Van Gogh self portrait
The Rijksmuseum
Netherlands beat brazil 2-1
World Cup 2010Friday, July 2nd
I started the day out at the Van Gogh Museum. Pretty interesting. Again, trying to open the mind to new things. The take home points from the museum for me: Van Gogh only started painting at the age of 27, his entire collection of painting was created in a 10 year span, Von Gogh killed himself at the age of 37 (shooting himself in the chest and only dying 2 days later), 1853-1890 - life span, Van Gogh cut off a part of his ear in a fit of rage 1 year before his death, he checked himself into a mental institution 1 year befoe his death (he was let out 3 months before his suicide), his paintings use soft coloring and he has several famed self-portraits.
After the Van Gogh Museum, I walked down the street to the Rijksmuseum. The "Rijks" is recongnized as the Netherland's greatest museum. It houses a number of Rembrandt's finest works. "The Night Watch" - Rembrandt's best known painting, is on a king-sized canvas on the 2nd floor of the museum. Other impressive painters are displayed in the museum as well - Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jacob van Ruisdale to name a few. I didn't enjoy this museum quite as much as the Van Gogh Museum - but interesting nonetheless.
It was now about 3:30pm. The Netherlands were playing Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup today - sarting at 4pm. Another really cool thing I stumbled into - this huge field outside the Van Gogh Museum had big screens and thousands of fans were gathering. How great is this? It's Friday at 4;00pm, it's a perfect sunny day, about 90+ degrees, people are drinking, partying - it was an incredible atmosphere. Now, Brazil is like the NY Yankees of soccer. I believe they've one 5 World Cups - the most all time. Every 4 years when the Cup rolls around - Brazil is pretty much the favorites. It was a huge game.
Brazil takes an early 1-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. After halftime, the Netherlands ties it up. Then, with about 20 mintues to go, they net the go-ahead goal off a corner kick header. People were going nuts. The atmosphere kept getting more and more crazy - finally the game had ended. See the video I'm including. After the game, there's this huge fountain area. People were jumping in with all states of dress. The rest of the night, the streets were filled with loud and screaming fans.
I started the day out at the Van Gogh Museum. Pretty interesting. Again, trying to open the mind to new things. The take home points from the museum for me: Van Gogh only started painting at the age of 27, his entire collection of painting was created in a 10 year span, Von Gogh killed himself at the age of 37 (shooting himself in the chest and only dying 2 days later), 1853-1890 - life span, Van Gogh cut off a part of his ear in a fit of rage 1 year before his death, he checked himself into a mental institution 1 year befoe his death (he was let out 3 months before his suicide), his paintings use soft coloring and he has several famed self-portraits.
After the Van Gogh Museum, I walked down the street to the Rijksmuseum. The "Rijks" is recongnized as the Netherland's greatest museum. It houses a number of Rembrandt's finest works. "The Night Watch" - Rembrandt's best known painting, is on a king-sized canvas on the 2nd floor of the museum. Other impressive painters are displayed in the museum as well - Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jacob van Ruisdale to name a few. I didn't enjoy this museum quite as much as the Van Gogh Museum - but interesting nonetheless.
It was now about 3:30pm. The Netherlands were playing Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup today - sarting at 4pm. Another really cool thing I stumbled into - this huge field outside the Van Gogh Museum had big screens and thousands of fans were gathering. How great is this? It's Friday at 4;00pm, it's a perfect sunny day, about 90+ degrees, people are drinking, partying - it was an incredible atmosphere. Now, Brazil is like the NY Yankees of soccer. I believe they've one 5 World Cups - the most all time. Every 4 years when the Cup rolls around - Brazil is pretty much the favorites. It was a huge game.
Brazil takes an early 1-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. After halftime, the Netherlands ties it up. Then, with about 20 mintues to go, they net the go-ahead goal off a corner kick header. People were going nuts. The atmosphere kept getting more and more crazy - finally the game had ended. See the video I'm including. After the game, there's this huge fountain area. People were jumping in with all states of dress. The rest of the night, the streets were filled with loud and screaming fans.
After the game, I went back into the city and grabbed some dinner. I walked around a little but called it an early night. Tomorrow I'll be touring the Anne Frank House - one of the things I'm looking most forward to here in Amsterdam.
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