Blog Day 10 Thursday June 26, 2014

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Amsterdam

Up early to beat the crowds at the Rijks Museum.  This museum focuses on the Dutch Masters such as Rembrandt, and it has only recently reopened after ten years of work reconfiguring it.  Dick has been there several times in the past, and was very anxious to see what they had done with it.   At the museum there were hundreds of very famous works of art and we worked to soak in as much as we could.  At every turn there was another painting or sculpture that you had seen in a book, but here they were in person!

One of the most fascinating aspects was an exhibit called “Art is Therapy”. This was put together by a Dutch philosopher who pulled many things out of the collection and posted giant “post-it notes” around the museum talking about the art and asking provocative questions.  We both totally enjoyed this very novel manner in which to interact with world-class art.  The morning went by quickly, filled with amazing art.

Lunch was at the Hansel and Gretel Café ( in Dutch, of course).  The food continues to be good and different than we eat at home.

After lunch, it was on to The Van Gough Museum.  There we managed to piggyback onto an expensive private tour (only getting slightly scolded that these people had paid a lot of money for this tour.)  But we got to see some of Vincent Van Gough’s famous paintings including some self-portraits and one of the Sunflower paintings.  Seeing famous art in person is always different than seeing it in books.  Although He painted over 800 paintings in his career, he only sold 3 of them and died very poor.

We took advantage of our museum passes to duck into a couple of smaller museums:  The Bag and Purse Museum (who knew!?) to see an exhibit about the history of suitcases.  Did you know that the company Samsonite was names after Samson in the bible, because the suitcases were so strong?

Then we were to a museum that showed what a wealthy family’s canal house from the 1700’s looked like.  It looked small from the outside, but inside it had huge rooms including a ballroom. And these buildings that seem to us crunched on top of one another, also have gardens behind them.  Very cool.

The last museum of the day was Rembrandt’s House.  This was where he did most of his work for 20 years, making a good living as both a commission painter and an art dealer.  It is was very wonderful to see where the work happened, and it included one of his printing presses for making his etchings.  The collection of etchings was stunning.  The whole place was great.

As we were looking for a place for dinner, the World Cup soccer game between USA and Germany was starting.  Throughout the downtown square there were huge gatherings of people with big screen TVS out and everyone watching the games. Europeans love their soccer!!!  Germany won, but the USA still moves on to the next round.

Back to the room and we both crashed.  These are such full days.  Walked another 8 miles, plus a lot of standing in the museums.   So many museums, so little time!

“I knew the vacation wasn't going to last forever... But the here and now was up for grabs, and I wasn't about to let it slip away.”
― Amanda Howells, The Summer of Skinny Dipping