An afternoon in the Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum holds around eight thousand objects across eighty rooms, which is more than anyone takes in on one visit, and the museum knows it. Their own advice is that you can see the highlights in an hour. Treat that as the floor rather than the ceiling: an afternoon is enough to do the Gallery of Honour properly and still have the energy to wander.

Start at the top, then let it go

Most people head straight up to the Gallery of Honour on the second floor, and they are right to. Vermeer's Milkmaid, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, and at the far end of it Rembrandt's Night Watch, hung where the building was designed to put it. See that first, while you are still fresh.

After that, stop trying to be thorough. The museum is open daily from nine to five and a start time has to be booked, so the shape of the afternoon is set before you arrive: pick a floor, walk it slowly, and skip the rest without guilt. The delftware, the dolls' houses and the model ships reward an unhurried look far more than a dutiful one.

The gardens at the back are free and open to anyone, with or without a ticket. That is worth knowing on a warm day, and worth knowing when your feet have had enough.

What to see if you only have an hour

• The Night Watch. Rembrandt's, at the end of the Gallery of Honour, hung where the building was designed to put it. Stand well back before you go close.
• The Milkmaid. Vermeer, and smaller than you expect. Most people walk past it looking for something larger.
• The rest of the Gallery of Honour. Frans Hals, Jan Steen, de Hooch. One room, and the densest hour in the building.
• The dolls' houses. Seventeenth-century cabinet houses furnished at eye-watering expense, and the thing people remember longest.
• The Cuypers Library. A cast-iron reading room several floors high, usually near-empty, and free with your ticket.
• The gardens. Outside, free to anyone, and the right place to finish.

If you want to sit down inside, RIJKS on Museumstraat is the museum’s own restaurant and holds a Michelin star, so it is a booking made in advance rather than a place to wander into after the galleries. Het Café does coffee and cake without leaving them.

What to keep an eye out for

The permanent collection is the reason to come, but the Philips Wing runs temporary exhibitions on their own tickets, and those are worth checking before you book so you can take both in one start time. The free museum app carries several routes through the building, including a short one if you are running out of afternoon. Late in the day is the quietest the galleries get, and the last hour before five is the closest you will come to having the Night Watch to yourself.

How to get there

Fifteen minutes on foot, and the walk is the pleasant part: west along Ceintuurbaan, right up Ferdinand Bolstraat, and over the Boerenwetering into the back of the square. On the tram it is tram 12 westbound from the Ceintuurbaan stop, three minutes from the hotel, and off at Museumplein. On a bike it is six or seven minutes and there is racking at the north end of the square.

The honest version of an afternoon in the Rijksmuseum: book a start time, walk the Gallery of Honour while you are fresh, give up on completeness, and finish in the garden.