Amsterdam Cafes and Canal Cruises

July 17th, Amsterdam Cafes and Canal Cruises

Today is our last full day in Amsterdam. After another delicious hotel buffet breakfast we take the train into town. We disembark at our usual stop near the medieval district and pass through the Red Light district in the direction of the museums. One of the many ‘attractions’ of Amsterdam are the cafes and just as visiting the world class museums of Amsterdam has been on our bucket list, Art wishes to drink a cappuccino and smoke at one of the cafes before returning to the states. We eventually choose a tiny smoke filled cafe, order coffees and sit while Art relaxes into the experience. John and I will be the designated walkers.

Amsterdam Cafe
Stones Cafe Amsterdam

Visiting the Stedelijk museum is on today’s list. Although it too is a world class museum, it is not as popular with general tourists as the Van Gogh museum or the Rijksmuseum. There are no lines and we rent the audio guide which is poorly organized and far from intuitive. The highlight for us is the Amsterdam School of Art Nouveau collection. The Tuschinski Theatre that we visited yesterday is a fine example of this exuberant style of Dutch Art Nouveau.

Amsterdam School of Art Nouveau, Clocks
Amsterdam School Clock
Wall Sculpture
Amsterdam School Stained Glass Lighting
Claw detail, Amsterdam School

We read that this Dutch style emerged correlative to the Art Nouveau movement but this original style with with it’s angular shapes and lines, claw and visceral fang like elements feels more like Art Deco. Many of the pieces in the collection seem ‘Alien’ and I would not be surprised if the costume designers of the 1979 Alien and subsequent Predator movies were influenced by this bold Dutch Art Nouveau style. John takes time in an interactive art room to create his version of one of the clock faces. A modern art installation is in the basement of the museum.

Interactive art room,  Stedelijk Museum
John drawing his clock face

John and I still hope to make it to the Anne Frank House and we hop on a bus towards that section of town. It is late afternoon and we do not have tickets and the lines wind around several blocks but we are still hopeful that they will thin before 7:00 p.m; the closing time for the Anne Frank house. Unfortunately they do not and we aren’t able to visit.

Art, John, bridge in Amsterdam
Afternoon drinks

We have reservations for a 9:00 P.M. canal boat tour and Art returns to the hotel to rest while John and I shop for a picnic dinner to take on the boat. We buy bread and cheese and two bottles of wine. We pass time at the tulip museum, enjoy a drink together and eventually it is time for our canal boat tour.

Canal boat tours
Amsterdam, near Anne Frank House

Our tour is with the Dam Boat Guys, recommended in our guide book as leading laid back, humorous and informative canal tours. Aside from the three of us, there are two other couples on our tour and they have not brought wine or a picnic. Our guide makes it pretty clear that he expects to share our wine and although he already seems rather well on the way to inebriation, we fill his glass several times over and wish that we had brought an extra bottle.

Dam Boat Guy drinking our wine and piloting the boat
Dam Boat Guy canal tour, Amsterdam

The canals glitter with reflected light and we throughly enjoy the nearly two hour tour, a lovely end to our four days in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam canals at night
Amsterdam canal at night

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

July 16th Rijksmuseum – Amsterdam

After another delicious hotel buffet breakfast we take the train into Amsterdam arriving when the Rijksmuseum opens.

Rijksmuseum 

We pick up our audioguides and race upstairs to the main galleries that we know will be crowded with tourists shortly. For nearly an hour, we manage to stay ahead of the throngs of tourists and view many fine old Dutch masterpieces in near empty galleries. All three of us pose in front of Rembrandt’s impressive Night Watch and we immerse ourselves in the rich collection of Vermeer paintings.

Rijksmuseum Gallery
Art, Rembrandt’s Night Watch
Marty John, Rembrandt’s Night Watch

Art is so moved by the Vermeer’s that I see tears welling up in his eyes. We examine the Girl with the Pearl Earring and Woman Reading a Letter and although John has not studied art, he is fascinated and listens intently to the audio guide. We are delighted to see him so appreciative and he tells us that he wants to study Art History. This trip, especially the museums in Italy, has whetted his appetite.

Four hours into our visit, we break for lunch in the museum cafe. The service is frustratingly slow but the food is good and an hour later we are recharged and continue onto other floors and galleries of the museum.

Ship model
 John, wrinkled but appreciative

One of the floors features a collection of curiosities and Art and John spend an hour immersed in ship models, locks and keys and all manners of contraptions. I am absorbed by a wonderful collection of baroque pearl jewelry and art nouveau jewelry.

Art Nouveau baroque pearl pendant
Baroque dragon amulet

Angel chaffing dish

We continue towards a wing featuring a first rate exhibit of Asian art and Japanese prints and as closing time nears, we do some frenzied backtracking, riding the elevators up and down to various floors and wings of the museum that we might have missed. This is when Art perceives that we are being watched and possibly followed by one or several of the guards. I am so absorbed in the art that I haven’t noticed but in retrospect, we are an unusual and somewhat disheveled trio and we have been in the museum since opening. Either many of the guards look the same or one has been assigned to watch us.

