Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Glamorama: London
We woke up around 9am today to eat our free breakfast of bread, ham, cheese slices, rice cakes, spice cake, different spreads, and coffee, tea, hot chocolate...not much of a selection, but it was free.
Then, we bought our discount tickets and went to the Van Gogh museum, which was only a few blocks from where we were staying. It was a cold, rainy day, and a good day to be inside.
We passed the long line since we already had tickets, and went inside to see around 200 Van Gogh paintings and exhibitions of work from other artists. I thought Starry Night was at this museum (since he was born in Holland, and I've been to every other major museum) but was disappointed to find that is it not. Also, I would have rather seen more Van Gogh than other artists' work, so I wasn't satisfied.
There was a fun animals in art exhibition in the basement...it was decorated like a jungle playground, and we took a funny picture of us as animals.
Next, we split up and Allison and I had plans to go to the Stedelijk Museum of modern art next door. Unbeknownst to us, the museum has been moved to next to Centraal Station. We kept walking and discovered an amazing little cafe called Bagels and Beans. It felt so warm inside, with yellow walls, pretty organic decorations, and friendly waitresses. I got cappucino and a tuna salad sandwich bagel. They also gave us espresso flavored chocolate beans (not real coffee beans, just chocolate bean shapes) which were delicious! I loved it here.
Then, we got off at the Dam stop and found a Japanese store with several beautiful things inside. The man here was very nice and helpful, as most people in Amsterdam are. We all met back up and went to Anne Frank's house. I'm still not sure if this is the actual house or just a good replica...either way it was very eerie and surreal...I don't know how else to describe it.
You walk through the museum yourself, up the narrow staircases to the door hidden by a bookshelf. Then, up an even narrower flight of stairs are the bedrooms, which are pretty much empty. Anne's bedroom had the pictures and magazine clippings she had stuck on the wall behind glass. In the main room, her real diary is on display, and church bells started chiming as we were in this chapel-like room. They also had the roll call the Franks were on; I think it was just a list of Jewish people that had been found or still had to be found, and also a memorial book they are listed in. This is a very good but also very depressing and haunting museum.
We then went out to dinner...Italian again, but a different place. We were all very tired and Julie felt sick, so we called it an early night and went to bed after dinner.
- comments