Scandinavia - Thursday, September 10, 2015.

Up at 6:00 for our last full day in Amsterdam, and in Europe.  Down to breakfast at 8:30; however no full serve breakfast, but a buffet instead.  Evidently the hotel has a big conference that started yesterday, and I don't think they have the staff to handle a large group of sit down diners all at once.

We order a cab for the ride to the Van Gogh museum this morning.  We arrive shortly after opening and there are no lines.  We spend two and one-half hours in this thoroughly modern facility.  The information is vast, and the art work is obviously stunning.  My own feeling is that the process and the listening aids are not as smoothly laid out as they could be.  That said, it was still a wonderful experience and I will bring home a much greater depth of understanding of his work.

We then traveled next door to the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art.  We only looked at the gift shop and then stopped in their cafe for a quick split sandwich.

We then moved on to the Rijksmuseum, the National museum of Amsterdam, housing Rembrandt and Vermeer paintings among many other artifacts.  In this one, we could only rush from room to room, catching just the highlights.  Too much info and not nearly enough days to do this justice.  Thereafter we stopped for some snacks of Danish bites, and a glass before beginning the long march back to the hotel, looking for a restaurant along the way.

We came to Moeder's (Mother's) a restaurant recommended to us yesterday by our guide/driver Jan.  We tried it and it was truly local Dutch food; braised beef and cabbage over boiled potatoes, Hotch-Potch, which turned out to be mashed potatoes and cabbage, accompanied by sausage and a meatball, and spareribs with french fries.  Excellent ending of our feasting our way through Scandinavia.

Home to our hotel after quite a hike by 10:00.  Time to re-pack and prepare for our flight home tomorrow.