amsterdam, day 3

george, tokin' it



paola, tokin' it




we started the day by going to the rijksmuseum, which is the biggest museum in holland. however, the building was being remodelled, so we only got to see a small part of the collection. it is just as well, because i didnt like what i saw, which are supposed to be the great works of the collection. it was all dutch art, including rembrandt and vermeer. certainly, there is no denying the craftsmanship in these paintings; they are masterfully completed. however, the content of these paintings is rather boring. i thought that all of the paintings that i saw were extremely boring. so we raced through the collection, and considered the 18 euro fee for both of us as a loss. (in fact, i thought that the 9 euro price for such a small fraction of the normally viewed collection was absurd from the beginning.)

after that, we had doubts about whether or not we wanted to go to the van gogh museum afterwards. in fact, i dont even particularly like van gogh, so it was easy for me to say that it was not necessary to go. since, we were there, though, and we really didnt have anything else to do, we went. by the time we got to the front of the line, we were surprised that they almost didnt allow us to pay with a credit card (there was a 50 euro minimum, and we didnt have the cash to pay), but they let us pay with the credit card when we were ready to walk out and paola gave a sad face. in fact, i was much more impressed with the van gogh museum. there was a collection of his drawings on exhibition, which showed his masterful skill (which i didnt think was so apparent in his paintings). i did develop a new respect for the artist after going to the museum (especially after seeing some of his earlier paintings, before he developed his signature style), so i suppose it was a successful visit in that regard. in fact, it makes me want to go home and start painting again. van gogh produced all of his work in the last ten years of his life (before he shot himself). so i figure that i should try to produce about that much work; we’ll see.

all in all, this was a much better day than yesterday (i guess that i just woke up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday). perhaps we were both helped by the fact that we could see the sun today (however, it did still rain; one of our books said that it rains, at least a little bit, every day).

we decided that we probably wont go out tonite, seeing as how i have probably seen the last of my clubbing days (in fact, there is even going to be a dj who i like there, so...).

all in all, then, i would say that i didnt take part in much of the hedonism that i thought i would. it seems as though i am getting older now, perhaps too old, perhaps too tired. it might be time to move on to different things.

we then went to the train station to book our train to paris. this morning we already booked the hotel. paris was a much easier city to book than amsterdam (which took about 20 different hotel calls; paris took 2, and we booked with the third). in any case, we should have a smooth ride tomorrow.