On Friday my friend sent me a message on facebook chat.

“Have you been to Rembrandt House yet?”

“Nope!”

“You want to meet me there?”

“Sure!”

I had passed Rembrandt House (Or Het Rembrandt Huis) a few times before, but I didn’t have any idea what it looked like on the inside. Was it just a Museum of his paintings? Turns out, Rembrandt House is a reconstruction of the house that Rembrandt (painter of the Nightwatch) lived and worked in during the 17th century. As one of the less popular museums, there is virtually no line and you can easily walk into the museum and start exploring.

Rembrandt house has a pretty cool exterior

Unlike Van Gogh, Rembrandt was a bit of a celebrity in his time. As you walk through the house you can definitely feel it.

My friend and I decided to do an audio tour. It was my first time doing one and I enjoyed getting to hear the background of each room we entered.

Audio tours tend to have numbers next to the different materials within the exhibit. You press a number and then hear about history and meaning of the piece. 

My favorite part of the museum is just seeing what it looked like living in 1600s Amsterdam! Going through each room you get a sense of what daily life was like for not just Rembrandt, but some of the other wealthier citizens of Amsterdam.

Rembrandt used his living room as an area to sell many of his artworks.

This is Rembrandt’s private room where he used to paint his famous works.

Rembrandt would mix his own paint, making just enough to be used for that day.

Rembrandt’s bed. Box beds like this, like the captain’s bed on the ship, looks short because people used to sleep sitting up.  

Rembrandt was also a collector and had a room just for his collections of objects from around the room, as well as private sketch books.

After exploring the house, my friend and I decided to do a drawing lesson, just like Rembrandt's students would have during his time. A model sat in the center of the room, while guests were able to try and draw him from various perspectives. A woman helped guide us and gave tips on how to do things such as properly shape his face. 

The room in which Rembrandt trained his students

Some of the drawings done by previous guests at the museum.

My friend’s picture came out super awesome and mine looked like it was drawn by a 12 year old, but that's okay because I had fun pretending to know what I was doing.

Started out alright

But ended with a black eye. So sorry!

The first excursion of block two was to the Maritime Museum (Or Het Scheepvaart Museum in Dutch). If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ll know that I’ve passed by the recreation of the VOC (Dutch East Indies) ship a few times and I had been dying to actually go inside it. Finally I had my chance!

It was a beautiful day to visit the Maritime Museum 

The week before I actually was at the Maritime Museum, but my group didn’t realize it closed at 5:00 so we didn’t get a chance to actually explore it. We got as close as viewing the boat from the outside before we were ushered out of the Museum. But in the end things worked out well (especially because I had a bad habit of forgetting to check where our excursions would be until the night before....)

First we were able to listen to some background about the Museum and its collection, which is one of those things that you usually wouldn’t get to do if it were not for being with the group in the excursion. 

I actually met this guy two weeks before, but he forgot who I was lol

Then it was time to get a tour of the ship! I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but the ship is a recreation of another ship which sunk somewhere off of the UK. Basically, it never made it anywhere near the East Indies.

It has a new mission now!

Finally on top of the ship!

I am too afraid of heights to be a 17th century sailor

I learned some pretty interesting things about what life was like for sailors in the 16th century. As would probably be expected, the captain and high ranking officers lived a much more (comparatively) comfortable life at sea. 

For one, the captain had his own room (and his own bed), while the rest of the crew practically slept on top of each other.

Captain’s desk. 

Captains bed. Its short, but people used to sleep sitting up out of fear that their heads would explode or something like that. 

There were a lot more men then there were hammocks

or space...

Also the captain and high ranking officers ate an abundance of (again comparatively) good food, while the rest had to eat the same bland and nutritionless food each week.

Captains Table. These are actually glued down to the table believe it or not.

Again, a lot more men then there is space.

The funniest fact and also my favorite is that the captain had the privilege of owning a private toilet, while the rest of his men risked their lives trying to use this one hole that hung off the side of the ship.

The captain even had two toilets just in case the boat was leaning to one side and he didn’t want to have any back splash.

Okay so imagine this, but without the platform (which was added only in the recreation for the safety of tourists. Also you don’t want to know what they wiped themselves with (hint: its that rope that’s in the water)

After the tour ended, we had a small amount of time to look through the museum. I had to rush a bit, but I still enjoyed looking around. Most of the exhibits featured model ships or paintings, but the highlight for me was definitely getting to go inside this whale.

