We decided that running as fast as we can between museums isn’t our style. Thus, we cut the number of museums visited today to only three. Using Amsterdam’s excellent tram system, we navigated our way to the Van Gogh museum. The museum didn’t have as many works as I was expecting (as it is under construction), but it did as excellent job at telling the story of Van Gogh’s lifelong battle with mental illness. After that, we headed to the nearby Rijks museum, but declined to enter because it is undergoing a major multi-year renovation. Finally, we headed to Anne Frank’s House, which not only tells a tragic story, but also does an excellent job at subtly forcing museum goers to keep moving along to improve the flow of traffic through the exhibits.

In the evening, we picked up a giant bag of Amsterdam-style french fries with mayonnaise on top (as is their custom), which Valerie thoroughly enjoyed. Fries in hand, we took an evening stroll through the famous red light district, which at that time had many more families strolling about its streets than prostitutes in windows.