This morning, we visited the RijksMuseum. Elaine and I stopped for a quick breakfast out on the Museumplein before heading inside to meet up with the rest of the group. We started up on the second floor of the museum since everyone was very excited to see Rembrandt. The hall leading up to his paintings is filled with stained glass windows depicting different artists and philosophers that are stunning when the sun shines through them. We walked down the massive hall to Rembrandt's “Night Watch” and were finally able to get a peak after squeezing through the massive crowd gathered around it. Further down the hall was the famous painting “Milk Maid”. The most interesting part about being able to see it in person was the fact we had seen this exact same painting incorporated into one of the murals on our tour of the Street Art Museum the day before. We wandered around the rest of the museum and checked out some of the artists we were less familiar with before heading out for lunch near the garden on the Museumplein.
It is really crazy to think that in just the past few days I have seen art from some of the most famous painters and artists in the world. I don’t have much background in art history, but I know enough to know that this is some of the best artwork I will ever have the opportunity to see. This is only the end of the first week in Amsterdam, and we have another three to go filled with incredible experiences. I love the fact that the Dutch really place an importance on their cultural heritage sector through things like libraries and museums. There is nothing in Seattle like our IAmsterdam cards that give you 96 hours of free entry and transportation to over 100 places and nearly every famous museum Amsterdam could offer. I would say we definitely made the cards worth while and packed in as much as we could.
After a very full week, a lot of us were feeling pretty tired and very warm. Rather than going out to the North Sea, which was a pretty long train ride, we decided to spend the afternoon in Vondelpark out in the sun. We grabbed some towels from the hotel to sit on and decided to take the tram over since it was so hot. Honestly, I don’t think walking or taking the tram was any different, it was going to be hot either way. We picked a spot in the grass, made it across the large bike lane without anyone getting hit and opened up some snacks and enjoyed the scenery. Even though we all spend a lot of time with each other, we spend much of it out and about. We laid there for hours and spent some time getting to know each other past just talking about why we wanted to come on this study abroad.
At about 9, everyone was pretty hungry, so we had Thai and Sushi delivered to us in the park. The interesting part about Thai restaurants in Amsterdam is that they do not have forks. I’m lucky I learned a couple of years ago how to use chopsticks, but eating took significantly longer for all of us. Soon after we ate, it was starting to get dark, which meant it was time to head back to the hotel. We strolled through the neighborhood, mostly enjoying how much it had cooled off. We all had a good laugh over the fact that all of us had to do laundry within the first week since we had pretty much sweated through everything we owned. At least the rest of the week looks a lot more comfortable weather wise!