Amsterdam Day 2: Van Gogh, Rembrandthuis, and Anne Frank

Our first day of “touristy” activities started in the Van Gogh Museum. It was exactly what I had hoped it would be; a collection of so many of the great works we all know (“The Bedroom,” “Sunflowers,” tons of self portraits, “The potato Eaters”), yet so many more I had never seen before. Being an art lover, I knew a number of fun facts about Van Gogh’s life, but I felt like I really walked away with a better understanding of what a genius he really was. For example, in the last year of his life while he was severely suffering from mental illness, he still managed to produce an average of one painting per day. I’m always so blown away by not only the fact that these artists create such masterpieces, but they create so many of them! Van Gogh already impressed me before this, but I walked away completely blown away.

Wendy looking chic as always 

me having a necessary tourist moment

Since we were on an artist-kick, we next decided to go to the Rembrandthuis Museum, which is the actual home where Rembrandt created majority of his works and taught his students. I had no idea what to expect from this place, but I absolutely loved it. We got head-sets to do a self-guided tour, and the house was basically untouched for the last 400 years; you left there having such a sense of what a house was like in the 17^th century. There were also museum staff giving very cool art demonstrations of activities that Rembrandt would have done in his house, such as making oil paints from scratch, creating etching blocks, and collecting paintings and sculptures as a seller. I walked away very impressed by this place. 

me in Rembrandt's bedroom

The last activity of the day was the Anne Frank House. Having grown up hearing numerous accounts from the Holocaust, and of course knowing Anne Frank’s story beforehand, I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to see there. I will say, however, it was pretty crazy to actually step behind the moveable bookcase that I’ve read about and stand in the place where it all happened. I walked away feeling more amazed at the fact that the Frank family lived in such a confined space for 3 years and more impressed with how insightful she was for being so young. I admit I got emotional at some of the videos of people talking about their firsthand experiences with the Franks because it brought me back to the stories I grew up hearing from my grandfather. Particularly, Anne’s best friend growing up discussed how she ended up in a concentration camp next to Anne’s, and she spoke about how Anne had given up at the end after her sister Margot died in the camp, leaving Anne with nothing left to live for; this hit close to home because my grandfather too lost most of his family in the Holocaust. Really glad I had the opportunity to be in such a significant landmark.

Shannon and a whole lot of clogs

regaining my energy between museums

Those were the major points from the day! Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take pictures in a lot of places today, but hopefully I drew a nice picture for you. It was a really busy day and now I’m exhausted, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We’re going to be leaving the city and see some more rural areas that I’m sure are going to be gorgeous!