We got up relatively early the next morning, got ready, packed a backpack with our lunch, grabbed our raincoats and set off to do a round of museums. On our way we stopped at a little bakery for a loaf to go with our cheese and salami. Around the corner from the bakery we discovered a market happening in the street, so we decided to check it out. We didn’t get very far before it began to thunder ominously, shortly followed by the addition of lightning and a sudden downpour. We ducked into a stall selling baked goods, and Jan got a pastry and I got a muffin. Then we darted back out into the rain and ran over to the first café we saw. There we ate our breakfast with a coffee and watched a beach party on the TV. We left when it cleared up, which wasn’t too long.
The first item on our itinerary was the Rembrandt Museum. Previous to our arrival, I hadn’t known that the museum was actually his house, but it was a pleasant surprise when I got there. It ended up being a wonderful museum, and I greatly enjoyed it. It was nice and small, no wait at all, and we were given a free audio tour through the house. Evidently Rembrandt had become bankrupt at the end of his life and so the city had taken a very precise account of everything within his house, which the museum had sought out and restored as much as possible to what it had been like when he lived there. The first room we saw was probably not in the house at all, but was a little room whose sole purpose was to showcase two paintings. One was a religious theme, but the other was absolutely amazing. It was a still life of ceramics highlighted with a touch of light. Beneath the painting was the actual objects Rembrandt had used as his subject, yet they paled in comparison to the breathtaking beauty and perfection that they attained in Rembrandt’s work. The painting gave them so much more dimension and reality as to make the ceramics in the painting more real than the objects themselves. It was incredible. It was such a great experience, especially because we weren’t crowded by other viewers, it was almost us alone with the painting, and we could enjoy it at our leisure.
{A Poor Attempt to Capture the Painting}
From there we moved on to the kitchen, the entry hall, the guest room, the printing room, the living room, Rembrandt’s room and more. Of course, my favorite was Rembrandt’s studio. It was something to be there, to know that’s where he painted, and to know that it was those windows and that same light that streamed through them that was the lighting that illuminated his subjects for his paintings. It was a moment to savor.
After the Rembrandt museum we moved on to Van Gogh. Between the two we took a little break back at the apartment to enjoy our lunch of bread, cheese and sausage. Together they were all delicious, especially washed down with glasses of Leffe tripel.
I enjoyed the Van Gogh museum too, but it wasn’t quite as enjoyable due to the masses of tourists crowding every painting (I mean, who doesn’t wish they were the only tourist around?). Also I had liked how Rembrandt’s was about it being his house, and not just a typical museum. Van Gogh’s colors were incredible, vivid, fun and unique. There were a couple paintings that I had to re-visit before we left the building, they made such an impression on me.
The rest of the afternoon and evening we spent exploring and re-visiting areas of downtown. For dinner we enjoyed schwarma and falafel, eating the tasty food right on the corner of the street, watching bikes pass, people sitting outside the cafes, and the boats passing on the canal.
We had a fun time in Amsterdam, though we were happy to return to Belgium and our friends the next day. Amsterdam is a great city, though sadly I cannot call it a culinary must-visit. The art alone however (not even counting the beautiful architecture, canals, bridges, and women) makes it a worthy destination.
{and did I mention the clouds are amazing?}
