Vincent van Gogh up close!

When we got into our room we discovered that the hotel was not only near a very busy motorway but that it was also right beneath a flight path for Schiphol Airport. However, although you could occasionally hear an aircraft coming into land, it was not intrusive. We slept well, and we were glad that we had booked breakfast it was a buffet, of the type common in hotels, with plenty of choice. Although Google Maps had shown that there were some cafes nearby, it looked like none of them were open until much later. So, we decided that the best option was to just book breakfast for the remainder of our stay, At 16 euros each it was maybe a bit pricey but there really were no other options, and to be fair there was plenty of choice, and it was all good.

The staff were very helpful in giving us info about getting in and out of the city via the trams, Westlandgracht tram stop was only about 800m from the hotel, and the number 2 tram only took 15-20 minutes to get into the city centre. Today we were getting off at the Museumplein, a stop just a few minutes walk from a group of museums including the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum.
We had booked tickets for the Van Gogh Museum for today at 11:15am. If you want to visit the Van Gogh Museum or the Rijksmuseum it is best to book your tickets online in advance directly from the museum's websites.

I have had an interest in Van Gogh's life and work for many years, he is my favourite preacher and so this visit was a long-time ambition and I was very excited about going. We arrived a little early but the staff were happy for us to go in.

The Van Gogh museum is an unusual building, quite striking in some ways, it is a hybrid of the original museum built in the 1950's and a new annexe connected in such a way that you don't realise you have moved from one building to another until you look out the window. The main entrance is bright, modern and spacious all of which disguises how busy the museum is, and it was busy! It was also very warm with so many people in the galleries, in fact, in order to see some of the paintings at times you really had to wait until people got out the way.

However, for the next 2+ hours I was like a kid in a candy store. It was wonderful to see the paintings up close and not behind protective glass. Although it is difficult to explain, there is something very different looking at the original work rather than a photograph in a book or on a website. Some of Van Gogh's greatest works were on display, as well as works by other artist who influenced him or whom he influenced. There was also a nice focus on his background and family life and how his work was preserved, initially by his sister-in-law. The galleries were well designed with the paintings hung a lit in a way that was sympathetic to their composition and relationship with one another.

Galleries can be very tiring, you move around them very slowly and so after a couple of hours we were both ready for a sit down (there was a lack of seating around the galleries). We went to the museum café, the food all looked great but there's wasn't much that I could eat (food allergies) and to be honest we were still quite full from breakfast, it was really a seat and a coffee we needed. So we settled for coffee and Dutch apple/cinnamon cake, which was fabulous.

I had a terrific time, it was the fulfilment of a long-held ambition and even Barbara, who is not so keen on art galleries or Van Gogh, really enjoyed it. I even finally learned how to pronounce his name properly (if you're wondering, it's pronounced Van Gogh)

We got on the tram up to Centraal Station and wondered what to do next, we wandered down to Dam Square, and viewed the Palace and the national monument, but since it was cold and a bit windy we decided to go for a canal boat tour. It was great, it only took about an hour, it was relaxing and informative and you got to see the city from a different perspective. By this time we were both a bit weary and so we headed back to the hotel, for a quiet evening in. I tried to book tickets online for the Rijksmuseum on Saturday, but there were none available until Sunday, so I thought (correctly) that some tickets would be held back for other vendors and decided to go tomorrow to the museum gift shop in the park halfway between the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum to see if they had any. It had been another good day.Read more