We
decided to visit the Vincent Van Gogh museum today. We took a tram all the way out to the museum only to find
out it was closed. Sigh. There
were signs that certain pictures were being showcased at another museum…but it
didn’t clarify which museum.
We
walked to a man in a hot dog stand and I asked him if the Van Gogh Museum was
definitely closed.
“He
nodded.”
“Are
they viewable anywhere else?”
“Follow
the red line in the trees.” He
said.
Hmm
okay. We followed a red line in
the trees that danced between buildings and trees and streetlights and after
twenty minutes we came upon the Hermitage Amsterdam museum where they were
temporarily displaying Van Gogh paintings while the Van Gogh Museum was being refurbished.
The
exhibits were nice and it was incredible to see, up close, the individual brush
strokes of some of Van Gogh’s works.
I found something new out about Van Gogh – he showed no talent for art
as a youth and didn’t really start painting until he was twenty-seven when,
after failing as a preacher and an art dealer he, “decided to become an
artist.”
It
took him years of toiling and struggling but he was eventually able to master
the craft. An adage was written on
the wall, "getting better must come through doing it and through
trying."
I
have a lot of respect for the guy.
Afterwards
we ate at a shady (and kinda gross) shwarma place and headed back to our hotel
feelings we’d experienced most that Amsterdam had to offer. Once we got back we realized it was too
early to retire so we set out for the Heineken Brewery Museum. The museum was really well done and it
was a lot of fun, albeit cliché and touristy. Mena drank her first whole beer so that was cool. :)
We
went to a Thai restaurant for dinner.
At the end I tried to pay, but apparently the card doesn’t work if it
doesn’t have a ‘chip’ in it.
(Which American cards don’t).
The
man kept saying, over and over again, “There is nothing wrong with your
card. There is nothing wrong with
your card.”
“Okay
then. How can I pay? Do you have another way to enter my credit card
information.”
He
shook his head. He directed me to an ATM machine down the street but the place
was closing down and I didn't want to leave Mena there by herself so I told her
to come with me.
“Sir
do you mind leaving a card if both of you are leaving?”
Really
dude? Your machine is broken and now you're insinuating we're a flight risk?
I
shrugged. “Sure.”
I
gave him a card, got the Euros, paid him and left him a very nice tip.
“Just
to make him feel bad for doubting us.”
I joked to Mena as we walked through the streets back to our hotel.
Goodnight
Amsterdam!
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