Trip Day 40 – Amsterdam

It is another cold and overcast day, a day to break the scarf that I bought on Islay and head out to the station to catch the train to Amsterdam, I have decided to day is an inside day and what better way to spend it that heading to the Vincent Van Gogh  Museum in Amsterdam. The trip is 2 1/2 hours so with a light lunch packed it is off to the Netherlands we go.

The trip is predominantly spent passing field after field, when we get to the Dutch low lands the farming continues but the crops change and the appearance of lots and lots of glass houses, i am assuming these are for the tulips as we are near Rotterdam the tulip area.

The Amsterdam central station is large and with everything written in Dutch, i am totally out of my depth, luckily there are many English speakers here and I soon find out that the trams are the way to get about, since my guide book was written the tram system has changed to electronic charge card with 2.60 getting you an hour of travel, this is more than enough time to get to the museum district and the tram ride through the Amsterdam streets and over the canals is very pleasant.  

The Van Gogh museum cost 14 euro to enter and 5 euro for a recorded tour, the recorded tour is very good and explains Van Gogh’s early life and his work and the change to his later more colourful work. The museum has over 170 of his paintings and a lot of his letters and on some of the pictures you can hear extracts from his own letters about them, very insightful. The museum has a lot of his sunflower paintings but to my disappointment have none of his night time starry sky paintings, apparently they are all in the New York Museum.

All in all thought it is a wonderful day spent wondering among Van Gogh’s paintings and those of his personal collection. It is 6pm by the time i catch the train back to Brussels. arriving at 8.30 there is good time for a light tea and then some sleep.