Whale!!! You can actually move his eye

Inside the belly of the beast

I can’t think of any heart jokes

To celebrate the end of the first block at the Amsterdam Summer School I decided to travel to one of the countries bordering the Netherlands. I decided on Berlin, Germany because it was the only country to the east that I planned on visiting. My plan was to travel the week after my program ends, but I wouldn't have been able to go to Berlin then, because all the other countries I wanted to travel to were to the west.

The cheapest route for me to travel was by bus. I went with Flixbus. The bus station in Amsterdam is only two stations away from the Student hotel, which was very convenient.

Flixbus!

On line for the bus I met a young man traveling from Miami. When I asked whether he enjoyed Amsterdam, he replied that it wasn't for him. But when I asked him what he did, he only talked about his time in the red light district. 30% of tourism in Amsterdam is to the red light district, which is high but is thankfully not the majority of tourism. It's a shame, because Amsterdam is a beautiful city and is so much more than legal marijuana or prostitution. The bus ride was 10 hours long. As it was an overnight bus, I was able to sleep more than half that time so it wasn't so bad.

The windmills in the Netherlands

Arriving in Berlin was a huge culture shock for me. After two weeks in beautiful Amsterdam the bus station was filled with graffiti and tired faces, and the streets and subway station with homeless men and women. It's nothing I haven't seen before, but it was a sharp contrast to my experience in Amsterdam. It took me some time to get use to and accept as part of the city's atmosphere.

Berlin is full of graffiti like this

I had trouble figuring out how to get a ticket. Even after finding the button to translate in English (everyone in Amsterdam speaks English and it's really easy and Germany was mostly German) I still didn't know whether to buy an A ticket a B ticket Or an ABC ticket. What did those letters mean? As I struggled at the machine a German guy started yelling at me in German. I quit immediately and gave him the machine. Not a good introduction to Berlin. Also in Berlin, you purchase a ticket, validate it and then never use it again... I am pretty sure you could sneak on the subway for days before getting caught. Myself, being as paranoid as I am, would never do that , but I can't help but question the system.

The subway in Berlin

Inside the train

I got a little lost finding my hostel and since it was 7 am it was eerily quiet and no one was around to ask for help. As if being helped by the gods, a young Russian girl was lost and also looking for the same hostel. We found it together, but she didn't have a reservation and had to go to another hostel. It's unfortunate because she was really nice! The woman at the hostel who checked me in was very friendly and gave me a pamphlet that explained where you could go to get free tours. My goal that day was to go to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. As a history graduate student, my favorite places to visit are the ones with a lot of history. I think it's part of why I love Amsterdam so much.  The holocaust has also had a deep affect on me since I was in high school and first studied it. Its something I’ve wanted to see for many years and I was excited that there was a tour I could participate in.

The free tours meet at the Starbucks near the Brandenburg gate. It was a bit of a walk, but on the way I was able to see the Reichstag and part of the Berlin Wall.

The Reichstag!

Part of the Berlin wall. Those dots are all pieces of chewed gum.

The Brandenburg gate. Home of the starbucks.

I had to wait a bit before the tour started as I was half an hour early. I bought an ABC daily ticket, charged my phone and paid 70 cents in a starbucks to use the bathroom, which as an American is mind boggling to me. When the guides arrived I was the first one to get a ticket for the tour and wait online.

I have to pay to use the public restroom? Really? Shouldn’t toilets be a human right?!

But of course it wasn't that easy. 5 minutes before the tour was to begin I was told that I had spent 30 minutes on line for THE WRONG TOUR!!! I had to run over to the people hosting the correct tour (the Sachsenhausen tour) and was told that there was a wait list and five people were ahead of me. Of course! I was an hour early and I am now 5 people behind on the wait list... Even if I told them about my plight, there was nothing they could do. What's worse is that I found out the Sachsenhousen tour wasn't free like the rest of the tours. Instead it was 13 euros, which I almost thought I didn't have. In the end it turned out in my favor because the British girls ahead of me on the wait list only had their money in pounds! I was the last one accepted to go on the tour.

