The tram takes about 15 minutes or so to get to Museumplein, which turns out to be – surprise! – a place full of museums. The Rijksmuseum dominates the area, a beautiful building dating from the 1880s. But in front of its imposing exterior there’s evidence of more modern touches. The route towards it is lined with hoardings painted with various figures in different artistic styles, each with the head cut out so you can pop your own head through for a photo. And on the pond in front of the building there are currently two huge statues of giant cartoon figures standing on the water. This is part of a current outdoor art exhibition, and makes a great contrast with the classical building behind the sculpture. Not as much a contrast, however, as the now famous ‘iAmsterdam’ sign, which is a magnet for tourists wanting a quirky photo. Not to be outdone, we of course have to pose with the sign – although you’ll have to wait for the video to see the results!
To the left of the sign there’s evidence of another well-loved Dutch cultural icon – the cute little rabbit Miffy! In fact there’s a Miffy parade! To celebrate Miffy’s 60th birthday and raise money for Unicef, various artists and celebrities have decorated statues of the rabbit in various guises. We spend a little time filming some of these, though we have to wait our turn while excited children clamber all over them and pose for their parents!
Just around the corner is the current entrance to the Van Gogh museum – it’s in the middle of a huge refurb which will create a spectacular new entrance soon. Our iAmsterdam cards entitle us to the equivalent of a Fastpass queue, rather than joining the long queue of those buying tickets or the equally busy queue for groups. But we still have quite a long wait to get in. There are several groups of people at the turnstiles who, for whatever reason, are taking absolutely ages to get into the museum. But the cheerful and unflappable staff are doing a great job keeping the queues in order, and eventually we make it inside the museum.
Incidentally, we’ve been doing our best to pronounce the artist’s name like the locals. It’s not Van Goff as we say in Britain, nor Van Go as the Americans say. The ‘Van’ part is pronounced with an F instead of a V, and sort of squashed into the Gogh, which is pronounced Hoch, to rhyme with the Scottish loch. So it’s FnHoch – or something like that, anyway. Don’t say you never learn anything from my trippies!
Having finally got to the museum, we both agree that the first stop needs to be a restorative cuppa in the café. To accompany this we choose a ‘coffee cake’ which we presume means a cake you eat with a coffee, rather than a coffee flavoured cake. This one is a frangipane tart, not unlike a bakewell tart without the jam. It’s very dark – we’re not sure if it’s meant to be like that or whether the oven was a bit enthusiastic! But it tastes fine and is a nice accompaniment to the coffee.
One thing we notice is a design of almond blossoms on a blue background. It seems to be everywhere – on panels in the entrance, and on items people have evidently bought from the gift shop. It’s not something we would usually associate with Van Gogh, but we will discover later the story behind the design.
Across the café from us is a man wearing a tie with the famous ‘Starry Night’ painting on it – yes, the one which inspired the famous song ‘Vincent’, and which is currently housed in New York. It’s not part of the staff’s uniform (for which I’m sure they are grateful) so evidently he’s worn it deliberately for his visit to the museum. We wonder idly for a moment whether he has a whole wardrobe full of appropriate ties for the different artists!
In the foyer we also spot a familiar figure – who knew Donald had artistic talents?
We decide that this time we won’t bother with the ubiquitous audio guides, and instead we’ll browse and take things in as we come across them. So we drop by the cloakroom desk to store my jacket, and then start with the ground floor, which is mostly about contemporary painters and their response to Van Gogh’s works. Then we make our way up floor by floor, trying to ensure we see all the ‘big names’ and a few others which catch our eye.
Several of the most famous paintings are here – ‘The Bedroom’, ‘Sunflowers’ (or ‘The Cracked Vase With The Big Daisies’ for fans of ‘Allo ‘Allo) and also the dark and brooding ‘Wheatfield with Crows’. According to the helpful note on the wall, many people assume this to be his last painting, because of its gloomy nature, but in fact he painted several more cheerful paintings afterwards. A clear case of people preferring to believe the convenient myth rather than the facts!
But alongside the familiar images, we also discover some surprises, including the Almond Blossom painting we mentioned earlier, which comes out of a fascination the painter had with Japan and its art. It’s not at all what you expect – rather than the usual bold brush strokes, the blossoms are dainty and delicate. Apparently it was painted to celebrate the birth of Van Gogh’s nephew, and the blossoms symbolise new life and hope. We’re not surprised the museum has chosen to highlight this painting and use it so much in its promotion.
It really is astonishing how much Van Gogh packed into a tragically short career of only ten years. We leave with a new appreciation for his genius. This place really is well worth spending some unhurried time exploring.
After an hour or so, however, we decide we’ve done enough. I’m not sure whether other people find the same as us, but we always find art galleries and museums a bit like eating a big dinner – lovely, but you come to a point where you’ve taken in all you can for now, and you stop really appreciating it. So we retrieve my jacket and have a quick look in the gift shop. We’ve already checked out the bookshop upstairs, where we were sorely tempted by a lovely book for children and almost bought it for a friend, but we resisted. In the gift shop, however, I find an anniversary present for Peter – a pair of elegant cufflinks with the Wheatfield painting on. (Readers of my DLP trippie will remember Peter’s gift to me - a beautiful necklace which he got Mickey to present me with! Details
here if you’re interested…) We also buy a phone case for Peter, as his has just broken.