Amsterdam at Night

Monday night it wasn't raining so we went out to take some photos of Amsterdam at night. Right now Amsterdam only gets about 8 hours of sunlight a day. The next time we visit my sister will be in the summer and the sun won't go down until 10pm, so I wanted to be sure to take night photos this trip.  

People often ask my sister if people in Amsterdam really don't use curtains. The photo below is perfect evidence that they really don't. You can see in the apartments on all of the floors.

The bridges and canals are beautiful no matter what time of day. 

Here are a few photos of the western red light district (there are three red light districts in Amsterdam). This one is not the main one and I made sure to take the photo on a night when there weren't any obvious workers.

Below is a photo of the royal palace in Dam Square. It is not a very ornate building. It was meant to be used as City Hall back when merchants ran Amsterdam. However, when Napoleon took over the Netherlands he installed his brother as King and the Dutch have had a royal family ever since. The royal family doesn't live in this building but they do receive foreign dignitaries and do other official business here. 

Below is the main building of the Rijksmuseum, which is the national museum. This museum was closed for 10 years for renovations and only reopened in 2013. The museum is arranged by time period rather than by style (which means you have furniture, paintings, vases, clothing, and other artifacts all from the same period in the same room). 

Below is the Royal Concert Hall. Legend states that when it was built it was intended to be much larger but the city enforced the current sized plot. People say it was fate because the modified building has a better sound quality and has turned it into the famous hall it is today.