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sight-seeing can be exhausting,
Oct. 6th, 2006 09:53 pmand it'll probably be a few days before I could see art again and appreciate it.
Yesterday it was cold and blustery, but mostly not rainy, which was good because there was some outdoor things in Amsterdam I wanted to do. First the three of us went to the Rembrandt House, which turned out to be far, far cooler than I expected. I thought it was just a little museum in the apartment which used to be his house, but it's much more than that - it's all the rooms that he lived in furnished and arranged as they were during his life, including multitudes of paintings on the walls, the studio where he did his engraving (there was a museum employee there who did demonstrations of the engraving process, including the use of the huge press), and his curio-cabinet room, with busts of Roman emperors, puffer fish, old coins, Kenyan woven shields, shells, horns, antlers, a snake skin, coral, and more. Then, on the top floors, there was an exhibit of the art trade involving van Uylenbergh and Rembrandt, complete with a number of paintings on loan from the Rijksmuseum (more about that later).
After that, Joel went off to the office, and Mom and I walked up to the Waag to have our sandwhiches in the square there. Then we make a thorough perusal of the flee market, where mom picked up one of the things on her list - a windmill cookie press. I also picked up something I'd been considering getting since I first saw them last year - a fleece-lined wool jacket with deep pockets and a long elf-style hood. I'd first seen them last year, and thought how warm and cozy they looked, and how I really need a sort of interim fall jacket. A year later, I still like them and still need a fall jacket, so I figured that was reason enough to get one. We then went on to another market where I was able to get pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done (and that's all I'm gonna say about it, 'cause I don't want to spoil any surprises).
Today it was raining, sometimes heavily, all day. We went first to the Rijksmuseum. It's actually under substantial renovation at the moment - I guess it's not expected to be completed until 2009 - and perhaps only a quarter of the entire space as open. So, in that respect, it was very nice that a number of things from the Rijksmuseum were on loan at the Mauritzhuis and the Rembrandthuis, because that means we did get to see them. I enjoyed the Rijksmuseum less than some of the others, because it was a lot more crowded and noisy. Also, this was the first place where you had to pay for the audio tour, and I wasn't especially impressed with it; there was commentary on only a fraction of the items. But it was still good enough for us to spend nearly 4 hours there - longer than we had in any other museum. After that, we went to the van Gogh museum for another two hours. I hadn't realized that with the exception of the varying exhibit (which we didn't buy the extra tickets to see, because we weren't interested in it) and a few pieces on the ground floor, the entire museum is of van Gogh. It was fascinating to see the vast changes in painting styles from the 17th C Dutch masters and the 19th C impressionists. And it's always exciting to see "in the flesh" paintings which I recognized.
Still, by the end of the afternoon, I've seen enough art in the last two days that I don't think I could appreciate any more, for a little while. Also, I picked the wrong shoes for standing around for 6 hours, and my feet were beginning to hurt.
The plan was to go to Delft tomorrow, but the forecast is saying rain, rain, rain, and since we were primarily going to walk around the city, this may not be the best of weather to do it in. I wouldn't mind just hanging around the house tomorrow, we don't have to be doing something EVERY minute mom is here, and we do leave early Sunday morning for Berlin.
We've managed to have bacon every day this week so far -
Tuesday - schnitzels with mushroom sauce, and mashed potatoes with spinach, bacon, and peccarino (I told Joel he had to take advantage of mom's being here to make potatoes; I don't like them and will not eat them and so he rarely gets them when it's just the two of us.)
Wednesday - spaghetti carbonara
Thursday - risotto with parmesan and bacon
Friday - chicken marsala with roasted onions with bacon, balsamic vinegar, and maple syrup
Saturday - waffles with bacon (breakfast)
We don't normally eat bacon quite this often, but it's not a coincidence that so many of our most favorite meals have bacon in them. :)
Yesterday it was cold and blustery, but mostly not rainy, which was good because there was some outdoor things in Amsterdam I wanted to do. First the three of us went to the Rembrandt House, which turned out to be far, far cooler than I expected. I thought it was just a little museum in the apartment which used to be his house, but it's much more than that - it's all the rooms that he lived in furnished and arranged as they were during his life, including multitudes of paintings on the walls, the studio where he did his engraving (there was a museum employee there who did demonstrations of the engraving process, including the use of the huge press), and his curio-cabinet room, with busts of Roman emperors, puffer fish, old coins, Kenyan woven shields, shells, horns, antlers, a snake skin, coral, and more. Then, on the top floors, there was an exhibit of the art trade involving van Uylenbergh and Rembrandt, complete with a number of paintings on loan from the Rijksmuseum (more about that later).
After that, Joel went off to the office, and Mom and I walked up to the Waag to have our sandwhiches in the square there. Then we make a thorough perusal of the flee market, where mom picked up one of the things on her list - a windmill cookie press. I also picked up something I'd been considering getting since I first saw them last year - a fleece-lined wool jacket with deep pockets and a long elf-style hood. I'd first seen them last year, and thought how warm and cozy they looked, and how I really need a sort of interim fall jacket. A year later, I still like them and still need a fall jacket, so I figured that was reason enough to get one. We then went on to another market where I was able to get pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done (and that's all I'm gonna say about it, 'cause I don't want to spoil any surprises).
Today it was raining, sometimes heavily, all day. We went first to the Rijksmuseum. It's actually under substantial renovation at the moment - I guess it's not expected to be completed until 2009 - and perhaps only a quarter of the entire space as open. So, in that respect, it was very nice that a number of things from the Rijksmuseum were on loan at the Mauritzhuis and the Rembrandthuis, because that means we did get to see them. I enjoyed the Rijksmuseum less than some of the others, because it was a lot more crowded and noisy. Also, this was the first place where you had to pay for the audio tour, and I wasn't especially impressed with it; there was commentary on only a fraction of the items. But it was still good enough for us to spend nearly 4 hours there - longer than we had in any other museum. After that, we went to the van Gogh museum for another two hours. I hadn't realized that with the exception of the varying exhibit (which we didn't buy the extra tickets to see, because we weren't interested in it) and a few pieces on the ground floor, the entire museum is of van Gogh. It was fascinating to see the vast changes in painting styles from the 17th C Dutch masters and the 19th C impressionists. And it's always exciting to see "in the flesh" paintings which I recognized.
Still, by the end of the afternoon, I've seen enough art in the last two days that I don't think I could appreciate any more, for a little while. Also, I picked the wrong shoes for standing around for 6 hours, and my feet were beginning to hurt.
The plan was to go to Delft tomorrow, but the forecast is saying rain, rain, rain, and since we were primarily going to walk around the city, this may not be the best of weather to do it in. I wouldn't mind just hanging around the house tomorrow, we don't have to be doing something EVERY minute mom is here, and we do leave early Sunday morning for Berlin.
We've managed to have bacon every day this week so far -
Tuesday - schnitzels with mushroom sauce, and mashed potatoes with spinach, bacon, and peccarino (I told Joel he had to take advantage of mom's being here to make potatoes; I don't like them and will not eat them and so he rarely gets them when it's just the two of us.)
Wednesday - spaghetti carbonara
Thursday - risotto with parmesan and bacon
Friday - chicken marsala with roasted onions with bacon, balsamic vinegar, and maple syrup
Saturday - waffles with bacon (breakfast)
We don't normally eat bacon quite this often, but it's not a coincidence that so many of our most favorite meals have bacon in them. :)