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Pearl diver, Japanese woodblock

We did not expect to spend the entire day in the Rijksmuseum but when the museum closes, we return our audio guides and collect our belongings from the lockers and allow the museum guards to relax.

I have visited Amsterdam on several occasions and when I was a girl, I remember my parents taking me to a  Rijsttafel dinner in Amsterdam. Dutch Indonesian colonists brought this cuisine to the Netherlands. A Rijsttafle dinner is a pageantry of a dozen or more small plates of meat, vegetables and rice all flavored with various spices and presented in brazier-type heated dishes. I am insistent that we splurge on one of these meals and after some inquiries and cross referencing our guide book, we choose an upstairs restaurant for our Rijsttafel experience. In a similar fashion to shared Chinese meals, the  three of us choose one of the prix fix menus. An array of dishes are brought to our table and we enjoy one of the best meal experiences of our trip.

Rijsttafel dinner 

We cross back through the Red Light district on our way to our train stop. The streets are crowded with people carrying plastic drink cups and ogling the working girls in the windows.

Van Gogh and Tuschinski

July 15th, Van Gogh Museum and Tuschinski Theater,  Amsterdam

The included breakfast at our hotel is wonderful and we load our plates with slices of delicious Dutch cheeses, meats, fresh fruits and melt in your mouth pastries. The coffee is strong and ample and we are grateful that we do not need to search the streets of Amsterdam for the illusive, perfect cafe. During breakfast, I purchase online tickets to visit the Van Gogh Museum today and the Rijksmuseum, tomorrow. With prepaid tickets downloaded on my phone, we will be able to avoid the purchase ticket line and wait in just one queue at our scheduled entrance times. The morning is sunny and cool and we head to the train stop at the arena. Unfortunately, it is a 30 minute train ride into the medieval center of town. Row houses line the picturesque cobbled streets and we cross over several canals and pass through the red light district on our way to the museum district. The Red Light district is especially seedy and sad in the morning light. The gutters swim with slimy liquid and trash is everywhere. We notice several crews of morning sanitation workers doing their daily cleanup and a mini street sweeper car chugs along washing the gutters.

On our way to the museum district we stroll through the Jordaan district, popping into antique shops crammed with collectables. A window display of museum quality art nouveau jewelry catches our eye and the kind salesperson allows us to examine several of the enamel pieces. Two are Danish modern silver pins and although expensive, purchasing one of these is not beyond the realm of possibility. John and I, having just taken Merry-lee Rae’s cloisonné workshop inquire of an exquisite art nouveau gold and enamel neckpiece. It is not overpriced at $15,000 euros but beyond our means. Because of our interest in the Art Deco and Art Nouveau jewelry, the gallery curator tells us we must go see the Tuschinski Theatre, an architectural masterpiece of the Amsterdam School. We will stumble upon it later this afternoon and it is indeed fabulous!

Antique store in the Jordaan

Bicycles and Canals of Amsterdam

When we arrive at the museum district a crafts market is in full swing along the perimeter of a large park. There are about a hundred exhibitors and many of the booths have unique and indie style products. I am especially struck by a booth selling mini skirts made from vintage fabrics and I consider buying one for Alisha until I learn that the designer has an Etsy shop and that I will be able to show Alisha the fabric options and be certain of her size at a later time. Had the woman not had an Etsy shop, I would have bought one at the market and since I am writing this blog many months after our trip and have still not taken action to buy one, her having an Etsy shop was deterrent to me buying one at the time. This is an interesting concept to consider.

We enter the Van Gogh museum at our scheduled time, rent the audio guide headphones and spend nearly three hours at the exhibit. Many of the paintings are like visiting old friends but it is especially wonderful to see John so engaged in the art. Most interesting to me was a section about the psychiatric and medical state of Van Gogh and how his mental state affected his work and ultimately caused his death.

In the late afternoon we visit the Coster Diamond Factory. There a number of these diamond factories along one street and I surmise that all of them use the same formula. The factory is a sales tool for these diamond companies and I watch with fascination as the expert sales staff make quick evaluations to snare and pull in their catch of the tourist dollars. The expansive ‘factory’ is divided into many showrooms and most tourists follow a standard path, but there are tributaries where a more affluent or serious clientele are funneled into private rooms and treated to a red carpet experience; one on one with an expert sales person, high end diamonds and champagne. One exits through a low end gift shop where CZ’s are all that sparkles.

Marty, Coster Diamond Factory

Marty, Coster Diamond Factory

As we return through the park, there are several tents serving free vegetarian meals and we accept a bowl of vegetarian stew before realizing that it is a controversial event supporting an Israeli pro Palestinian movement.

Museum park district, Rijksmuseum

We walk back towards the medieval center of town and although we are not actually looking for the Tuschinski Theatre, we stumble across it and are jolted into the realization that this is the Theatre that we were told about earlier. The architecture is remarkable and alien; a unique version of Art Deco. We enter and examine the stained glass and interior details before starting our nightly routine of reading menus in search of the perfect restaurant.

Tuschinski Theater

Tuschinski Theater

Detail Tuschinski Theater