Rijks Museum and below is one of the cruise boats to take you up and down the River AMSTEL  We all went for a cruise one day and as you can see another word AMSTERDAM in the stern of this boat.

This is the back of the Rijks Museum and now you can see the sign AMSTERDAM the right way round but by now, people are all crawling over it.

Now we are INSIDE the Museum and this is the Entrance Hall.  Everything is larger than life in this museum and these first few shots were actually taken (apart from the one directly below) the day before when we went out to make sure we knew where the museum was and  so it was about to close and I was able to get these photographed without people in them.  

This shot (taken the whole day we visited) shows the enormous gift/book shop below and a lovely restaurant, which incidently had wonderful food.  

This gentleman was at the desk with the flowers and was extremely helpful in giving us tips for when we arrived the following day.

As you enter into the actual museum where the art work is, this is the sign that greets you and below is the ceiling.  This museum had just been restored recently, opening again in 2013 after 10 years work.

The Spanish architecture firm Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos has spectacularly transformed the 19th-century building into a museum for the 21st century, with a bright and spacious entrance, a new Asian Pavilion and beautifully restored galleries. Under the guidance of restoration architect Van Hoogevest, the lavish decoration scheme of Pierre Cuypers, the original architect of the museum, has been fully reconstructed in a number of the museum’s key spaces. Parisian architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte designed the new interior of the galleries, fusing 19th-century grandeur with modern design.

I organised that the group had a private tour in the morning of the “Highlights of the Rijks” which should have lasted 1 hour however our guide and the group were so enthusiastic she continued for nearly 2 hours. It was wonderful.  

In the afternoon we took another private tour of Rembrandt’s Painting so I am showing you 2 of his paintings and this shot ( above) you can see the painting on the back wall and hopefully will give you an idea of not only how big the museum is but also some of the paintings.

This is another area of the museum with all the walls with art work painted directly onto them.  

The floor was even a work of art and 

these are some parts of it I photographed.

This is a huge Library which was being used.

 Lastly for my A’s there was a AEROPLANE.

I am finishing this post with a SUNSET and REFLECTION in the same image and another one I like thrown in for good measure!

WOW!  Now I wonder how many stuck with it until the end of this post.  Yes it was long but I had hundreds of images and it was very difficult to pick ones to give you a favour of this wonderful and very beautiful museum.  I hope you enjoyed what I did share with you.

Many thanks for visiting and also for leaving any comments.