YDYtravelers: The museumiest of days and going to the hospital for all the right reasons

We are proud museum-goers tonight. Four, FOUR! museums were conquered and they were all splendid in their own ways. First on the list was the Van Gogh Musuem, a highly sought after ticket here in Amsterdam. I purchased ours online 3 months ago, as soon as they became available. And it was crowded, despite the timed entry. I was pretty sure the lack of space for eyeballs to see art would ruin this museum for us, but the crowd thinned a bit as one of the massive tour groups moved on to other pastures. I gotta say, that Van Gogh was a pretty good painter, don’t you think? I mean, a whole museum dedicated to his works is a likely indication. Actually, Van Gogh’s brother’s wife was the main proponent of his work after Vincent died and shortly thereafter, his brother. She was fierce and was responsible for most of Van Gogh’s future popularity. No pictures were allowed in the museum, but I snapped one of the crowd speeding by. I figured they didn’t care if I was careful to avoid any prized artwork in the shot.

After Van Gogh, we made an unexpected stop at Amsterdam’s modern art museum, The Stedelijk. It wasn’t on our agenda for the day, but we walked by it heading to Vincent’s pad and decided, based on how cool the restaurant was designed, to pop in. Worth it. All the greats of the 20th century were featured, including one of my very favorites, Yves Klein, who I discovered in 2017 on my trip to Nice with Alex. He’s just as brilliant as his signature blue paint. George rode in a wheelchair in both the Van Gogh and the Stedelijk and it really helped his stamina and mobility issues. He was zipping around admiring the art and told me that he didn’t realize that art museums could be so engaging because the ones in Minneapolis were not (sorry Minneapolis, but you know, you’re competing with Amsterdam). Lunch was also had in the very cool restaurant that lured us in to the Stedelijk in the first place. Mom had a pile of bacon which was allegedly a BLT. George ate the grilled cheese and I had tomato soup. Important facts about our day.

After the Stedelijk, the crew took a short walk through a gorgeous park that runs along several of the city’s best museums. We headed to its grand jewel, the Rijksmuseum. Holy Rembrandt. We didn’t have a ton of time, what with the modern art interruption of the morning, so Mom and I picked one floor (number 2 in case you’re interested) and George waited for us to take a quick spin. The grandeur of Rembrandt was on full display, overshadowing his contemporaries as well he should, being a Dutch icon and whatnot. Also, the ornamental pieces on display from tile work to cabinetry to doll houses were jaw dropping. I think I’m going to steal Mom away during the off season and make her come to Amsterdam so that we can cover every square inch of that place (and all of the other museums we couldn’t fit on our agenda). Art with a capital A here in Amsterdam.

Our last musem stop took us to a hospital about 1/2 hour out of town. Strange, you may think. Well the setting of the hospital was the least strange thing about Museum Vrolik. It has the largest collection of human specimens in the world and is used to this day for the study of anatomy and pathology. George was really looking forward to this visit, because he wants to be a doctor. Most of the collection in a few hundred years old and was curated by, you guessed it, Dr. Willem Vrolik. He was a botanist, weirdly, but he also dabbled in the growth of the human species. He’s credited with doing the first research on the skeletal disorder Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which was the condition that my Great Aunt Gin had. We spent an hour or so in Vrolik’s world. George was really drawn to the subject matter and decided to build a project for school around Vrolik. The pictures here on the blog are from the Internet, so no credit here. After the museum, we toured the hospital a bit and had a quick bite to eat. Wowzer, Amsterdam sure does know how to create a space for a teaching hospital. The public spaces are gorgeous and filled with art and air. It was a pleasure to spend time at such an amazing institution. Put this trip on your list if you plan to visit the Nether. A gem it is.