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Anne Frank House
The House was opened at 9:00 am, when the bells rang of the neighboring
West Church (Westerkerk). It took 30 minutes until we entered the House
as a member of the long procession.
Anne Frank House is where Anne Frank, a Jewish girl, hid and lived with
her family for 2 years after they escaped from Frankfurt, Germany, in 1942,
right in the middle of World War 2. Anne's Diary was written in its attic
room.
We went up the narrow, steep stairs in the four-storied house, which was rather difficult even for a sound body. Then we saw the way they lived those days, such as the movable bookcase hides the annex (back house), and Anne's breadth-holding room gets only mere light through a tiny window. The toilet, bathroom, desks, pictures of the family..... Still, human endeavor could live through.
No camera here. Even if permitted, I would not have wanted it.
Canal Cruising
Amsterdam has 165 canals and more than 1300 bridges. That's why this city
is called Northern Venice, needless to say the country's name "Nederland"
means "a low land".
Speaking of this low-land country, it is said "the world was created
by God, while the Netherlands (Nederlands) was created by the Dutch people"
; Isn't it one of the proofs of a lot of canals in Amsterdam!
We enjoyed the canal cruising from the wharf near Central Station. Our
couple took a gondola in Venice sometime back, while we boarded here on
a pleasure boat of 50 people. Many boats were coming and going.
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A parking lot for bicycles are seen
behind the pleasure boat. |
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| drawbridge |
The coastlines looked chic with fresh green leaves, and the canal houses
were well proportioned to be heartwarming. People on the bridge railings
were cheerfully waving their hands to us.
National Museum (Rijksmuseum)
We entered it after lunch.
This was opened in 1885, and is the largest museum in the Netherlands with
the abundant art collections of Dutch artists. The designer was P.J.H.
Cuypers, architect, who also designed Amsterdam Central Station.
The museum had been closed for 10 years and re-opened in the middle of
last month. Lucky!
Each tour member walks around for the limited one hour. My wife and I went
up to the 2nd floor and saw mainly the Dutch arts, following the advice
of the tour magazine.
Many works of Dutch artists during the 15-17 centuries like Frans Hals,
Jan Steen, etc., not to mension "The Night Watch" by Rembrandt
and "The milkmaid" by Vermeer.
Please see the link page "National Museum, Amsterdam".
Vincent van Gogh Museum
This museum re-opened on the first day of this month, after the restoration
for 7 months since September last year. What a lucky tour!
It is located within a stone's throw from the National Museum.
Mr. W, the guide, said, "Besides Gogh, there are pictures and sketches of such artists in the same era as Gauguin, Lautrec, who influenced Gogh much."
These Gogh's works had firstly been managed by the family of the bereaved
of the younger brother Theo, however, following their wish not to scatter
nor to lose the precious works, this museum was opened in 1973. They say
there are even 200 oil paintings and more than 550 sketches of Gogh only.
We had free time for one hour here, too. So two of us went up to the 2nd
floor and looked around at the standing works of Gogh. I was busy taking
pictures rather than that.
Please see the link page "Vincent van Gogh Museum".
As far as Gogh is concerned, many many sketches, prints, reproductions
of both ukiyoe woodblock prints and works of Jean-Francois Millet.
Even these kinds of terrific works might not have been recognized by the
public without the devotion of the people around him and some very rare
chance.
Gogh wrote letters so often to his brother Theo, in which he explained each of his works in detail. After his death, Theo's wife opened those letters to the public and appealed the works.....
The following pictures are "The Yellow House", "Bedroom
in Arles" and "Vase with Twelve Sunflowers".
Central Station (Centraal Station)
This building is said to have been under the influence of Gothic architecture,
designed by P.J.H. Cuypers, as I mentioned above.
What a gorgeous, stylish and dignified appearance! I stared at it in round-eyed
wonder for a while.
Though it is also said to be the model of the Tokyo Station, no comparison!
; I honestly felt so at that time.
(I may have to withdrow my words. The following picture (lower) is the
Tokyo Station I took after coming home. How do you feel?)
I wonder how is the inside of Centraal Station, compared with that of Tokyo
Station? It's a pity that I didn't enter it.
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| Amsterdam Centraal Station ↑↓ Tokyo Station |
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We enjoyed the canal within our walking distance from here. Therefore,
we saw the station to and from the canal.
Dam Square
Dam is just in the middle of Central Station and the canal Singel. There,
in the same place, used to be an embarkment to dam up Amster River. Since
then this square has been the center of Amsterdam both historically and
geographically.
The building on the westside is the Palace (Koninklijk Paleis) which is
used as the State Guesthouse.
The building on its rightside is the New Church (Nieuwekerk) in the latter
Gothic style.
…………
We had dinner at De Nissen near the canal, and drove back to Crowne Plaza
Schiphol after 7:00 pm. It was not dark at all.
We will leave the hotel early tomorrow morning, in order to see the tulip-blossam
sights of Keukenhof as long as possible.
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