Art & park

On  the Sunday  of our holiday, the coach took us to Amsterdam. On the way the tour leader, Bev, put us into two groups. One lot was to go on a guided walking tour while the other did the canal cruise. In the afternoon it was to be done the reverse way round. We were initially put in the group to go on the cruise in the morning, but we managed to get it swapped. We were intending to go to the Van Gogh Museum. I thought by the time we’d done that the Fox would be ready for an afternoon sit-down on the boat. As it turned out we were very grateful we did go round the museum in the morning as we looked at the size of the queues to buy tickets to get in.

The Van Gogh Museum was excellent. I don’t think I have ever seen so many Van Gogh paintings in one place. It was well laid out. One floor displayed portraits & self-portraits. Higher up in the building we were given a chronological exhibition of his works, including examples of works by other artists who influenced him. In this way you were able to see how his style developed.

We saw some of the inevitable ones e.g. “Sunflowers”.  Other pictures, known only from illustrations, proved to be surprisingly more impressive in reality e.g. “The Potato Eaters”. The traumatic ones were undoubtedly his last two paintings, “Cornfields with Flight of Birds” & “Tree Roots”. Here you felt his distress. The latter was more a vision of hell than tree roots in my mind.

After a couple of hours of going around the gallery, we were numb, emotionally drained. We decided to go off & find somewhere for a drink, a bit of refreshment. We discovered a quiet bar, frequented by locals only & sat outside in the cold. My hot chocolate was very welcome. As we still had an hour or so to kill before joining the others for the canal cruise, we decided to visit the Vondelpark, an oasis of green in the midst of the city. This large park was landscaped in an English style. It seemed a very popular escape as runners, cyclists, dog-walkers or frequented it. 

Bandstand in Vondelpark

Vondelpark

After a tour around some of it, & a few sit-downs to admire the view & rest the Fox’s sore feet & hips, we headed back to the place the cruise boat was departing from, & sat and waited for the others to join us.

This time the cruise seemed shorter than remembered. We both found it less exciting than the first time we did the trip a couple of years ago. We’d located the main sites – Anne Frank’s house, the port, Nemo etc. – and in April the Santas & light show of December had gone. At least it gave us a good sit-down before our return to the coach for the trip back to the hotel.

Amsterdam remains in our minds & hearts as one of our favourite cities. The architecture, the canals, the people, all make it a wonderful place to visit.