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Amsterdam
From Rembrandt to the Red Light District and everything in between, Amsterdam truly offers has something for everybody. I’ve been told by countless people, from grandparents to students, that it is one of the best European cities to visit, so my expectations going in to this weekend were very high. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed.
Amsterdam at sunrise.
Beautiful blue sky. No photoshop here.
To begin with, the city is beautiful - filled with canals and architecture that made me feel like I was in the middle of Boston. Cars are few and far between; the road is crowded instead with hundreds of bikers. So on Saturday morning, it was our first order of business to rent bikes, which we used throughout the day to explore the city and get from place to place. Amsterdam offers an endless array of museums, and with a MuseumCard, you gain access to all of them (save for a few less traditional “museums”), so we all got the card and took full advantage of it. We didn’t arrive in Amsterdam until Friday evening, but luckily the Van Gogh was open until 10pm. I spent hours wandering the museum and becoming acquainted with some of his less famous work. It was amazing to see how many styles and themes he explored. For examples, I wasn’t previously aware of his fascination with Japanese art and culture (shout out to Comachi!). In an interesting anecdote on one of the walls, he was quoted saying he hoped he would become Japanese on his way to the French Riviera. I loved his paintings of gardens, especially the almond branches. In addition to the art, there was food served and a DJ playing music, including the XX and Jose Gonzalez. The atmosphere was young and the museum felt filled with energy; it was was a great first stop in Amsterdam. After that, we enjoyed some Chinese stir fry for dinner. Amsterdam boasts over 1000 restaurants with cuisine from all over the world, so we were excited to find some stir-fry, which is rare to come by in France. Then we headed to the carnival which happened to be set up that weekend, where we enjoyed mini Dutch pancakes for dessert. Yum!
Night tourist photo with the group at the I Amsterdam sign. If you look closely you can spot all 7 of us.
Saturday was filled with museums. We started off at the Rembrandt museum, which was set up in his house. Of course the paintings were striking, but it felt even more incredible to have the chance to wander in and out of his studio, bedroom, and kitchen.
Rembrandt’s studio.
Interesting anecdote - the beds in his house were boxes built into the wall called “box beds.” This is because at the time, it was believed that lying down to sleep would cause death by blood rushing to the head, so people slept sitting up!
We also had the chance to watch a demonstration of the process through which Rembrandt’s prints were made. I had a lot of exposure to prints this weekend (with Rembrandt and then Escher), and I am now fascinated by them! Its such an impressive and seemingly impossible technique to me, and I wish I knew how to do it.
Following Rembrandt, we wandered through the famous Flea Market in Waterlooplein. It was filled with classy items such as these space suits:
Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything.
Then came the Rijksmuseum, filled with Dutch art and history. My favorites were the Rembrandt and Vermeer pieces.
Coincidentally, Michelle (a friend from ADPi at Duke) was in the Netherlands this weekend visiting cousins! So we met up after the Rijks and she joined us for the rest of the day!
Another touristy photo with Michelle
It started raining pretty heavily right after we met up, so we dashed into the first restaurant we could find. It was great to catch up and exchange stories about DukeEngage and our adventures abroad. Michelle is spending the semester at UCL in London. After lunch, we toured the Heineken brewery, which was entertaining but admittedly the most touristy thing I’ve been to in Europe. After dinner and some exploring, Michelle headed back to her family. But I’ll get to see her again next week in London!
Sunday we had to spend most of the day making the 9 hour journey back to Metz, but we stopped in The Hague in order to see the MC Escher Museum. Of course, his prints are fascinating, and it was cool to also see his journals, filled with equations, geometry, and sketches to learn a little bit about his process. The most interesting part of the museum was a video of the “Print Gallery,” showing how it unwinded from a normal image into the final result. I’ll post the video next. To be honest, there’s not a striking difference between seeing the print on a wall and seeing it in an art book - not the way its different to see a painting in person. Yet I still loved the museum because it offered the chance to learn about and focus on hundreds of his works, while also learning a bit more about the background.
The journey home could have been better… As I already mentioned, Curtis had his bag stolen. Then we arrived to Luxembourg and found out that the train to Metz was canceled, thanks to the strike. We were lucky that they were running a bus back to Metz (though the bus took twice as long as the train would have…), otherwise we would have been stuck in Luxembourg for the night! But putting up with these travel complications was definitely worth it for the incredible weekend we had in the Netherlands.
