I've already been to Istanbul--really want to return, too. I'm torn between Budapest and Damascus. I'm thinking Syria's gonna have to wait awhile.
It has the most important Rembrandt of them all though, the Nightwatch is considered a national treasure by the Dutch and the Jewish Girl as well as De Staalmeesters (sorry don't know how to translate that) also are among his best works. If you wanted to see a more extensive collection of Rembrandts, particularly self-portraits, you should have gone to the Mauritshuis in the Hague, where the man used to live. The latter also has his second best work, De Anatomische Les van Dr. Tulp, and an extensive collection of the work of Rembrandt's disciples. There are of course museums with far more Rembrandts than any of the Dutch museums, this is a largely financial matter after all. But a real lover of Rembrandt's work will want to see where the man lived and worked I reckon, to see what inspired him. It's easier to put the Nightwatch into context after having seen the paintings of the guilds and the provincial governments in the Royal Palace on the Dam, for example.
De Staalmeesters (The Syndics of The Clothmaker's Guild) I think. I always enjoy going to the Minnesota Institute of the Arts to see several of Rembrandt's etchings and Lucretia. I find it hard to believe the Rijksmuseum has only 4 of his works or is that just paintings? Maybe more etchings ? Johan, besides Amsterdam, where else in the Netherlands would be a nice place to spend some time?
It's partly thanks to the great Nazi art robbery that we've only got so few, I might point out. Many great paintings were stolen from museums but also from jewish families and subsequently sold on to the international art trade as said families never returned to claim their property. The Nightwatch was saved as it was smuggled out of the Rijksmuseum just in time, it spent the war being moved from one hiding place to the next before ending up the last year of the war in the caves in Limburg Province, underscoring what special meaning it has for the Dutch. Nice places? Depends on what you're looking for, I think De Zaanse Schans (stretch of windmills), de Keukenhof (tulip exhibition from march to june) and Volendam (fisherman's village close to Amsterdam) are the most popular tourist attractions but they are of course very touristy. For 17th century Golden Age architecture and culture, I'd personally say Delft, Leiden, Utrecht, Groningen and The Hague. Maastricht and Nijmegen are the oldest cities in the country with a wealth of medieval buildings. For modern architecture and cutting edge design, Rotterdam. The Dutch themselves like to spend time at the beach, you can walk the full 80 mile stretch without interruption across dunes and sandy beaches from The Hague all the way up to Den Helder. What I personally love in Holland is the Wadden Islands to the north, some of them are designated nature reserves and while there are hotels and campsites there, no cars are allowed - plus seals everywhere. For a proper football club Enschede is the only place to visit, of course.
Individual painting yes, but you would think those museums would have had catalogs of their works? ______________ Any place in Holland you don't reccomend? lol! I take it places like Delft and Utrecht are wonderful for just walking around with the architecture? May sound funny, but do people do a lot of canoeing? Don't mind the touristy areas, as long as it is worth it. I can enjoy scenery, museums, or just hanging out. Wadden Islands sounds nice. I had never heard of it. Will have to write that one down If I had the time and money, I probably would have visited Enschede with the Youth football this summer. Sounds, like the US team enjoyed themselves.
The Ardennes in Belgium is more the place for canoeing as they have many little streams there and it's not as busy - if you'd cano across Dutch waters you'd probably be hit by either an oil tanker or a German pleasure boat. When I have friends from abroad over I don't take them to any of the places I listed btw. In the summer I just take them for a drive through the regional countryside to visit the many chocolate box villages we have here, and locally to the old Grolsch breweries. In the winter I take them iceskating on the lakes, that's probably the most Dutch thing to experience.
Oh and on the subject of art, many of the paintings that were originally stolen from our museums by the Nazis were subsequently taken by the Soviets. There have been many efforts to get them back but some have been more successful than others.
Being from Minnesota, we have this "water thing". Obviously, not on the same scale. The Ardennes seems to be like Northern Minnesota. Nice place to hike as well I take it? Thanks for the information Johan. Sidenote..I hope all is well with the pregnancy.
Um, OK. That being said, the best collection of Rembrands is in the Met. The Rijksmuseum has his most famous piece, and is a nice museum, but the miles of dreary Dutch landscapes are............dreary.
I actually found the Sheepsvaart (sp?) to be much more interesting myself, but I've always loved ships and the sea. The city museum (I can't remember the name now, help me JN) near the main square is also excellent and has a lot of excellent art, including some very unusual pieces that show some of the scale of the naval battles between ships of the line.
Hey, there's a lot of really cool stuff in Amsterdam, I really like it. But the Rijksmuseum's not that impressive. Its not like its the only cool town with that "problem". The Getty collection in LA is pretty tame and I hated MOMA in SF.
Sitting at the top of my list is the Ho Chi Minh trail and Angkor Wat. A nice two-fer. My son this past summer re-visited the D-Day beaches in Normandy. We went about eight years ago. He was too young to take it all in, and has since become a serious history buff. His eyes were really opened. I have to say, of all the historical places I've been, including Jerusalem, Florence, Avebury and the Ridge Trail, Acropolis and so on, the most moving place I've been is the American Cemetary near Arromanches.