We went to the Riejksmuseam knowing The Night Watch was there.  Spent the whole morning admiring the brilliant Rembrant paintings one after the other and began to imagine that maybe I was wrong, when – last room – just before the “shop” was this great room with that great gobsmackingly beautiful, intricate and large painting, sitting alone in a room by itself, pride of place as it should be.  Well worth the wait.

After leaving the museum we crossed the road and took a stroll down Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat to discover a street with every top designer shop imaginable.  Even the shop fronts were a vision of delight – couldn’t imagine what would have greeted us if we could have afforded to walk inside.

Then to top things off  at the end of the street we ended up entering Vondelpark a wonderful park with great lakes, bird life so we sat and had a coffee sitting by the lake – very relaxing before having to head back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and head off to catch the ferry coach to Ijmuiden where we will board the ferry to Newcastle.