Rotterdam

Friday was our trip to Rotterdam.  According to my professor this is a really "happening" town.

Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed during World War II (thanks Nazis) so the city has a very different feel from the rest of the Netherlands.  There is always some crazy construction going on.  Honestly, the town just felt really American.  But the art was great.

The first art we came across was this statue.  Its a gigantic gnome.  With a butt plug.  Only in the Netherlands.

  Right across the canal from the butt plug gnome was a Rodin statue.  Rodin is the guy who made the Thinker.  (One of which sits outside the Detroit Institute of Art.)  I won't bore you with all the rules he broke in his statues at the time.  It is just hilarious to see a Rodin across from the gnome in the same medium.

As we were walking to the museum my professor stopped to say, "There is a Picasso behind that tree."  It took it a second to realize he wasn't messing with us and there really was a Picasso on the street.  Pretty cool one, too.

We went to the Boijmans Museum.  This is the courtyard.  As soon as we saw this I knew I would like this museum.  It has a mix of everything from 14th century art to contemporary.  Plus you can play soccer (excuse me, I meant football) in that cage thingy. 

Inside the museum they had the coolest hanger system ever.

They had some amazing Van Goghs.

And Picassos.

There is also a contemporary section of the museum where they show artists that are still working.  I ended up spending most of the day in there.  The work was mostly from Germany and was absolutely amazing.

There was also an interesting collection of furniture design including this chest of drawers inspired by Robinson Caruso.  There was also a bathtub built to look like a boat.  I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of that.  It was pretty awesome.

After a quick lunch we went through the museum with our professors giving lectures.  One of our professors is an expert on Mondrian.  He has a book coming out in a few years with a theory that has never been voiced before.  Needless to say we spent a long time in front of this painting.  Someone in the class actually fell asleep.

After a quick dinner of shawarma and a bit of confusion at the train station (I think our professor forgets we can't speak Dutch) we headed home for the night.

On a completely random note I just wanted to point out that the Dutch have a food they call Hagelslag.  That basically means sprinkles, although the literal translation is "hailstorm".  What you are supposed to do is take a piece of bread, butter it, and then put on the sprinkles.  They come in a variety of flavors (the fruit is pictured here, but I prefer the chocolate).    I haven't gotten up the nerve to try it with butter yet, I've been sticking to peanut butter.  This is considered a perfectly acceptable breakfast or lunch.  It is basically sugar spread on bread.  But hey, when in Rome...

Canal Tour and Rijksmuseum

Tuesday we spent most of the day in class and then visiting the art history library.  (Where this window is.)  It was a lot of sitting around so we were kind of anxious to explore a little that evening.

Luckily we had a free canal cruise voucher that was given to us by the City of Amsterdam.  It was a gorgeous sunny day so we decided it would be perfect to spend it on the water. 

We biked down to the pier and hopped on the Holland International Cruise Boat.  Minus the kid who threw up a few rows behind us the entire time it was a nice relaxing trip.

We saw one of the old East India Company boats.

And tied up next to it was a couple of naked (?) guys drinking beer.  I guess everyone wanted to enjoy the sun.

This is a spot in Amsterdam where you can see through seven bridges.  Except there were stupid boats in the way and it was hard to get a photo.

We went through the super rich part of town.  They all have staircases leading up to their doors.  Apparently the city used to tax people by the stair so the more you had the richer you were.  Notice the door inside the staircase.  This is where the servants entered the kitchen.  When the canals flooded the rich people stayed dry while the poor got wet.

At the top of almost every house is a hoisting pole.  It usually has a hook attached to it.  It is the white thing above the top window.  This is used to move stuff in and out of the house because the doors and staircases are too narrow.  Instead they use the windows.  Its kind of entertaining to see people move.

See the tiny little house between the other two houses?  The Dutch also used to tax people on the size of the front of the house.  So people would build these tiny little fronts and then the houses would get bigger as you went back.

This guy kept standing up right in front of us to take pictures out of the roof.  I couldn't resist.