Yes, this is how my life usually goes

Wednesday's and Saturdays at the Amsterdam Summer School are excursion days, and the first Saturday was my first big excursion. I really didn't want to get up that morning. I was exhausted from the very busy week I had. However, I knew that if I spent the day inside on Saturday, I would regret it on Sunday when I had nothing to do. So that morning I dragged myself out of bed and to VU campus, where we boarded the bus to Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo, about a hour and a half from Amsterdam. (I slept the entire ride!) Initially I was a bit worried. Hoge Veluwe National Park is very large and the Kroller Muller Museum is located within the park . We were told that we would be biking an hour and thirty minutes through the park to the museum and I hadn't ridden a bike in over a year. Getting on the bike again was nerve racking and when your nervous it's hard to balance yourself. I kept worrying I was going to go too fast and lose control, so I went at a slow pace. I also took a very long time choosing a bike, since many of the seats were too high and I'm a short person. I wanted to be able to place my feet on the ground whenever I stopped the bike, but no matter which one I chose, I still ended up with my feet just barely touching the ground. By the time I finally found a suitable bike, the group was ahead of me, and at the pace I was riding, I quickly got further and further behind. But for the most part, I could still see them in the distance and knew what direction I was going in. As long as I knew where I was going, I felt okay.

I don’t know when I took this picture, but its the only proof I have of having been on a bike

As I was riding, the forest opened itself in a large open field. I could see my group in the distance as well as horses and other riders. The view was breaktaking and I just had to stop and take some pictures.

I finally understood what my tour guide meant by Netherlands meaning “flat as a pancake”

Meanwhile the group kept going. The flat fields were harder to ride in because there were no down slopes to give me momentum and allow the bike to carry me, therefore I was unable to rest my legs as I had been doing periodically. Just when I felt my legs would give out I came up to a group of fellow students who were unsure of which direction to continue. It was about 5 students.

When I approached them they said to me with surprised faces "I didn't even know you were part of the group!" And from that moment they realized they needed to watch out for me. It's lucky I found them because if I didn't I may have gotten lost as the route became more tricky to navigate once we reached the forest on the other side of the field.

Then we stopped to take more pictures and as a group we fell even more behind

I also fell in a bush similar to this one

Towards the end one of the members of the group took upon the responsibility of "encouraging" us to go faster. It became sort of an army  boot camp as he shouted "faster! Move your legs!" It was all in good fun tough. I also felt  a huge sense of accomplishment when I finally arrived at the museum!

The entrance to the Kroller Muller Museum

Kroller Muller, for when you want to see more Van Gogh, but feel like you need to work for it

The Kroller Museum houses the second largest collection of Van Gogh paintings. Which is also awesome because I heard you can't take pictures in the Van Gogh museum. As part of our excursion we were given a guided tour. Learning more about Van Goghs life and his struggle with depression gave me a new found respect for the artist.

We’ve dubbed him the selfie king

The most famous piece housed in the museum’s collection. I can see why its so popular, the colors are beautiful

This painting is my absolute favorite. It reflects Van Gogh’s struggle with depression and desire to get better. The onions and soup are for his illness, and the letter on the table is to his brother.

We also toured the sculpture garden which  I didn't understand as much as the paintings but it was cool none the less.

That walkway thing isn’t a walkway. Its supposed to be a sculpture. I don’t understand modern art sometimes.

At the end we got to walk onto a giant sculpture. Many selfies were taken

Art you can walk on!

Art selfie!

One of the things I’ve been dying to do since arriving in Amsterdam is ride in a boat through the canals. Luckily for me I got that chance last Friday. As part of my course, we were given a free tour through the canal. The tour is named the “Black Heritage Tour”, as we were able to see several locations in which black people lived throughout Amsterdam’s history. This tour is special, because many people do not know that these people lived in Amsterdam at all. 

Starting place for the tour

Awkward selfie!

There is not much more to say here, except that the canals of Amsterdam are stunning and that I really enjoyed getting to see the city from a different perspective. Therefore, the rest of this post will be a spam of pictures I took from the boat! 

This is the same recreation of the VOC trading boat, but from a different perspective. Our tour guide said slave ships looked the same, since many trade ships were refitted to carry slaves.

I’m not sure, but I think this is the tower where many women and children cried as their husbands and fathers left for their long journeys across the world’s oceans. The men on these ships would be gone for years, and one out of every three ships sank, so you never knew when or if you would see your loved one again.

A HOUSE BOAT! Yes! Some Dutch chose to live in houseboats. The guide from Wednesday’s tour said it cost twice as much for a fraction of the space... and forget having kids!

Beautiful canal front property.

Apparently Amsterdam is one of the most expensive places to buy a house or an apartment.

I love this view of the bridge

Another Bridge

Amsterdam is a pretty interesting place. Floors start at 0 instead of 1, A “Supermarket” is actually a deli, in one day it can go from rainy and humid to cold and windy to hot and sunny, and water can be either “still” or “sparkling”. But my favorite part of Amsterdam is that the center of the city contains the same architecture as it did 400 years ago.

