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...