From Pillars to Purses....

 We had time to visit the Hermitage, a branch of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, which had an excellent exhibit of Napoleonic objects -- everyone is celebrating the anniversary of Waterloo this year.  We also saw an enlightening exhibit of paintings depicting Dutch life.  Of course, no photos allowed.

Then we were off to visit a canal house, Willet-Holthuysen, to see how the other half lived back in the day.

They lived pretty well, it turns out.

 Then we were off to the purse museum.  Of course! 

 And finally, the walk back to the hotel, by way of the Begijnhof, a sort of secular cloister for women, which requested no photos.  Unlike everyone else with an American accent, we did not take any pictures with our camera or our phone.