Tag: the-netherlands

Amsterdam Where the Past Meets the Present

Dec. 5, 2024

Amsterdam is a lot of things. It has a lot of history that can still be seen all over the city.

It’s the city where Anne Frank wrote her diary:

It’s the city where Rembrandt became a prominent portraitist:

It’s a city with its own dark past. After all, I t’s seen everything from the Spanish Inquisition to witch trials and Nazi occupation. Some of its buildings still signal these darker times.

For example, take the Spinhuis. This is a former women’s prison, which is now a University of Amsterdam women’s dorm. And, the building has a scene above the door showing a woman’s beating:

The city also turns 750 next year (October 27, 2025 to be exact). In celebration, the city of Amsterdam recently launched “Amsterdam Monster Factory” (amsterdammonsterfactory.com), which includes eight monsters that each represent a different value of the city. 

The monsters primarily live in virtual reality, which can be accessed via the Amsterdam Monster Factory App. So, you can see most of them, this is an image from the app:

But, we spent the afternoon trying to track the monsters down IRL. We found a few of them in stores and parks across the city.

We found Moki at the Amsterdam train station. He “represents Courage (one of the Xs on the city shield), and the open mindedness, tolerance and spirit of the city of Amsterdam.”

We caught up with Kiki and Kima in the I Amsterdam store. They “represent Compassion (another X on the city shield) for others and openness to help those in need.”

I found Gretel on a sign in Westerpark. She “represents Freedom of Expression, and Amsterdam as a city of no taboos –  a place where the entitlement to speak your mind is a fundamental right.”

And, Biggie was near by. He “represents the future of the open minded spirit of Amsterdam.”

From there, we jumped on a canal cruise to take in the Amsterdam Light Festival. This is the 13th edition, and the theme this year is “rituals.” (amsterdamlightfestival.com/en)

I didn’t fully understand this one (there were also several human figures swimming, sitting and running…), but I thought the artistry was amazing:

Another fun one were these tulip petals:

Anyway, this is the last email from this trip. We fly home tomorrow, and then it’s back to reality. Thank you for sharing our adventure with us.

All our love,

Tara (and Steve)

Art + Beer = Life

Nov. 22, 2024

Hello friends!

We tried to bring a little culture into our trip by going to the Van Gogh Museum, and while we were in the neighborhood decided to drink in the Heineken Experience. Considering the snow on the ground and rain in the forecast, we were glad to be inside for the bull of the day.

We saw a number of Van Gogh’s big hits – everything from Sunflowers and Almond Blossom to Irises, Bedroom in Arles, Wheatfield with Crows, and a number of his self portraits. (Sadly The Starry Night lives in New York at MoMA, so we’ll have to see it on a different trip.) 

Even with a number of his heavy hitters in the building, we were also taken with several pieces that were new to us. And, with so many pieces (over 2k), I didn’t realize that Van Gogh only painted for about a decade…

“Wheatfield with Reaper” stood out to both of us. I found it interesting that this was one of the pieces Van Gogh painted while institutionalized, and Steve noted how the brushstrokes brought natural movement to the wheat:

Two other pieces stuck with me. 

Full disclosure – these next two photos are excerpts of the larger pieces, but I’m hoping to highlight the texture the paint brings to these works. 

The first one is “Cypresses and Two Women”: 

And, the second is “Giant Peacock Moth”:

As I mentioned earlier, we also hit up the Heineken Experience. It runs through the original Heineken brewery, which still has the original copper kettles and stained glass in the brew room:

On the tour, we learned a bit about their brewing process, special ingredient (it’s the yeast), and some facts about the brand, including:

1) Although Heineken is publicly traded, it’s largely owned by the Heineken family.

2) Heineken was the first beer imported into the US after prohibition ended. 

Specifically, six days after President Roosevelt signed the constitutional amendment ending prohibition, 25 barrels and 50 crates of Heineken landed in New Jersey.

Not everything is original, I mean the beer was new. At the beginning of the tour we were promised “the freshest Heineken in [our] lives,” (i.e., it’s no more than three days old), and they delivered:

Tomorrow we’re jumping on a train to Paris, and we fly to Morocco on Sunday. So, just a heads up that I may not have an update until next week. Until then…

All of our love,

Tara (and Steve)