Bike Culture

Riding a bicycle in Amsterdam is more than a means of transportation. It’s a culture. The vast number of cyclists is amazing, and they really have control of the road. They are given every bit as much right-of-way as vehicles, and much more than pedestrians (as I nearly caused two collisions today by being the wandering tourist). The bike lanes in the roads are as wide as the vehicle lanes and traffic yields to bikes like they would another car. Regarding the shear quantity of bikes, here’s a photo of just ONE of the bike parking lots at the Centraal train station where people park their bikes for the daily commutes on the trains. There are thousands of bikes here!


It’s funny to see all the different, crazy bikes too. Some are old and rusty, others are old and refurbished, and many are creatively decorated with silk plants, ribbons, paint and more. We’ve seen work bikes with trailers, bikes with baskets on the front and back, bikes with baby seats on the handle bars with a little windshield for the baby (and a real live baby even!), bikes with child seats on the back, bikes with luggage strapped to them and more! Here’s an example of a work/taxi bike with a cart for carrying things and/or people.



Museum Fury


Today we visited the Rijks Museum (pronounced Rick’s) and the van Gogh museum (which we learned today from a local that his name is pronounced fahn khokh – kind of a throat clearing sound). The Rijks Museum is the historic state museum, and much of it is closed right now for renovation. In fact, much of Amsterdam is going through a great redevelopment & restoration phase right now. The Rijks holds the largest collection of Dutch masterpiece paintings in the world (as well it should). Honestly, Dutch painting isn’t my favorite style, but yet I was still amazed by the mastery of these works. The classical Dutch painters had such a style for realism that their still lifes look like photographs. Also, they’re very famous for their portraits as they were commissioned by the very wealthy traders of the time to paint these life-size portraits of their families and also of militias.

The museum contains one of my favorite paintings of all time, The Kitchen Maid by Johannes Vermeer. It’s just beautiful!

I remember from when I was a kid that Sharon drew this once, in charcoal I think! That’s probably why it’s one of my all time favorites.

In the museum we also saw other masterpieces including several by Rembrandt and also many historical artifacts. Outside of the museum was another work of art. The gardens outside the main entrance were wonderful! The garden was designed to represent the different eras of Dutch history in the four quadrants. While I didn’t honestly understand that, I did enjoy the design. I especially liked the pond and arbor…

After touring the Rijks we rested our brains at a nearby café and enjoyed a beer. Seriously, after a few hours of studying 400 year old masterpiece Dutch paintings one’s brain tends to get a little fried. It’s like art overload. Too much of an intense sensation I think. While it’s wonderful, we really needed a breather. While we were at the café having a beer we met the older gentleman local who told us a little history about Amsterdam including where van Gogh was from and how to correctly pronounce his name. A really nice, interesting guy! Once we cleared our minds a bit of the classical Dutch masters we continued onto the van Gogh museum to fill our heads with Dutch impressionism. Self torture perhaps, but it was great!

Always having been a huge fan of van Gogh it was a real treat to be able to visit this museum for a second time. This is the largest collection of his work in the world. It contains over 200 paintings, sketches and letters by van Gogh. Most of the works were donated to the Dutch state by his sister-in-law and nephew. Though van Gogh only lived 37 years and only painted for 10 of those he managed to produce over 800 paintings! Unbelievable! Sorry for the history lesson, but I love this stuff. Oh, and one more thing. When we were at the National Gallery in London we saw the original “Sunflowers,” remember? Well, they had one here too! Today I learned that he had painted several of them and there are 5 remaining in existence. He painted them to decorate a room for his artist friend Gauguin to entice him to move to Amsterdam to start an artist colony. Also, van Gogh painted several still lifes of irises. I always thought there was only one. I was amazed!

After a full day at the museums we wandered town and browsed the many wonderful shops. There are so many extraordinary specialty shops such as for handmade soaps, beads, clothing, art, jewelry, food, pastries, beer, cheese, and more! It’s so fun to just look around! Speaking of fun shops, check out the sign in the window of the door to this cafe… Go Obama!

Earlier we ran into a rather “colorful” guy talking to himself while walking down the street. He was really happy about something, but I’m not sure what it was. J Anyway, he started talking with us and we chatted back. He said he loved America but didn’t like Bush. We all laughed and said, “Buddy, no one does!” It was an interesting insight from a local.

At dinner tonight I have to admit that I had a rather handsome dinner companion. He just walked up out of the blue, sat down on my bench and almost crawled into my lap!

My gosh, I could go on, and on and on talking about all the wonderful parks, places, shops, and people we’ve seen but I’d never get to bed. Besides, you probably don’t want to see my 385 pictures of moss growing between the brick paver stones in the street, or my super close-ups of the most beautiful door hinges in the world. Yeah, I didn’t think so. So I’ll let you off the hook and I’ll get some sleep instead. But one last thing… Jeff honey, I had Dutch pancakes with cinnamon apples for breakfast and thought of you. I miss you darling! Yeah, yeah, you other people too!