Day 1:  Introduction to Amsterdam

Day 2: Rembrandt Tour

Today we visit the Rijksmuseum, home of the world’s largest collection of Dutch masters – including the most famous of all “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt. Besides the Master, you will find van Ruisdael, van Heemskerck, Frans Halls, Paulus Potter, Jan Steen, Vermeer and many others from the “Golden Age” represented in the Rijk’s collection. After a leisurely lunch, we continue our Rembrandt tour visiting “Het Rembrandthuis” where Rembrandt lived. Renovations have returned the home to the way it looked when Rembrandt lived and worked there.

If you like, we can tour today by bicycle as everyone is riding a bike it seems in Amsterdam. We begin our tour at the heart of the city, “The Dam Square” across the Amstel River. Encircling the Square is the 17th century neoclassical Royal Palace, the Old & New Churches and the National War Monument. In the Royal Palace which was originally designed as the Town Hall, we will visit the Citizens’ Hall, Burgomasters’ Chambers, Council Room and the marble Tribunal in which death sentences were pronounced. Not far away is Amsterdam’s big historic monument – the Central Station. Built on an artificial island in the IJ inlet, the station opened in 1895 and was thoroughly disliked by Amsterdammers of the time! We stop to appreciate the tiny cluster of 14th-century small homes around a garden courtyard called the “Begijnjof” then stop briefly at the “Tower of Tears”, once a cannon strongpoint in the city wall, and the Mint Tower. We stop for a quick lunch and continue our tour of the Old and New Churches admiring their Gothic style, stained-glass windows and perhaps take in an exhibition if available. Just a small museum to end our day – we visit either the Museum van Loon or Museum Willet-Holthuysen. Both offer a rare opportunity to visit a 17th or 18th century canal house with recreated with furnishings period rooms.

We explore today  explore the old working-class district which was originally built for artists, craftsmen and tradesmen. Grand canal homes line the Egelantiersgracht and Bloemgracht. We stop for a visit at the Anne Frank House where 8 people from 3 separate families lived together in near total silence for more than 2 years during World War II. Finish the day off by visiting either the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art or the Allard-Pierson Museum of archaeology.

Day 5: Harlem