The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is the national museum of the Netherlands, dedicated to dutch art and history. The museum is located in museum square, close to the Van Gogh museum.
We booked tickets online before we left for Amsterdam on their official website. Tickets were € 22.50 per adult, Ted was free as all under 18’s are free. They are open every day, from 9am to 5pm and we decided to book the earliest time slot possible. We both love our museums and it was a must visit when Amsterdam to see world’s famous masterpieces by Van Gogh and Rembrandt.
Our apartment was only a quick 10 minute walk from the entrance. We managed to get there before opening and waited by the lifts. Once the museum was opened, we had our tickets checked and were able to get the lifts down in the atrium area.
We were one of the first to enter the museum and prioritised going to find the very famous The Night Watch, by Rembrandt. It is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings. The painting can now only be seen from behind glass case, due to vandalism attempts in the past. In 2019 a long and complex restoration effort began. It felt a shame to view it from behind glass. I didn’t fully appreciate how large the painting is and how detailed, until being able to view it up close.
I loved walking around the museum with Ted. There’s plenty of benches around the museum where you can just sit and enjoy the art. The first hour in the museum was fairly quiet, however from 10am all the school and tourist groups started to arrive. I would definitely recommend if you want to have time to enjoy the art in your own time, I would purchase tickets for opening time.
My favourite painting in the museum however was Flower Still Life with a Crown Imperial Fritillary in a Stone Niche, Jacob Vosmaer, 1613. Flower still-life painting is considered a typical Dutch genre, of which this exceptionally large picture is one of the earliest and most spectacular examples. I found the painting so detailed and beautiful.
As the museum was getting fuller, we were starting to hungry and decided to visit the Het Cafe in the Atrium. There’s lifts for any disabled or pushchair access required. We were able to purchase all drinks and food using QR code on the table, which is very handy when you have a small toddler with you! A staff member was going round the tables to check if orders had been taken however I had already placed my order and paid on my phone at this point. There was also plenty of highchairs available and service was very quick. We only waited less than 5 minutes to receive our drinks and cakes.
I didn’t expect much from the cafe before we got there but we were so impressed. We had already had apple pie on the first night off our break at Winkle 43, however we both preferred the one that Chris had at Rijksmuseum. We will definitely be returning to the cafe on our next visit!
We all had a fantastic morning at Rijksmuseum. Next we headed to Van Gogh Museum, which we already had prebooked tickets for. It is just a quick 5 minute walk from Rijksemum. We had a quick stop in the shop first before checking in for Van Gogh.