Europe 2023 September 12th Day 40 - Red Light and Van Gogh are a good match.

This morning we awake with the 8 am alarm again and once more downstairs for breakfast. A new lady was there this morning and she was a little flustered as it appeared that everyone had the same idea for breakfast his morning.

It was then off on the trusty No. 12 tram into the city and we did a self guided tour of the red light district with a downloaded app Jane got through Viator. This was actually very good and took about an hour with excellent commentary and very good directions. It used the phone GPS to pinpoint where you were and then automatically started the commentary when you arrived at the next location. Obviously a number of window sights but also a bit of history about the area, origins and buildings.

We continued to walk around after the tour ended, finding the Beurspassage with its gorgeous mosaics on the roof and walls and finally stopped for a coffee and a slice of carrot cake. It was then off to the Museum district and the Van Gogh museum for our 1.45 pm time slot, preceded by a little lunch (loaded fries and fried cheese sticks) in the park across from the museum.

The museum was excellent and certainly a highlight of Amsterdam, even saw a Munch there as well to match the Van Gogh at the Munch museum in Oslo. We stayed till a little after 3.30 pm and then headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap. I think we are all holidayed out now and looking forward to getting home.

This evening we went for a walk around our hotel location in the opposite direction and came across the ArtZuid Bienalle Sculpture exhibition of 50 sculptures by internationally renowned and Dutch artists in the leafy parks of Apollolaan and Minervalaan. 

There was even a Hockney and Wurm on display (https://artzuid.nl/en/).

We tried to get somewhere to eat but everything was booked out so in the end we got back on No.12 tram for about 4 stops and found a Greek taverna of all places for lamb and fish kebabs. It was then about a 30 minute walk in the twilight back to the hotel to complete another 15 km plus day, stopping at the supermarket for a half bottle of red (very nice Valpolicella Ripasso) and downstairs in the hotel to consume before retiring for the night after booking our taxi to the airport in the morning. An 11 am flight so no need to rush.