This weekend was my ‘do all the museums’ weekend. It didn’t work out exactly as I thought it would. For starters, on Friday night I set my alarm for 6pm instead of 6am, so by the time I woke up at 8.10am I was already supposed to have left the house. That put Anne Frank’s House out of the plan for that day, because the lines get really killer if you don’t get there right near opening time. So I plodded into town anyway, and came across the Van Gogh Museum, and went in. There was no line at all, but when I left there was quite a big one! Such good timing.
The museum was absolutely amazing! I can’t say I knew much about Van Gogh beforehand (other than that he was a painter and a little bit crazy). If you’re going, I would fully recommend you indulge and spend the extra 4 euros to get the audio tour (it comes in all sorts of languages). The museum at first seemed really big and I was confused about where I was supposed to be going and in what order, so I got the audio set. It was really informative – for almost every Van Gogh painting there is an audio accompaniment which tells you background to the painting, where he was in his life when he painted it, and sometimes quotes from his letters to his brother when he was talking specifically about this painting. That was great! Plus a lot of the paintings in the museum weren’t painted by him, and you could be easily confused as to why they’re there at all. There sometimes isn’t very much information on the wall next to the painting, so the audio tour definitely came in handy for this reason as well.
Kinga had gone to the Rijksmuseum, so we met in the park between the two for lunch. It was a beautiful day, but it was freezing cold! There’s a temporary ice skating rink set up in front of the Rijksmuseum, which gives a pretty nice photo point – see?
Kinga had gone to the Rijksmuseum, so we met in the park between the two for lunch. It was a beautiful day, but it was freezing cold! There’s a temporary ice skating rink set up in front of the Rijksmuseum, which gives a pretty nice photo point – see?
I still have to go to the Rijksmuseum another day.
After lunch we parted ways again and I went to the Diamant Museum!!! It’s such a girly place to go! It tells the whole story of Amsterdam as a Diamond Trading Centre and shows you how a diamond goes from the ground to your finger. They also have movie snippets and a big collection of royal jewels on loan which are displayed on the top floor. Their logo has this white Persian cat wearing a tiara, which is so cute. But I wasn’t feeling well so I accidentally left without buying a postcard of it or anything! Luckily you don’t need a ticket to get into the shop (like you do at Van Gogh) so I can go back and get one later if I want to.
Saturday night I was still feeling rotten, with a headache and just feeling exhausted in general. Most of the others went out for dinner to some restaurant which is on top of the motorway (weird eh) but I stayed home for an early night.
After lunch we parted ways again and I went to the Diamant Museum!!! It’s such a girly place to go! It tells the whole story of Amsterdam as a Diamond Trading Centre and shows you how a diamond goes from the ground to your finger. They also have movie snippets and a big collection of royal jewels on loan which are displayed on the top floor. Their logo has this white Persian cat wearing a tiara, which is so cute. But I wasn’t feeling well so I accidentally left without buying a postcard of it or anything! Luckily you don’t need a ticket to get into the shop (like you do at Van Gogh) so I can go back and get one later if I want to.
Saturday night I was still feeling rotten, with a headache and just feeling exhausted in general. Most of the others went out for dinner to some restaurant which is on top of the motorway (weird eh) but I stayed home for an early night.
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