Oldest Street in Amsterdam. Can you believe this is exactly what it looked like 400 years ago?

On Wednesday I participated in two tours. One with my class and another as an excursion through VU University. Both tours focused on different areas of Amsterdam as well as a different part of history. Each were fascinating and gave me a different perspective and I was able to learn how the Dutch view themselves as a people and as a nation. 

One of the last Dutch windmills in Amsterdam

The 17th and 18th centuries in the Netherlands are remembered as the “Dutch Golden Age”. The narrative of the “Dutch Golden Age” is one that Netherlanders take a lot of pride in. During this time, the Netherlands was a leader in international maritime trade. They owned two companies “The Dutch East Indies” which went to places in Asia such as Indonesia (their former colony) and Japan, and the Dutch West Indies in which the Dutch traded spices and captured slaves in West Africa and transported them to their colony in Suriname as well as throughout the Caribbean.

While my class focuses primarily on the Dutch West Indies, and its relation to slavery, I have always had a fascination with the Dutch East Indies because for over 200 years the Dutch were the only traders allowed to enter into Japan and exchange goods. They lived on the man made island of Dejima, which was no bigger than a baseball field and when the French captured the Netherlands in the 1800′s a group of Dutch traders were forced to live their until the end of the Napoleonic War.  

During my tour I was able to stand in front of the actual headquarters of the Dutch East India company. Having lived in Japan, It was as if I was standing on the other side of history. Amsterdam is amazing because it gives me the opportunity to physically interact with the locations I’ve studied only in textbook. Its a feeling I haven’t felt since I visited Kyoto in Japan.

Front of the Dutch East India Company also known VOC

Back of the Dutch East India Company

One thing I learned during my tour was that the houses on the canal used to be used as warehouses to store goods. During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch would have needed plenty of storage for all goods they were trading. Its only fairly recently that they’ve been converted into places to live. They were also painted in black tar in order to protect from rain and other weather. 

This one was built in 1720!!!

There is also a Maritime Museum in Amsterdam that has a recreation of a Dutch Ship from the Golden Age, which looks exactly like the ships that would have sailed across the world through the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company. Once again it was like seeing history come to life.

The original boat actually sank off of England and never made it through a voyage, but hey its the thought that counts right?

The Maritime Museum.

Up close shot of the ship that I took the following Friday. Still haven’t explored the Museum yet and I hope to explore the Museum and the inside of the ship sometime soon.

On Tuesday my class visited two Museums. One was the Hermitage Museum which had a gallery about the “Dutch Golden Age”, which was during the 17th and 18th century. The second was the Troppen Museum, which is a cultural museum. The goal was to see how the two museums contrast one another, which the Hermitage giving us a view of how the Dutch see themselves and the Troppen with how the Dutch see other countries. Being that the class is focused on post-colonialism, we wanted to see how the Dutch remember its colonial past. 

The Hermitage

The Hermitage used to be an old age home and was converted into a museum.

What we as a class eventually agreed upon, was that the exhibits don’t really touch upon its history of slavery and colonialism. In fact the Dutch emphasize its history of tolerance and consensus. Our professors want us to think critically and explore this hypocrisy. I find it interesting how museums reinforce a national identity through history.

Some of the paintings from the Hermitage, that were made during the Dutch Golden Age. 

Nonetheless, I loved getting to see these paintings. You can really get a sense of the Dutch history through their art. I’ve never been one who understood art, but as a history person I’ve learned a lot through these exhibits.

The Troppen Musuem

One of our professors, Wayne Modest actually works at the Troppen Museum as well as in 5 others around the city of Amsterdam. He took us through the back door of the museum and told us its history. 

The back entry way of the Troppen Museum

The Troppen Museum used to be named the Colonial Museum, but now its a Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology. Our goal was to focus on the places in which the Dutch Colonized. Indonesia, Suriname, and the islands of the Dutch Caribbean including Aruba all have histories as colonies of the Dutch. Some Islands are still part of the Netherlands today and its citizens have Dutch passports. All of this I learned during this class!

Part of the exibit on Java in Indonesia

Masks

Suriname

Indonesian Education

After walking around the Troppen Museum we had another long discussion about how the Dutch remember colonialism and decided once again that slavery and other negative aspects of colonialism are largely ignored or glossed over. Many students found it problematic and others felt that a museum can’t always discuss heavy topics because it has to cater to its audience. It was a very intense and insightful discussion.