Culture day

Started our day of culture in a ridiculous line snaking about a block to get into the Rijsmuseum. It's being renovated and only a small portion of this gigantic museum is open. This is a temporary entrance. The REAL entrance should be in the middle of the building as pictured below.
Actually, the open portion was just about the right amount for our museum tolerance. Really enjoyed the many Rembrandts and Vermeers amongst lots of others.
And right out front just in case we were terribly homesick is the REAL AMERICAN HOTDOG stand.

Headed over to the Concertgebouw (above) which is right across from the Rijksmuseum and at 1:00PM got front row center balcony tickets for a 2:15PM concert. The guy sitting next to me was a friend of the conductor and told me that the seat I was in is the seat for Queen Beatrix when she attends. Seems only appropriate to me that I should have the queen's seat. Concert was a very weird but very interesting bunch of ultra modern, atonal non understandable music that was entertaining to watch but would have benefitted from the use of earplugs. The hall is phenomenal and the acoustics were great. I have always wanted to see this concert hall so even though the music wasn't my choice, I was happy to be there.

After the concert, we had just enough time to go to the van Gogh museum and see their huge collection of van Goghs and other art.

Tomorrow we need a day of scratching, swearing and drinking beer to make up for all the culture.