My first destination of the day was the Van Gogh Museum. I was lucky enough that most of the museums in Amsterdam were opened even during Christmas. The city centre was still bustling with life even though elsewhere it was mostly calm and quiet. I took a tram from the Central Station and got down at Museumplein right in front of Concertgebouw. Anyway, tram is arguably the second most common mode of transport (cycling comes first; in fact, most roads in Amsterdam cater to cyclists). In most of the trams, you will find the driver in the front who will help people to stamp their ticket and in the middle (applicable for long trams), there is another controller stationed at a small “booth” to help passengers stamp as well. I purchased the Amsterdam version of “carnet” or multiple trips. This card has 15 rows for stamping purposes and each travel can take 2-3 rows depending on how far you travel. I thought this is a really unique system.
As I alighted from the Museumplein stop, I was greeted with the sight of Concertgebouw which is simply a concert hall. I took a couple of photos and proceeded to the museum. The paintings displayed in this museum were fresh in my most honest opinion. I am kind of tired of religious arts with paintings of Jesus, Mary or the Saints. Instead, Van Gogh revolutionized contemporary art by pioneering pointillism (the art of using heavy pointed brush strokes or light strokes to create life effects of the paintings). What was also interesting was that he did not start painting from young; instead, he took lessons at the age of 26 when he was jobless and had no directions in life. He then developed his own style of the strokes I mentioned earlier, but unfortunately he died early of epilepsy. He was never really a recognized artist when he died, but in the next century, his works have inspired many young artists who adopted his style.
L-R: Concertgebouw, Van Gogh museum
the two most famous paintings of van Gogh
After van Gogh, I just walked around in the big green lawn of Museumplein, walking in the direction of Rijksmuseum. In the open space, there was a makeshift outdoor ice-skating rink and there were many young kids having fun with their families. I did not enter the Rijksmuseum as most sections of the museum are undergoing renovations.
L-R: Rijkmuseum, ice rink
My stomach was getting rather noisy as it was already past 1 pm then. Unfortunately, there were not many shops/restaurants which were open in the neighbourhood. I knew for sure that I could find food in the city centre, but it made no sense to go there just to grab food and then return to Vondelpark which was located within walking distance from Museumplein. So I had to bear with my hunger and went to Vondelpark with the hope that there were small stalls selling finger food at the very least.
Vondelpark is a 120 hectare park, a popular destination for people of all ages. There were not many people in the park today as I am guessing most people chose to stay at home and have a good meal with their families. However, one single thing made my trip to the park unforgettable: the discovery of, not one, but at least 3-4 frozen lakes in the park. At first I was not very convinced with what I saw, but after I saw a few kids hitting the lake with tree branches, I knew I was right. I then went to prove it myself by throwing a stone into the lake. True enough, the sound of the stone hitting the icy surface of the lake was similar to that of a marble dropping on a floor. I am always easily excited by new discoveries, by things that I never experienced. First it was snow, but the excitement has since passed.
Vondelpark with its frozen lake
Unfortunately, there was no affordable food in the park. The price of the cheapest and the only restaurant which was opened started at 15+ euros. So I decided to just make my way back to city centre and settled for KFC 3-piece chicken meal lunch. I thought most European KFCs would serve really small chickens (like the one in Spain!!), but to my amazement, the chickens were huge and I had difficulty finishing them!
L-R: Royal Palace and Magna Plaza
After lunch, I headed straight to the Anne Frank’s house. She was a German girl who fled into Holland during the Nazi regime and then went into hiding with his family and a few other Jews in this house. Throughout her hiding in this house, she kept a diary describing the details of their predicaments and the need for constant vigilance in the house. Imagine staying put in the house for a few years (I would die of boredom)!! In the end, the hiding was betrayed by an unknown and they were sent to concentration camps in Austria (if I am not wrong). Anne and her sister then both died of typhus in the camp while her dad survived the camp. It was Anne’s wish that her diary was published one day so that people would be aware of what the Jews went through during the Nazi occupation. This house also provided this interactive system for us to explore further about Anne, her family as well as the house. They also have a special multimedia presentation section which analysed important and debatable issues (such as homosexuality, press freedom, the ban of head covers in France, etc). At the end of each short presentation, a question will be posed to the audience, after which we could vote a YES or NO by pressing the buttons next to our seat. The results were displayed immediately on the big screen. Cool stuff. I felt as if I was among the audience of “Who wants to be a millionaire” who was being polled. =D
It was already dark when I exited the Anne Frank’s house so I thought of just exploring the nine little streets even though I knew the shops would be closed. These 9 streets have a wide array of interesting stuff such as unique candles, buttons, pins, etc. After grabbing a quick dinner, I went back to the hostel to have a good night rest. Two museums in a day were totally mentally taxing.
top (L-R): in front of Anne Frank House; bottom (R): 9 little streets
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