Amsterdam

This spring my husband and I took our long awaited trip to Amsterdam and it was so so good.

We started out going to the Alkmaar cheese market which was everything I hoped it would be. We watched the market, went to the cheese museum, and ate raclette. Then we went to Zaans Schans which was lovely. That night we took a canal tour around the city.

The next day we went to the Van Gogh Museum, Albert Cuyp Market, and the Rijksmuseum and then took the train to Utrecht. It was great to see some lesser known paintings by Van Gogh (as well as the well known ones of course) and I loved the library in the Rijksmuseum. It was nice to see fashions and dishes and medieval art there as well as the beautiful Vermeer’s.

We had the best time in Utrecht! We biked all day and had some amazing food. We went to see Dick Bruna’s studio (the creator of Miffy). We were the only ones there and it had such a good energy. I loved the videos about his process. What a life to bike around Utrecht and make art! I love how his illustrations connected with the De Stijl movement. We went to the Rietveld Schroder house and I loved the stories of how the children were embarrassed to be living in such an avant garde house. We went to the Utrecht Botanical Gardens next to find Tom some bees and see the flowers.

Back in Amsterdam the next day we went to Keukenoff and it lived up to the hype. I guess I am obsessed with tulips now? We did get rained out towards the end but luckily we saw everything first.

We stayed in an Airbnb in Watergang and the next morning we canoed to Broek in Waterland (prettiest little town). I learned that I am very bad at paddling a canoe but luckily Tom wasn’t. Then we went back to Amsterdam for pancakes and the Hortus Botanicus. We also popped in The Tulip Museum and went to the Anne Frank Museum.

Our last day we trekked to Muiderslot to see the medieval castle. I love learning about the Middle Ages so it was a perfect way to end the trip. I really fell in love with the Netherlands.

I feel like I have been in sort of an art rut and I hoped this trip would give me a jolt of inspiration. It did make me want to just make things more and just not think so much. Or maybe to be even more slow and thoughtful like Dick Bruna? It was fun to think about how different Van Gogh is from Dick Bruna but how each of them relied so heavily on color. Color is very important to me when I paint and I would love to push it further.