Ok -- I know that some of these are out of chronological order (my audience may not realize this), but I figured that I'd knock out the touristy and general posts before getting to the nightlife posts. Like I mentioned in the flower market post, I really didn't find all that much to do in Amsterdam other than the Red Light District related activities.
To me, non-Red Light District things boiled down to a couple of things -- museums (keeping with the Red Light District theme, there's a sex museum, and a torture museum, as well as more mainstream stuff), shopping, renting a bike (why bother in such a tiny city?), the flower market, and...and...hmm. My map wasn't much help -- I got it at the hostel and it highlighted every coffee shop and Red Light District area in the city, but besides that; not so much...
So, I'm not really a Van Gogh fan, nor am I big museum person, but I figured, "What the hell?" I was staying about 200 yards from the museum, and I've heard of Van Gogh -- who knows? Maybe there'll be an ear in a jar or something. Let's check it out...
As it turns out, a couple of museums resided in the area. There was a diamond museum (with my prior experience with jewels, I refused to step within a 20 yard radius of that place), a rather large, "general" looking museum, and the Van Gogh.
I didn't know if this sign was supposed to be famous or something, but it was on several key chains and t-shirts in the neighboring shops, so I figured I should take a pic of it. See what they did with the "am" in "I am" and "Amsterdam." Wow! The museum in the background was fairly impressive looking at least...
At the other end of a nice open area, and across from this museum, was the Van Gogh museum and a theater. First the theater...
and, the Van Gogh...
I'm probably one of the worst people to review a museum, but here are some of my observations (of course, pics weren't allowed inside)...
The museum itself was pretty nice -- it had four floors dedicated to Van Gogh with a few of his contemporaries mixed in for good measure, and they were arranged chronologically so it was interesting to see how his work changed as he aged. Also, they claimed that he was a very religious man, so, though he spent time in Paris, he gravitated to doing works of "common farmers and laborers" because he equated their work as a more holy endeavor than the shenanigans that were occurring in the cities in the late 1800's. Eventually he moved outside the cities and lived the rest of his life in the countryside.
The museum claimed to own the world's largest Van Gogh collection (which I have no reason to doubt -- there were tons of his works), but none of the most well-known paintings (other than one of his self-portraits) resided at this museum, so that was a little disappointing to me. Also, in the chronological story of his life, the museum pretty much glossed over the ear incident. They literally had one line of his life story dedicated to it that said, "and then the famous ear incident occurred." I was hoping to buy an ear key-chain and coffee mug, but alas, no beans.
There was a smaller wing dedicated to Picasso, and it was structured the same way; a chronological history of Picasso's works (wow -- I've now used "chronological" four times in this post -- that's embarrassing).
I grew to appreciate some of Van Gogh's stuff, but I just couldn't get into Picasso. I navigated this wing of the museum in under 10 minutes.
So, that was pretty much it. It was a museum. What can I say? There were a TON of kids and tourists there...
Ok -- now that all of that is out of the way, time to post about the nightlife...
To me, non-Red Light District things boiled down to a couple of things -- museums (keeping with the Red Light District theme, there's a sex museum, and a torture museum, as well as more mainstream stuff), shopping, renting a bike (why bother in such a tiny city?), the flower market, and...and...hmm. My map wasn't much help -- I got it at the hostel and it highlighted every coffee shop and Red Light District area in the city, but besides that; not so much...
So, I'm not really a Van Gogh fan, nor am I big museum person, but I figured, "What the hell?" I was staying about 200 yards from the museum, and I've heard of Van Gogh -- who knows? Maybe there'll be an ear in a jar or something. Let's check it out...
As it turns out, a couple of museums resided in the area. There was a diamond museum (with my prior experience with jewels, I refused to step within a 20 yard radius of that place), a rather large, "general" looking museum, and the Van Gogh.
I didn't know if this sign was supposed to be famous or something, but it was on several key chains and t-shirts in the neighboring shops, so I figured I should take a pic of it. See what they did with the "am" in "I am" and "Amsterdam." Wow! The museum in the background was fairly impressive looking at least...
At the other end of a nice open area, and across from this museum, was the Van Gogh museum and a theater. First the theater...
and, the Van Gogh...
I'm probably one of the worst people to review a museum, but here are some of my observations (of course, pics weren't allowed inside)...
The museum itself was pretty nice -- it had four floors dedicated to Van Gogh with a few of his contemporaries mixed in for good measure, and they were arranged chronologically so it was interesting to see how his work changed as he aged. Also, they claimed that he was a very religious man, so, though he spent time in Paris, he gravitated to doing works of "common farmers and laborers" because he equated their work as a more holy endeavor than the shenanigans that were occurring in the cities in the late 1800's. Eventually he moved outside the cities and lived the rest of his life in the countryside.
The museum claimed to own the world's largest Van Gogh collection (which I have no reason to doubt -- there were tons of his works), but none of the most well-known paintings (other than one of his self-portraits) resided at this museum, so that was a little disappointing to me. Also, in the chronological story of his life, the museum pretty much glossed over the ear incident. They literally had one line of his life story dedicated to it that said, "and then the famous ear incident occurred." I was hoping to buy an ear key-chain and coffee mug, but alas, no beans.
There was a smaller wing dedicated to Picasso, and it was structured the same way; a chronological history of Picasso's works (wow -- I've now used "chronological" four times in this post -- that's embarrassing).
I grew to appreciate some of Van Gogh's stuff, but I just couldn't get into Picasso. I navigated this wing of the museum in under 10 minutes.
So, that was pretty much it. It was a museum. What can I say? There were a TON of kids and tourists there...
Ok -- now that all of that is out of the way, time to post about the nightlife...
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