Steve & Nancy's Journeys

Amsterdam, October 2024

Basilica of Saint Nicholas, Amsterdam

Preflight

Traveling to Amsterdam we went Phoenix-to-Chicago-to-Amsterdam. Returning home we flew Amsterdam-to-Houston-to-Phoenix.

Enjoying a Prosecco at the United Club at Phoenix Airport
Steve having one also

Around Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a very enjoyable city with lots of places to visit. There are wonderful museums, exhibits, canal boat rides, bicycling, tulip farms, and much much more. We only had one free day so most of our photographs are in the evenings.

A Dutch favorite – Bittenballen
Lovely Canal
Amsterdam Centraal – a very busy train station
Bikes everywhere
Nancy at a canal side cafe
Bustling nightlife in Amsterdam
Lots of shops
Timber beams in an ol canal side cafe
Amsterdam Centraal Railroad Station. Funny Dutch guy
giving me ears.
Nancy enjoying the nightlife

Smart Shops in Amsterdam

Smart shops are distinguished from head shops found in many countries including The Netherlands. In Amsterdam, head shops provide only paraphernalia, whereas smart shops sell psychoactive drugs including cannabis and magic mushrooms. We did go into to one the the shops – just to get sparkling water.

Cannabis shops everywhere
In this shop they sell magic mushrooms and marijuana seeds
Another shroom and seed shop

The Van Gogh Museum

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life. He died at the age of 37 at his own hands. He struggled with mental illness. The Van Gogh Museum is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It is located in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum contains the world’s largest collection of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings. In 2017, the museum had 2.3 million visitors and was the most-visited museum in the Netherlands, and the 23rd-most-visited art museum in the world. To gain entry you must have pre-purchased tickets. We booked ours three weeks in advance to our visit.

Auguste Renoir – The Clown
Claude Monet – Cliffs Near Pourville
Claude Monet – Fisherman’s Cottage at Varengeville
Claude Monet – La Corniche Near Monaco
Claude Monet – Poppy Field
Paul Gauguin – Self Portrait with Portrait of Emile Bernard
Paul Gauguin – Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers
Paul Signac – Ponton de la Felicite
Renoir – In the Cafe
Self Protrait – Van Gogh – Pipe & Straw Hat
Self Portrait #3 – Van Gogh
Van Gogh – Almond Blossoms
Van Gogh – Cypresses and Two Women
Van Gogh – Garden of the Asylum
Van Gogh – Girl Kneeling by Cradle
Van Gogh – Hands with a Stick
Van Gogh – His Bedroom in Arles, France
Van Gogh – Irises
Van Gogh – Montmartre – Windmills & Allotments
Van Gogh – Muddy Boots
Van Gogh – Railway Junction near Bois-Colombes
Van Gogh – Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear & Pipe
Van Gogh – Self Portrait with Grey Felt Hat
Van Gogh – Still Life with Father’s Bible
Van Gogh – Sunflowers
Van Gogh – The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital. The Fall of Leaves.
Van Gogh – The Potato Eaters. This is considered to be his first masterpiece.
Van Gogh – Tree #2
Van Gogh – Trees #1
Van Gogh – View of Avers, France
Van Gogh – Wheatfield with Crows
Van Gogh Self Portrait with Straw Hat
Van Gogh Self-Portrait – Pointillism Style
Van Gogh’s Brush strokes under a Microscope. His brush strokes are 3D!
Coffee Break in the Museum
Van Gogh – Tree Roots, Unfinished

Van Gogh painted Tree Roots on the morning of 27 July 1890. Worried that he had become a burden to his brother, he wrote ” . . . my life, too, is attacked at the very root, my step is also faltering.” Later that day he shot himself in the chest with a revolver in a field near Auvers, France. He died two days later at age 37. This painting was found unfinished on his easel.

Welcome!