We started our Amsterdam trip in Zaanse Schans, a beautiful small town that preserved the old Dutch countryside with windmills and traditional houses. About a quarter of the country is below sea level and the Dutch people, for centuries, have cultivated their land with engineering ingenuity and sheer will. As a result, the people of the Netherlands not only overcame their geographic disadvantages but even built a powerful agricultural industry – an ultimate “life gives you lemons, make lemonade” story.
We headed over to Rijksmuseum, which is largely considered one of the major museums in the entire Europe. Rembrandt van Rijn (usually simply called Rembrandt) was one of the most prominently featured artists at the museum, as he was one of the most influential and impactful Dutch artists of the era. He was also very prolific, with a lot of works spanning various subjects and genres. The museum also featured a few prominent works of Van Gogh.
We visited the Anne Frank house. We couldn’t go inside as we had to make the reservations months before, but we did take a guided tour around the nearby Jewish quarter and the Jewish Memorial. It was a somber tour. Anne Frank was 13 when she started hiding from the Nazis in her father’s warehouse; when she was sadly caught and died, she was 15. This resonated with us, because our kids are 15 and 12 (going on 13) respectively. It’s mind boggling to think of a girl our kids’ age had to go through such a horrible event, eventually losing her life (along with pretty much the entire family). War and politics are completely man-made, and it’s so sad that people had to lose their life because of these reasons.
The Van Gogh museum was very good – I’d say it far exceeded our expectations. We thought it was a relatively small, niche museum. But the museum had a large number of works, and was very well curated. Unlike other museums, the Van Gogh museum was obviously focusing on one artist – Van Gogh – so touring the museum almost felt like talking with the artist himself, learning about his life. We learned more about his genius and struggle. The museum featured not only his paintings but also letters he exchanged with his family members and friends. It was moving that he had such a close relationship with his brother, who was also the biggest supporter of his art career. What also touched me was the fact that Van Gogh focused even more on his work of art when his mental health problems deteriorated, towards the end of his short life. He was suffering from severe mental illness (he eventually took his own life) — the fact that he was driving himself harder and harder into art shows his love and passion about art.
