From Van Gogh to Banksy

Self Portrait

Japanese Phase of Van Gogh

Banksy on Art Prices

Banksy - Turn Right or get Shot

One of the most beautiful movie theaters in existence

Automat

Choose your Steak

Perfect Steak with Great Fries and Marrow Bone

We have walked a tremendous amount in Amsterdam. It is like a toy city. The streets are all brick, there are the canals and then there are the trolleys. We were advised to take the trolleys and decided to see if we could navigate the system. It turned out to be very easy. We bought day passes so we could jump on and off at our leisure. Once we decided to go somewhere, I would look up the destination in either Google Maps or Apple Maps (even though I love all things Apple, especially the stock, we generally prefer Google Maps). With either map software, if you chose public transportation they show you the trolley to take and the stops as you approached your destination.

Amsterdam has many museums, but we were headed to the Van Gogh Museum and the MOCO (Modern Art Museum).  MOCO was featuring a major exhibit of Banksy. The museums are clustered together along with the Rijksmuseum which houses many, many Rembrandt paintings. The old masters don’t particularly interest us so we skipped the Rijksmuseum in favor of the Van Gogh Museum and MOCO.

The Van Gogh Museum is chocked full of what seemed like hundreds of his paintings. When he killed himself at age 37 he left his paintings to his brother Theo. Unbelievably during his life he only sold 1 painting! Theo died 6 months later. Theo’s widow inherited the paintings and shrewdly promoted them to build Vincent's reputation.  After her death to her son Vincent Willem van Gogh created a foundation with his inheritance donating the pictures. The museum is very busy. Even though it has been open for many years its four floors are jammed packed. The most interesting fact to me is that he painted his 900 paintings in a 10-year span leading up to his suicide.

We had no idea he had a Japanese Period of Painting. After working our way through the Van Gogh Museum, we walked to the Banksy exhibit at the next door MOCO museum. I was aware of Banksy’s graffiti but had no idea what an artist, humorist and political activist he was. We totally enjoyed this show. What a gift this mysterious person has. Among other creative objects in the exhibit is a yellow traffic sign. Just using black tape, he modified it to look like a gun and titled the work: "Turn Right or Get Shot". 

We took the trolley to visit one of the most beautiful old movie theaters in the world. The Theater Tuschinsky is a marvelous building. They are still showing movies, although we didn’t stay for one. It is a true movie palace! Next to the theater was an Automat. You put coins in a slot a remove your choice of food. Over 50 years ago when I first came to Amsterdam while hitch-hiking through Europe I saw the Automats of Amsterdam. I had completely forgotten about them until we stumbled across this one.

After returning to our hotel to rest and have cocktails we went to a great restaurant: Ron Gastrobar. Although it offers many selections, they have great steaks. They roll a cart up to your table and explain not only the cut of beef, but where the cow came from and what the cow ate! The steak and the fries were delicious. Great choice. Highly recommend this restaurant.

We plan an easy morning tomorrow then pack our belongings and fly to Berlin mid-afternoon.