It’s Van Gogh You Know

Hi again. For those of you still sticking it out, this is the next entry in our Holland Belgium France adventure.
This day started out very similar to yesterday - amazing breakfast at our door, walking to Dam Square and catching the tram to Museumplein. This time we are going to check out Van Gogh. Housed in a newer separate building, this museum is completely dedicated to Van Gogh and his art. He painted for about 10 years and after battling serious mental health issues, he shot himself in a field in a small village near Paris.

This museum was definitely more crowded than the Rijksmuseum where we visited yesterday. Fortunately Van Gogh’s brother Theo kept many of his brother’s art and it was his son that eventually established the museum. So we, along with the masses, slowly passed by all the self-portraits (Van Gogh couldn’t afford to pay for models, kind of a starving artist thing) and beautiful nature scenes. I’m sure you’ll recognize many of this paintings, a few which now feature an obligatory selfie! I know, I know, it’s kind of tacky but you get caught up in the moment.

Three hours flew by, man it’s amazing how that happens so fast. So we headed to the on-site coffee shop for ….. you guessed it, cappuccinos!

We perused the gift shop for a bit to get some souvenirs and spent a some time just enjoying the building itself. In the main atrium they project colourful images taken from the artworks.

As we were we zipping back to our place on Tram #12 we noticed a large flower market that we’ve been meaning to check out. With our handy dandy all day passes it is convenient to utilize the “hop on, hop off” system. Helps save some energy with you’re putting in 15K - 20K steps/day too!
Here’s Beth in her happy place.

We did eventually make it back to our place for s quick siesta and re-group.
Getting to be around 3 pm’ish we decided to check out another area from Beth’s family past. Before her grandparents moved to Duivendrecht (see the previous entry) they lived in another area in Amsterdam. Again, unfortunately their apartment does not exist, but there are many similar structures still standing and gave us a sense of their neighbour hood. The small park is an area where Beth’s grandmother pushed her dad around in a stroller while her grandfather minded the coal shop.

To get to this area we walked through the beautiful Oosterpark. A nice green oasis and a respite from the crowd. The local Dutch were relaxing and enjoying the late August weather.
Walking back to the tram we came across the former Jewish area and visited a monument dedicated to the Jewish Amsterdammers who were deported to concentration camps. It was in a former theatre that the Nazis converted to a holding place to arrest, document and then eventually ship these unfortunate souls. The Nazis eventually claimed that Amsterdam was free of Jews, and closed the building. It eventually fell into disrepair and later after the war the site was saved for this facility.

Finally back in our hood we had a well-deserved Heineken.
This was our last full day in Amsterdam. Tomorrow morning we will pack up and head off to Delft.