Amsterdam - Sunday 18 Sep
On Sunday morning, Emily and I woke up early to go see the Beguinhof, a medieval complex for Catholic women who lived a semi-ascetic life without taking monastic vows. I had learned about the Beguines in a medieval history class last semester, and both of us were interested to see one of the few remaining centers of the unique group. However, when we got there, we found that we were unable to enter the buildings and photographs of the small courtyard were forbidden. We explored the outside of the small chapel, which was converted to a Presbyterian church during the Reformation in exchange for permission to keep the Beguinhof in existence, and found out that services in the Catholic chapel were scheduled too late for us to wait around, so we enjoyed the peaceful mood of the courtyard and continued on our way.
On our way to the tram stop, we spotted an interesting-looking church on a nearby street, and having time, we went to take a look around. The place turned out to be the 19th century church called De Krijtberg, and by far the most interesting interior I’ve ever seen. It was painted all over with beautiful bright colors on the walls and ceiling. Unable to take pictures, I bought a postcard on our way out.
We then went back to the hostel to pick up Sam, and soon we were on our way to the Van Gogh Museum. The place is quite huge for a museum devoted mostly to one artist; it houses over 200 of Van Gogh’s 900 paintings. We saw all our favorite works, minus Starry Night (which, ironically, is currently on loan to the Met in New York). I learned a lot about Van Gogh’s earlier work and bought a poster of one of his first big paintings, called The Potato Eaters. I also looked around the top floors, which had a small collection of work by Van Gogh’s contemporaries, especially Impressionists and Fauves.
After Van Gogh, Emily and I ate lunch at Brasserie Van Gogh (a few blocks away) while Sam went back to the hostel feeling very ill; she ended up seeing a Dutch doctor later that day who diagnosed her with bronchitis and supplied her with medication. Emily and I continued to Amstelkring, known in English as Our Lady of the Attic, a hidden Catholic chapel from the Reformation era and the only major tourist site where I was allowed to take pictures. Far from being an attic, however, the church occupied the top two floors of the building and the rest of the house was historically occupied by the caretaker of the church. Check out my photos to see what this place was like.
We left Amstelkring to go our separate ways, Emily to the Dutch Resistance Museum (history of the Dutch resistance to the Nazis) and myself to Rembrandthuis, the extravagant house purchased by Rembrandt and inhabited by him for several years until finally he was unable to pay off his mortgage any longer and it was repossessed. I was a little disappointed; I had expected to see a large collection of Rembrandt’s painting, but instead the rooms had works by his contemporaries. I did get to see a detailed (and bilingual) demonstration of how he created his etchings in the room where he once made them himself. Attached to the house is a small museum with a large collection of his etchings, which were interesting. Most fascinating was one particular image from his series of Old Testament scenes: called The Victory of Mordecai, it depicted the triumph of the Jews over the anti-Semite Haman in the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim. I found a postcard of this in the bookstore. It is the only depiction of this subject that I have ever heard of by a major artist.
Emily and I met up again after visiting our respective museums and headed back to the hostel, stopping on the way at the Old Church (Oude Kwerke), which was closed all weekend for a private affair; I at least got a photo of its steeple. We joined Sam for dinner at an amazingly good restaurant called Soup Kitchen, which serves only soup and a few other hot foods, followed by desert at a pancake house, where we had special bite-sized Dutch pancakes and stuffed ourselves completely. With full bellies and good experiences all around, we went back to our hostel and to bed, ready to wake up early for our flight back to Prague.
On our way to the tram stop, we spotted an interesting-looking church on a nearby street, and having time, we went to take a look around. The place turned out to be the 19th century church called De Krijtberg, and by far the most interesting interior I’ve ever seen. It was painted all over with beautiful bright colors on the walls and ceiling. Unable to take pictures, I bought a postcard on our way out.
We then went back to the hostel to pick up Sam, and soon we were on our way to the Van Gogh Museum. The place is quite huge for a museum devoted mostly to one artist; it houses over 200 of Van Gogh’s 900 paintings. We saw all our favorite works, minus Starry Night (which, ironically, is currently on loan to the Met in New York). I learned a lot about Van Gogh’s earlier work and bought a poster of one of his first big paintings, called The Potato Eaters. I also looked around the top floors, which had a small collection of work by Van Gogh’s contemporaries, especially Impressionists and Fauves.
After Van Gogh, Emily and I ate lunch at Brasserie Van Gogh (a few blocks away) while Sam went back to the hostel feeling very ill; she ended up seeing a Dutch doctor later that day who diagnosed her with bronchitis and supplied her with medication. Emily and I continued to Amstelkring, known in English as Our Lady of the Attic, a hidden Catholic chapel from the Reformation era and the only major tourist site where I was allowed to take pictures. Far from being an attic, however, the church occupied the top two floors of the building and the rest of the house was historically occupied by the caretaker of the church. Check out my photos to see what this place was like.
We left Amstelkring to go our separate ways, Emily to the Dutch Resistance Museum (history of the Dutch resistance to the Nazis) and myself to Rembrandthuis, the extravagant house purchased by Rembrandt and inhabited by him for several years until finally he was unable to pay off his mortgage any longer and it was repossessed. I was a little disappointed; I had expected to see a large collection of Rembrandt’s painting, but instead the rooms had works by his contemporaries. I did get to see a detailed (and bilingual) demonstration of how he created his etchings in the room where he once made them himself. Attached to the house is a small museum with a large collection of his etchings, which were interesting. Most fascinating was one particular image from his series of Old Testament scenes: called The Victory of Mordecai, it depicted the triumph of the Jews over the anti-Semite Haman in the story of the Jewish holiday of Purim. I found a postcard of this in the bookstore. It is the only depiction of this subject that I have ever heard of by a major artist.
Emily and I met up again after visiting our respective museums and headed back to the hostel, stopping on the way at the Old Church (Oude Kwerke), which was closed all weekend for a private affair; I at least got a photo of its steeple. We joined Sam for dinner at an amazingly good restaurant called Soup Kitchen, which serves only soup and a few other hot foods, followed by desert at a pancake house, where we had special bite-sized Dutch pancakes and stuffed ourselves completely. With full bellies and good experiences all around, we went back to our hostel and to bed, ready to wake up early for our flight back to Prague.
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