As a young man, Rembrandt was reluctant to travel outside his native Holland. All the important pictures were already there, he argued. So why leave? In Amsterdam, the city where he made and lost his fortune as a painter in the 1600s, you can see his point. The “Venice of the North” is a town with a museum for everything. There’s an institution each for tulips, tattoos, cats and Dutch cheese; there’s one for sex and another for fluorescent rocks. The heavy-hitters occupy Museumplein, just off the city’s Vondelpark. In the summertime, locals and tourists alike ride their bikes through the arches of the Rijksmuseum toward the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and the Concertgebouw. Sometimes they stop to take in the Dutch light, that hazy muse of artists from Vermeer to van Gogh. SEE ALSO: Top 10 things to do in California with Family The Essentials Rijksmuseum: Make like van Gogh in his student days and head to the crown jewel of Museumplein, the Rijksmuseum. Inside the immense Gallery of Honor, linger in front of Frans Hals ’s “The Merry Drinker” (1628-30), Vermeer’s “The Milkmaid” (circa 1660) and Rembrandt’s moving “Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul” (1661). Don’t miss the star of the room, Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” (1642), which occupies a wall unto itself. €17.50 ($20); 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily; Museumstraat 1, rijksmuseum.nl Van Gogh Museum: Van Gogh only lived in Amsterdam briefly, but the city remains home to the bulk of his oeuvre. Trace his brief career (he was an artist for just 10 years) through floors organized chronologically. Stop upstairs for a look at his delicate “Almond Blossoms,” painted in 1890, just after his first breakdown, as a gift for his newborn nephew—who later became the founder of the museum. €17; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, Friday
As a young man, Rembrandt was reluctant to travel outside his native Holland. All the important pictures were already there, he argued. So why leave? In Amsterdam, the city where he made and lost his fortune as a painter in the 1600s, you can see his point. The “Venice of the North” is a town with a museum for everything. There’s an institution each for tulips, tattoos, cats and Dutch cheese; there’s one for sex and another for fluorescent rocks. The heavy-hitters occupy Museumplein, just off the city’s Vondelpark. In the summertime, locals and tourists alike ride their bikes through the arches of the Rijksmuseum toward the Van Gogh Museum,