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Me in front of the Van Gogh museum
Behind me is a poster of Van Gogh's Almond blossoms. Amsterdam is a scary city. Having recently been to London, Paris, Brussels, and Rotterdam all which are major European cities I can tell you that Amsterdam is an adventure just walking out the door. Despite the compact nature of the city center and the fact that it is possible to walk from one major attraction to the next in 10-30 minutes I don’t advise it.
This is not a place that caters to pedestrians and from what I can see it doesn’t cater to cyclists, motorists, or to the trams that make up a bulk of the public transport. I have never seen anything more chaotic. I guess canal boat is the only way to see the city without fear of being trampled by something bigger or faster than you are.
Unfortunately the canals are part of the cause as the streets on either side of them are too narrow to accommodate more than one lane of traffic. And the sidewalks are miniscule and double as bicycle and car parking. There are these waist high concrete posts along most major roads that are the only deterrent against people driving their cars on the sidewalk. I know that is what they
are for because where there aren’t posts cars and motorcycles drive right down the sidewalk! Nowhere is safe! I should at least be able to walk on the sidewalk without a car running me over! I find it confusing that a city that is internationally know for its tolerance and forward thinking, that has regulated the drug and prostitution trade can not have a better traffic control. I think has its heart in the way they encourage bicycle riding as a means of major transport. There are 500,000 bicycles in Amsterdam (10,000 are fished out of the canals every year.) They should be like Americans and make it completely impractical to be able to get by without a car. Then the city would be forced to build parking garages and
Yesterday I walked through a street market and then I went to the Van Gogh museum. The Dutch pronounce it van GOCK. I shelled out for an audio guide which was very interesting. It took me 2 hours to get through the museum even though it is only one floor of Van Gogh paintings. There are over 200 of them in this museum: the largest collection of his work in
I Amsterdam
People climb all over this statue. one place. The Kroller-Muller museum has the second largest collection of Van Gogh’s work but I don’t know how to get there, and they don’t have the Starry Night painting which I really wanted to see. They sell the post cards, but that is just false advertising. The New York Museum of modern art has Starry Night. Those selfish Americans. When am I going to get to New York? Do I seriously have to make a special trip just to see one painting? Why couldn’t it be in the Netherlands where it belongs!
They do have some stunning pictures here. While I haven’t seen Starry Night in person, I don’t think it could be as pretty as The Almond Blossom painting. That was just stunning. And the still life of skeleton smoking a cigarette. I didn’t realize that van Gogh had a sense of humor. Or maybe he doesn’t maybe he saw a skeleton smoking a cigarette somewhere. The audio guide was very specific that Van Gogh only painted what he saw.
After the museum, about 4 pm I walked to Spui square where there is a giant American bookstore and all the books are in English! Woo hoo. They
had a nice romance section. Probably the best one I have seen since I left the US and even there they are rare. All the bookstores I found in London had romance sections that were pitiful to nonexistent.
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Denise (McKeen) Bockwoldt
non-member comment
Wonderful
Jenny, Your photos and commentary are so wonderful, I feel like I am on vacation with you! Looks like you are having fantastic weather as well... so many sunny days. Thanks for sharing your adventure. Dee (your dad's cousin)