I was in Amsterdam in Dec and visited all three Museums you mentioned. You know the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum will be incredible, but I really enjoyed the Rubens, Van Dyck and jordeans exhibit at the Hermitage.

I was going to suggest you consider visiting Cologne instead of or in addition to Franfurt. I think it's the same train, just an earlier stop. I was supremely impressed by two Cologne Museums, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum and the Museum Ludwig (Pop art). If I'm not mistaken, I used the NL Hi-speed website to purchase the train tickets, and they were only about 20 Euros a piece. I went to several other museums in Cologne using a family museum admission card, good two adults and two children for only 28 Euros for two days with free public transport during the first day. That's cheaper than two adult single fares. Besides the great museums, the Cathedral is one of the best in Europe.

Have a great time.

I was going to recommend the Stedelijk Museum, however
"The Stedelijk Museum is closed for the final phase of construction and completion of the building renovation and expansion project."

Here are more museums in Amsterdam....

http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/

My husband and MIL just returned from a 1-wk trip to Amsterdam (I was supposed to go too but got sick last minute). They purchased the Netherlands Museumkaart and visited 17 museums/attractions - all free admission with the Museumkaart. It was the best deal ever. http://www.museumkaart.nl/index.cfm/Museumkaart

Where they visited:

IN AMSTERDAM
• RijksMuseum
• Van Gogh Museum
• Amsterdam History Museum
• Hermitage Museum
• Museum van Loon
• Museum Geelvinck
• Willet-Holthuysen Museum
• Dutch Resistance Museum
• Anne Frank House
• New Church
• Old Church

IN DEN HAAG
• Mauritshuis
• Gemeentemuseum

IN LEIDEN
• Naturalis (Natural Hist Museum)
• SieboldHuis
• Museum Boerhaave

IN DELFT
• Prinsenhof

I love trains but to say the views from that high speed ICE between A-dam and Frankfurt are "restful" is kinda stretching it IMO...slightly blurred would be more like it. However, if you enjoy high speeds there's little else quite like it.

As to the museums...you'll have plenty to see in A-dam alone but then again I'm one of those folks who likes to cram as much in as possible so go for it.

Thank you for the great suggestions. I will definitely buy the Museum card. Thanks for reminding me about the hi speed train, hadn't thought about blur. I will research Cologne. A curator friend slso recommended Haarlen and Utrecht. So many choices. Thanks again,