As Seen By Susan: HIGHLIGHTS of AMSTERDAM: Rijksmuseum, Red Light District, Canal Tour & More

It only took one day for us to acclimate to the time and geographic changes, and then we were off being tourists in this great city. Follow along with these photos of the highlights of Days 2 and 3 in Amsterdam.

"We learn from history that we learn nothing from history."

-George Bernard Shaw

Visiting the Anne Frank House was high on my list of must-sees. I purchased the tickets online two months to the day in advance of our visit, which apparently is how it is done. Thank goodness it wasn't high tourist season as I am told the tickets go quickly.

The museum is the reconstruction of the canal house where Anne Frank and her family hid for two years in the Secret Annex before being discovered and deported to the concentration/extermination camp where every member of her family but her father Otto Frank died. The reconstructed facade of the building is unremarkable and, I assume, is sheathed in glass to protect it since it houses the significant history of the Frank family. As a result, the reflected image of the Dutch Reformed Westerkerk Church opposite the museum entrance is what is visible in this photo.

Seeing the bedroom walls, diaries, and the few keepsakes of Anne Frank and her family was a sobering experience, especially considering the current events in the world. No cameras were allowed inside the museum, hence this is my only photographic remembrance.

A block away in a small park we discovered this humble statue of Anne Frank.

“History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed. Art has remembered the people, because they created”

– William Morris

“Art is the signature of civilizations”

– Beverley Sills

The Rijksmuseum was also a must-see and was part of a day-long Skip the Line group tour that also included the Van Gogh museum, a one-hour canal cruise and lunch.

The building of the Rijksmuseum was designed by Pierre Cuypers and opened in 1885. It consists of two squares with an atrium in each centre. In the central axis is a tunnel with the entrances at ground level. As our guide told us, it is the only art museum in the world with a bicycle lane running through the middle of it.

The collection of the Rijksmuseum consists of 1 million objects and is dedicated to arts, crafts, and history from the years 1200 to 2000. Around 800 objects are currently on display in the museum.

The collection contains more than 2000 paintings from the Dutch Golden Age by notable painters such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Rembrandt, and Rembrandt's pupils.

The entrance to the museum is on the ground level. Visitors enter into a covered atrium with a glass ceiling. The vertical panels in the photo below are for sound abatement as the space can become very crowded with people.

Being a retired teacher, I am always drawn to groups of children when I travel. These kids really stood out with their colorful hats designed as the hair in many of the people in Rembrandt's paintings, but ultimately for the teachers to keep track of the students in the different groups.

Rembrandt's most famous painting, The Night Watch, is housed in the Night Watch Room at the end of the Hall of Fame.

An interesting side note is that at one time, all the painted details on the walls, columns, and ceilings were at one time painted over in white. It wasn't until the major renovation which began in 2003 and lasted 10 years that the painted details were meticulously repainted by dedicated art students at times lying on their backs, much like the original artists must have worked.

Much like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre and other iconic paintings elsewhere, there is always a crowd of people admiring The Night Watch. Today's crowd was actually few in number according to our guide who purposely made a bee line to this painting before more people arrived later in the morning.

And how fortunate are these students to sit with their teacher in front of a Rembrandt masterpiece to learn about the artist and the history? It took me 50+ years to see this painting in person after learning about it first in Art History 101 as a college student.

Among the 800 objects on display, this artist's paint box c. 1640-1660 caught my attention. The drawers of this small paint box are full of pots, bottles and bowls with the remains of pigments. However, in reading the description, I learned that rather than being used by an artist, it is more likely to have been a charming eye-catching object in an artist's studio. It certainly caught my eye!

Another eye catching display were these woolen caps worn by Dutch whalers. They were discovered in 1980 when archaeologists investigated the graves of 185 Dutchmen. Many skeletons were still wearing their knitted woolen head coverings. According to the description, these caps were highly personal and the men wearing them were recognizable by the specific colors and patterns of their caps. Presumably this is why the caps went with them into their graves.

I also liked this painting of the Amsterdam Town Hall (now the Royal Palace) on Dam Square. This building is considered the most important historical and cultural monument of the Dutch Golden Age as it represents the historical growth and development of the city during the 17th century.

The Rijksmuseum owns approximately 7250 ceramic objects, subdivided into porcelain (more than 4600 pieces), majolica (app. 400), faience (app. 1750) and stoneware (app. 850). The difference between these types of earthenware has to do with the material they are made of, or manner of production.

The Rijksmuseum Research Library is part of the Rijksmuseum, and is the best and the largest public art history research library in The Netherlands.

Despite there being a Van Gogh museum down the street, the Rijksmuseum also owns several of his paintings. Van Gogh was not a stranger to the museum, having lived in Amsterdam 1977-1878. He also visited the museum in 1885 after it opened in its present location because he wished to see the works of Frans Hals and Rembrandt van Rijn again.

This is one of several self-portraits painted after Van Gogh moved to Paris in 1886 utilizing the new, colorful style of French painters at the time. According to sources, he practiced new painting techniques in self-portraits to avoid having to pay for a model.

This painting, Two Young Women in the Snow, was a favorite of mine. The artist, Isaac Israels, was a Dutch painter associated with the Dutch Impressionism movement. I think I was drawn to this painting by the generous use of red and the setting in the snow, According to sources, it is of an everyday scene in Amsterdam in the winter. Two warmly dressed women appear as if they had momentarily stopped right before the painter.

However, critics claim that the scene is carefully considered, and the black and red passages of their shawls and coats are contrasted to create a well-balanced composition. Whatever the reason, I like it.

I also was drawn to this painting by Dutch painter Willem Witsen. It reminded me of the hundreds of scenes I am drawn to of the houses, windows and doors throughout Amsterdam. Reading the description of this painting, it succinctly put into words what many of my photographs are attempting to do. I just didn't have the words to explain it.