Art, Science and the Holocaust

Here’s a picture from Christina’s trip to the Heineken Experience yesterday.

She enjoyed the tour but said she still doesn’t like Heineken beer. She had 3 drink tickets but gave two away. The young guys were happy to take them off her hands.

This morning it was cloudy, windy and damp…. again. So, I decided to blow off the museum and church and just relax at home. I’ve been traveling for 3 1/2 weeks and hadn’t yet taken a rest day, so I thought this was as good a time as any. But then around noon, a miracle occurred… the sun came out! Well, it didn’t come out so much as it tried to come out. But I thought this might be as good as it gets for the next week, so I changed out of my sweatpants and headed the to the metro.

After only a 15-minute ride, I walked a short distance to the Rembrandt House Museum. Rembrandt and his wife, Saskia, moved into this house in 1639. Unlike Vermeer and Van Gogh who only became well known after their deaths, Rembrandt was a very successful painter during this lifetime which allowed him to buy such an expensive home.

He completed hundreds of drawings. This is one of his most complex.

Their first 3 children died shortly after birth, but in 1641 they had a son, Titus, who survived to adulthood. But Saskia died in 1642 of TB. Several years later, Rembrandt had a daughter with his maid. He stayed until with the maid until her death, but they never married.

As the years went on, Rembrandt worked less and less but spent a lot of money on his collections.

To earn money, he started teaching. Tutoring just 3 pupils a year would bring in half a year’s wages.

But teaching wasn’t enough and eventually he had to sell the house and all his belongings.

Because of this book, the museum was able to perfectly recreate the home as it was when Rembrandt owned it. After selling the house, he moved into a rented flat not far away.

He continued to paint until his death in 1669 at the age of 63.

I really enjoyed the museum and am glad I got out of the house to visit.

Across the street from the house is a restaurant and since the sun was actually out, I decided to stop for a snack.

I wasn’t too hungry, so I just had a snack and a beer.

That was my day. The girls started their day at the Nemo Science Museum, which had been high on Drew’s list of things to do.

After the museum they stopped for lunch. The girls decided that they love Dutch pancakes.

After lunch, they headed to the Anne Frank Museum. This was the #1 thing Drew wanted to see while in Amsterdam. She read the book and saw the movie in school. Christina told Nora the story before they left home. She said Nora was interested but got mad at her because the ending was so sad.

There were no pictures allowed in the museum, but Christina took their picture with the statue around the corner.

After the museum they headed back to the house where it was time for pasta dinner. That’s when Christina had her first European misadventure. Yesterday she bought the girls a carton of chocolate milk to have with dinner.

Except when Drew poured glasses for them, it turns out it wasn’t milk so much as custard. Not exactly what they planned so they had water to drink. They tried the custard for dessert but weren’t crazy about it, so the rest went into the garbage. That’s why Peter and I always called our trips “adventures”. You never know what’s going to happen.

Tomorrow we’re off to Brussels for one night and it will be all about food and drink… Belgian waffles, frites, chocolate and beer for me and mom. It should be a wonderful day!