Day 2 of museums. Once again I had planned in advance to force myself up early to adjust my time clock. I scheduled the van Gogh museum for day 2 since I love him and wanted to be more awake. With tickets for 9:30 and a 20 min tram ride, I set my alarm for 8:35. I did not plan on being unable to sleep from 1-5am … I went to bed at about 830 which perhaps was a mistake but I was exhausted! I had skipped dinner, had a half beer with Luca and went to bed!

Sadly, the alarm woke me from a deep sleep though shockingly, I got there pretty much on time… but I was absolutely brain fogged because I had no time for caffeine! Luca doesn’t have a coffee maker, which is a serious issue, and I didn’t have time to grab a coffee from my local guy. I figured I’d have a nice overpriced coffee in the museum — at least proceeds go to them — wake up and walk around. The only problems were that the museum gets much more crowded starting at 10 with tour groups … and at 930 the museum cafe was not yet ready to serve coffee (?!). But I needed that jolt! So I went to the sit-down restaurant instead of the self-ordering cafe — and she said it was fine to just get coffee. After about 20 minutes of getting my act together (I’d made the last minute decision to get an audio tour and was figuring it and my day’s plan out — and reviewing their website, which has a bunch of info, though not as easily used as the Rijksmuseum), I looked at the stuff on my table and realized that I’m supposed to order my food on my own using a QR code and my phone and then they bring it to me. Oops. 

Luca had warned me that service is not so great here so I was not expecting her to run over but after the 20 mins I did think at least a stop by would be in order. Apparently I was not the only one. The French group near me and a single dude also had not noticed the little sign on the table. Anyway I finally noticed it, ordered, and my cappuccino arrived almost immediately. Happy ending to my brain confusion!

But sadly the museum was crowded and for some reason a lot of people wanted to take a photo of the art and the plaques too? I don’t understand this as I think the websites would have better photos!? It made things move slower. That said at the very end, when the crowds died down, I did take a few of my faves just for this blog. 

I decided to go through every single thing there — spent 5 hours (also on a special exhibit by a Chinese-Canadian who sadly also killed himself in his 30s … Matthew Wong). I took my time to not fight the tours and sat on various benches frequently. All in all, since I really love van Gogh I was happy to spend the time there. I realized belatedly that the only thing I skipped (because of crowds) and then forgot to return to were the big panels about his death. But it was on the top floor and I didn’t want to walk back up or wait for the elevator. 

Besides I was already teary from the final painting, Almond Blossom. Which I didn’t know was painted as a gift to his brother Theo and sister-in-law, Jo, as a congratulations on their new baby (who they named Vincent). I love the blues and just took a photo of a portion  … 

A perfect baby gift. It’s because of Jo and baby Vincent that the museum exists and even that van Gogh’s posthumous reputation exceeded his living one. Sadly Theo died 6 mos after Vincent but he always believed in his brother’s genius and his wife and son carried on the legacy. 

One thing I don’t think is on the website are photos that they were projecting high on the walls — perhaps to simulate those “immersive experiences” that are done these days. It was a nice effect. Here are a few I liked:

I guess I like his flowers!

After the VG museum I did the Rick Steve’s tour of the Jordaan ‘hood. It’s where the Anne Frank house is but I did that 30 years ago and walked out sobbing, so no need to do it again. Though it’s a good thing to see if you’ve never been before. The ‘hood (or buurt) used to be where the worker people lived — servants and providers for the rich people who lived in the fancy houses on the canals, but it’s turned into a trendy area. Sounds a lot like my old hood in Rome, Trastevere. 

Pretty houses. Pretty canals. Cute bridges and boats. Lots of bicycles.

The haring stand is where I grabbed my broodje as mentioned in the last blog post. Tasty!

I went out with Luca for dinner to a place in Jordaan called Moeders (mothers) which we obviously found funny — it’s good, plain, nothing fancy Dutch cooking. I had their totally unpronounceable pea soup (erwtensoep- seriously could not pronounce it) and stamppot (mashed potatoes with sauerkraut and a sausage, bacon and meatball) and Luca had a lentil soup and beef stew. All good though a bit salty for my palate. We were stuffed afterward — the beers did not help. But the place is covered with photos of customers’ and presumably employees’ moms. Kind of sweet since I was with my babe!

I actually (of course) have a ton of musings about both Amsterdam and the Dutch but I’m two days behind on trip blogging and I’m so tired! So I’ll sign off for now and hopefully get better at this as I move along!