Last Days in Amsterdam

I'm sorry it's been so long since we've posted! Unfortunately the time we can spend in Europe is coming to an end, but we're going out with a bang! We've been busy planning the rest of our adventure and where we want to travel, but have taken full advantage of our remaining time here in Amsterdam. We've had a blast visiting the different museums and exploring the city! Some places we took too many pictures and then others we didn't take any so bear with me!

We loved visiting the Royal Palace! In the 1650s it was built as a city hall, but when Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in 1805 he converted it to his own private royal palace.

Atlas holding up the world

The decorations throughout the whole palace were inspired by bible stories, Greek mythology and other legends

The original Citizen's Hall where hundreds of people would gather every day, On the floor, there are maps that show the regions explored by the Dutch East India Company's ships in the first half of the 17th century. It was interesting to see how they have changed since more of the world was discovered.

We also visited the National Maritime Museum, or Het Scheepvaartmuseum, which is located inside a former naval storehouse. Honestly, I was expecting a boring old museum with a few models and maybe a telescope or something, but I couldn't have been more wrong! They had extensive renovations a few years ago and reopened in 2011 and I was very impressed; they had a few floors of interesting and interactive exhibits and everything was very modern and beautiful.

In rooms with ship models, the walls had projections on them that looked like waves making it seem like the ships were actually floating and we were out at sea. They had another room that taught you how to navigate using the stars so the whole room was dark and the walls and ceiling lit up to form different constellations. They had a whole section dedicated to whales and huge models of what they look like that you could walk inside. They even had a "board game" for kids in which you were the pieces and you had to perform different tasks to advance around the "board" that went through the whole top floor. The Dutch have such an amazing history that is largely based on their impressive navy and sea-faring skills and this museum does a great job showing this.

Connor reading 400 year old maps

They have a large collection of figure heads that had been on the front of many ships

Down the street from us, there is the Tropenmuseum which has multiple exhibits displaying different cultures from all over the world. They had everything from artifacts from ancient Africa to an exhibit on life in the 1960s. We visited here on Valentine's Day so they had a section dedicated to romance as well as girls dressed up as hearts on giant stilts walking around handing out candy!

We also visited the Hermitage Museum, which is a branch museum of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg. They have two exhibits that rotate out every few months with ones in Russia, but when we visited, we saw Spanish Masters  and Portrait Gallery of the Golden Age. In the Spanish one, we saw some amazing paintings from El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, and more. The Golden Age focused on Dutch artists during the 17th century.

Most of the museums that we've visited offer free audio tours so we weren't surprised when Hermitage did too. However, we were surprised when instead of information in each room while we explored the Spanish Masters, it played Spanish music that was specifically selected to match the tone of the art displayed. It was a surprising extra bonus that made looking at the works more enjoyable.

Connor with an organ donated to Hermitage

 We also went back to the Rijkmuseum since it's so big we couldn't see the whole thing! The Van Gogh museum is right next door so we visited there as well. The museum takes you on a tour of his life and how different aspects of it affected his art. It contains a hall dedicated to the many self portraits he's done. He was then drawn (no pun intended!) to rural peasant life and this inspired him to paint the Potato Eaters. He also was inspired by his time living in France and Japan. They also had paintings done by his contemporaries on display. My favorites were definitely Dutch tulip fields done by Monet!

"As for me I'll be a knight" -Ron Weasley

some of the...sillier pieces of art!

Potato Eaters (not my picture)

Tulip Field Near the Hague (not my picture)

There are a few other museums in that area as well that we enjoyed. One of which was a chess museum. Connor and I had been playing chess a lot, but we could only do it on the computer so we decided we wanted to buy an actual board. We googled where to find one and we came across the museum and decided to go check it out! It's dedicated to Max Euwe, the only Dutchman to ever become a chess grandmaster.

The museum was pretty difficult to find because it's located on the second floor of an office building, which was actually used as a prison during WWII. It is very small, old, and completely empty. There were no other visitors and the 70-something year old volunteer looked surprised to see us! But he was so enthusiastic and knowledgeable we stayed and chatted with him for over 2 hours and finally bought a board!

The giant chess board was outside and the whole square was chess themed with lights in the shapes of the different pieces

We also really enjoyed the Amsterdam Museum. The building was originally from the 15th century and used to be an orphanage, but was converted into a museum in 1926 and completely redone a few years ago. Throughout the entire museum the walls are used as a timeline of important worldwide events and how they affected Amsterdam including everything from Napoleon's conquests to the building of the Taj Mahal to George Washington becoming president. They also had videos in each room going into detail about what life was like during those periods of time in Amsterdam. They had a few rooms on current life in the city, with one section dedicated to young students to display art that best exemplifies what their lives are like right now.

Playing bartender in an old timey bar

 We've had a great time exploring the city! 

We came to Amsterdam looking to find jobs, but unfortunately were unsuccessful so we have to come home. We're sad to be packing up, but we will be exploring a few other countries before we head home on April 7!