On this quick whizz through Amsterdam, managed to avoid the famous red light district in favour of the slightly less famous Rembrandt house or huis. He was able to buy the house at the height of his career following the famous Night Watch commission. A later commission Conspiracy of the Batavians was not so successful.

His Burgher clients were not impressed by his venture into what was later known as impressionism, refusing to accept the work. Rembrandt angrily took a knife to the painting, the remains of which are now displayed at the Rijks Museum. He didn’t entirely fall from favour, but he was unable to pay the mortgage on the impressive huis. The house and contents were sold to satisfy the creditors. The list of contents compiled by the creditors enabled later restoration of the house as it was in Rembrandts time.

So, now we see a close representation of the studio, the smaller student’s studio, the impressive reception hall and the clutter of tchotchke that he accumulated. If you are lucky you might see old fashioned paint making demonstrated.

Interesting example of a box bed. You were correct in observing that it would not be possible to lie down in this piece of furniture. Apparently at that time people often slept sitting up, fearing that sleeping lying down might somehow be fatal. Other box beds in the Rijks museum were also similar, some having wooden doors. Was this just a peculiar Dutch thing?

Unlike Venice, that other watery city, the Amsterdamers had the good sense not to actually build their houses in the water. Secondly, they had the imagination and engineering prowess to have some influence on the ambient water level. The most famous of the pumps, the Cruquius pumping station is some 15 km outside of the town. In the late 19^th cent. it claims to have housed the largest steam engine in the world. Each of the eight pistons displaced the volume of a medium sized truck. In the event of global warming and tides rising might we consider a dyke and sea lock for shipping at the Port Phillip heads?

With the concentric system of canals, water based public transport could be expected, as in Venice. Not so. There is a lot of boat traffic on the canals, tour boats and private run-abouts, not aware of river taxis. The challenges of an underground/underwater train system would be too tricky even for the Dutch. Trams and buses are great. Always crowded but very polite, the travellers quick to offer a seat to the aged and infirm. Not good at all for the ego to be offered a seat by one very nearly as grey/white and old as one’s self. On the other side of the canal from our hotel there was a very posh building that accommodated an up-market firm of tax lawyers. On the canal below the office a sleek immaculate old timber launch was moored. So much more civilised and elegant transport than a Maserati or helicopter.

Oddly enough, a major Van Gogh exhibition is currently visiting Melbourne, Starr starry night is in the MOMA New York and starry starry night over the Rhone is in the D’Orsay, so what are we doing here in Amsterdam queuing in a bitterly cold wind to enter the very crowded Van Gogh museum? Probably because we can. And it was worth the effort to have a good overview of his life.

Sweetie pie had been here a year ago and was astute enough to locate us very near the Rijks Museum. So near that a well-aimed lump of Edam could have been lobbed into the forecourt from our hotel room window. So entry to the Rijks was a much more pleasant affair. Direct from breakfast at our hotel next door at opening time and straight up to an almost private viewing of The Night Watch. The four hundred year old brilliantly conserved paintings were of course impressive. As it happens, bicycles and people are allowed free access to the grand carriageway running through the middle of the Rijks. For me, more memorable than the paintings were a troop of buskers performing Vivaldi. The line-up included 2 violins, 2 huge button accordions, a base balalaika and a tuba. The acoustics in the cavernous thoroughfare were magic as you can imagine

A quite different experience was dinner at the Concert Gebouw followed by the Vienna Piano trio doing Mozart, Schoenberg and Brahms. The resounding standing applause by the whole audience was well deserved. Is it always that good in Holland, or were we just lucky?

Hermitage Amsterdam is a branch of the St Petersburg Hermitage. Their current temporary exhibition concerns the Romanovs and the 1917 revolution. The main attraction is the permanent portrait gallery which is a formal record of how life was in Amsterdam in the 17^th cent. The portraiture presents a view of the culture of the time being rather socialist and orderly with the poor and maimed being maintained buy the various guilds. This may be so, but it can be claimed that the burghers were easily able to do this, funded by bounteous trade in slaves to and commodities from the colonies. Choose your perspective and consequent reality. In the portraits, the dress code was formal, but photorealism engaging the viewer rather than the common impersonal firing squad line-up. No longer supported by slave trade, the current burghers on various boards and committees still choose to be recorded for posterity. Actual photography is much more practical. The poses and attitudes are much the same, but less frilly lace around the necks and cuffs.