I have completely lucked out on the weather so far here in Amsterdam. I remember being so sad when I looked at the forecast for my first week here and saw nothing but rain predicted. In my past two weeks here there has only been ONE rainy day. I really don’t like the rain, I become very tired and mopey, but this past Wednesday the first rainy day here I was able to go out and enjoy some of the many museums and art galleries this city has to offer.

Tuesday night my close friend Bridget who is backpacking across the world these next few months arrived in Amsterdam. We had taken a long stroll the night before around the city and through the park so she could see the city. When we woke in the morning to rain we decided to embrace it and see what art we could find. The first five minutes were a complete downpour so we stopped at a cafe to get some coffee (yes, real coffee with caffeine) to wake us up. Luckily my new trench coat kept the majority of me dry.

After our energy boost the rain had died down a little so we biked over to Museumplein. Here there are many major museums including, the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum, and the MOCO museum. We spent some time looking through the gift shop of the Stedelijk Museum where they sell large coffee table books of the art the museum holds. Then we decided to head over to the MOCO museum (Modern Contemporary Museum Amsterdam) where there are currently exhibits of Banksy and and Salvador Dali. Both of their work is beautiful and thought provoking. Banksy’s street art is now reserved and sold for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dali’s work is psychedelic inspired by Freud and how the brain works. I could have spent all day looking and thinking about the art and stories in both exhibits in one of the tinier museums in the area.

After exploring MOCO we biked further into the center of the city where there is a few streets of art galleries, mainly on and off of Nieuwe Spiegelstraat. We grabbed some more espresso and pastries to warm us up and checked out a few galleries. My favorite was The Public House of Art which claims to be a “non-gallery.” We we sat in a big net suspended over the first floor of art and admired dramatic portraits hung on a giant, soft velvet wall.

That day I fell in love with rainy days in Amsterdam because I realized the rain doesn’t keep anyone home here, or stop them from biking. Everywhere you can find new spots to explore and treasure.