Rijksmuseum & Parkeren Hoppen

Last Sunday, Francisco, Ronan and I, along with Matt and Sarah, made our way to the Rijksmuseum for a long overdue visit. We saw Rembrant,Van Gogh, modern art and lots and lots of portraits. My favourite was Andy Warhol's pink portrait of Queen Beatrix.

With the amazing weather this week, Ronan and I have been park hopping. We hit up our usual digs at Vondelpark, but also ventured into Rembrant Park and Erasmus Park. Rembrant Park was very quiet and had beautiful walking trails. Erasmus Park was much busier with a gigantic playground, beautiful gardens and a delicious restaurant, Terrasmus.

Rembrant Park

Erasmus Park

Now, Ronan is a child of few faults, but during our outings, I've noticed that he seems to have a problem with littering. In the last 3 days, he's thrown away 3 pacifiers, every pair of socks he owns, 2 pairs of sandals and 2 toys (Sadly, one was Sophie the Giraffe). Of all the items he threw overboard, I was only able to retrieve a pair of sandals. I packed quite lightly for our trip here, so I will probably be carrying around a sockless, shoeless, and toyless baby for the next few weeks.

"I'm not wearing any shoes!"

While in the park, Ronan and I had a picnic. It was appropriate that we were picnicking in Holland because we had to "Go Dutch": Ronan is a bit of a picky eater and likes all of his food pureed, warmed and served to him on a special, miniature spoon.  

I also noticed a few more things I'd like to add to my I.A.A List (Ideas from Amsterdam to Adopt):

13. Free Picnic Tablecloths: Erasmus Park had this board where you could rip off your own plastic picnic blanket or table cloth. They might not be the most environmentally friendly, but talk about convenient! Maybe we could create a biodegradable version.

Tablecloths, free for the taking!

14. Outdoor Gyms: In both Rembrant and Erasmus Parks, there were outdoor gyms. Bikers used the parks to commute home and stopped at these gyms for a workout. What a great way to get a quick (and free!) workout in.

Outdoor Gym

15: Warm milk for coffee: I normally drink my coffee black, but have had to add a bit of milk to it here as it is a little strong for me. Terrasmus served me my coffee with warm milk, and I thought about how nice it was as I dislike cold (or even warm) coffee. I was extra impressed by warm milk when Ronan and I were at Katharina's house this week and she warmed milk on her stove for our coffees. Genius. Why do we not do this all of the time?