What a beautiful,beautiful day!!!
I think this might be my best vacation so far in a sense that I stopped worrying about what should I do and am I wasting time reading/listening music instead of running around and following other people - usually I prefer to do "my things" anyway. So... today was the big day for Amsterdam since it was Gay Pride celebration. Lots of people came specially for this and hotels were fully booked & accommodation rented for a higher price. However, I've seen it all before and many many times, nothing new for me, in fact I get a little nervous around all that crowd pushing & pulling & stepping on my shoes so I got brilliant idea to get OUT of town and see "The Girl With a Pearl Earring" in The Hague. Unfortunately she is on a world tour right now - her home museum (beautiful "Mauritshuis") is being renovated and they need money for renovation so they are showing "Mona Lisa from North" around the world to get some finances. OK never mind,she will be back. In the meantime I still decided to visit The Hague since other famous paintings are moved into new,spacious building called "Gemeentenmuseum".
As I stepped out off the train I met two american ladies who came,like me, to escape madness of Amsterdam and to see "The Girl With a Pearl Earring" - it was sweet that there are more of us who don't mind traveling with a train just to see the painting, they were very disappointed when I told them our beauty is in Japan now but I took them under my wing (as always), in a taxy cab and off we went to Gemeentenmuseum to see the rest. The Exhibition was AWESOME! I was truly happy there - lost my friends along the way - saw lots a beautiful paintings by old dutch masters like Rembrandt's famous "The Anatomy Lesson" that he painted at the age of 26 (that was one of his first big hits), another - unknown to me - painting of Rembrandt "Homer", lots of cutest little miniatures, still life with fruits that looked absolutely perfect, paintings by lady painter Judith Leyster and so on. Vermeer was of course there, a very famous and beautiful "View of Delft" that i didn't expect to see in real life, I was floating at this point. Had no idea that Rubens and Brueghel collaborated - one was painting nature and animals, another human bodies,imagine that!
After I browsed trough this exhibition, I discovered there is more - "Modern Art" collection was spread trough the rest of the building and to my biggest surprise I found that I really liked some of the art displayed there. Usually I don't care for modern art and it does not move me,but apparently there are always some exceptions - dutch painter Pyke Koch was sensational and his painting "Bertha from Antwerp" stole my heart - she was such a sweetheart that I returned to her several times and couldn't say goodbye to her. At the end I sent her a little kiss. I am sure I will see her again.
Than I went out and walked to another famous local museum called "Panorama Mesdag" - it's all about dutch painter who became world famous by painting stunning cylindrical panoramic view of coast line that basically completely circles around the viewers - you are standing in a little pavilion with a real sand everywhere around and the painting is on the walls around you. It's around 40 meters around and truly magnificent thing.
The rest of collection was also quite stunning, I really loved lots of nice paintings of the ships & the sea by Willem Hendrik Mesdag (who did above mentioned panoramic wonder) but there was more - a temporary exhibition of work by Isaac Israels who was previously unknown to me - Israels was a painter very much like Toulouse-Lautrec who often painted ladies of the night and he was excellent!
After visiting TWO beautiful museums in The Hague I took the train back to Amsterdam and returned full of impressions, what a nice day - definitely much,much better than if I stayed in crowded Amsterdam where street celebrations left garbage everywhere and noise is still booming from every corner.I understand its a big deal for locals and tourists but it does not appeal to me and my choice worked far better for me. This is something to remember and to cherish.
No comments:
Post a Comment