This is the church that is down the street from the Anne Frank house.  It is called the Westerkerk.  Anne Frank refers to it in her diary as the only thing she can hear to remind her of the outside world.  Rembrandt is buried here. (Plus check out how awesome that shot is.)

After the canal tour we were starving so we biked down to a bar.  Turned out to be a pretty hipster-ish place with everything from a dog running around to a brass band playing.

But the food was good (despite the wait.) And so was the beer.  And yes.  That is mayo for my fries.

Wednesday we went to the Rijksmuseum.  It is normally a huge museum but it is under construction right now so they only have their highlights on display.  But their highlights are pretty impressive.

Our professor, Steve, walked us through some of the paintings there.  He is so geeky and excited about the paintings that you can't help but get excited too.






He showed us this piece which is like Where's Waldo, except you get to find all the bad things people are doing, like peeing up against a tree and a naked butt.

We then got to talk to the curator of prints for the museum.  He just put together a small exhibition showing the career of Hendrick Goltzius.  It was unfortunately a very dark room and people kept moving, so that is why they are all blurred.

This is one of the engravings that Hendrick Goltzius did.  It is of the artist Karel van Mander who wrote a book basically telling artists how they should paint.







After the Rijksmuseum we headed back to the dorms.  Everyone is starting to get sick and I will not let that happen to me so I will probably just spend the rest of the day reading and relaxing.

First weekend off

Every week we are getting Saturday, Sunday, and Monday off to explore the city (and work on our research papers).  On Saturday I slept in then decided to go wander around the city alone.  I was in need of a little "me" time. 


I wandered past the Heineken brewery.  There you can take what they call the Heineken Experience.  I think that means they give you free beer.  But I'll have to save that for another day.

I went to a two flea markets that they have every day (except Sunday).  The first was a bunch of stores selling everything on sale.  The second was like a huge garage sale.  Both were pretty cool but the best part was the infomercial guys demonstrating stuff in Dutch.

I ate dinner at a little cafe by the park that played Prince and James Brown then decided to head home.  It was really nice to be by myself for awhile and see some of the city. On Sunday it was pouring so I spent all day doing homework like a good student. 




Monday I decided to go check out the zoo that is about a mile from our dorms.  I rode my bike there and I really don't know how people handle hills in Seattle cause I am worn out riding on this flat land.  At the zoo I learned that kids running around being really loud and rude is not a trait that is reserved for Americans. 

At the zoo there were tons of baby animals.  I must have gotten there at the right time of year.

This baby sea lion is named Clint.  I watched him sleep for awhile waiting for him to move so I could make sure he wasn't a little dead baby sea lion.

The gorillas are always amusing.  If only this guy had a pipe instead broccoli he could be some of my professors.

I stopped to take a picture of this silver back gorilla in this complete pimp pose.  Then I turned away to walk to the next exhibit.

Right after I turned around a piece of broccoli flew over my head and landed right in front of me.  The gorilla threw his food at me! But as a friend pointed out, at least it wasn't poop.





Dutch dinosaurs are much scarier than American ones.

They had raccoons at the zoo! I wanted to explain to everyone that these are pests, not cool creatures to look at.

I can't figure out if they put the mirror up to give the flamingos something to look at or if they are trying to trick us into thinking they actually have double the birds.

Here is a baby goat for Mike.

After the zoo I was craving a nice American burger so I found a place called Burgermeester.  Then I had to make them translate the menu for me.  I got the mini burgers, one beef, one lamb, and one free range chicken with guacamole.  They were amazing.

That night a few of us decided to go to the Anne Frank House.  The original house and the one next door have been turned into a museum.  There are no pictures allowed to preserve the material there, so I was just able to get the outside of the house.

After Anne Frank we were all feeling a bit sad and deep.  We decided that now would be a good chance to enjoy some of what Amsterdam does best.  Plus the pre-rolled joints come in these cute little tubes.  It was a nice mellow way to end the weekend.  Now back to school on Tuesday.