Exploring Amsterdam: Day 3
Posted by Cassie, September 6th, 2009
Westerkerk (West Church)
Westerkerk is in the Jordaan neighborhood. It has the highest church tower in Amsterdam of 85 meters, and you can climb the tower. You can only go about halfway up the tower, at 42 meters, where you can walk outside around the tower and get an amazing view of the city. The climb up the tower is very steep and treacherous, and you could definitely not do this in the US. The first person that tripped and fell would sue the church and that would be the end of the tower tour. As you climb the tower, you can also see the bells in the tower that are pulled by ropes below. They also have 50 bells for carillon concerts every Tuesday.
Bell inside tower
View from tower
View from church
View from tower
We also went inside the church and were amazed at how plain and simple the decoration was. The walls are just painted a plain white. We found out that this is one of the first Protestant churchs that was built in Amsterdam after the country’s rulers converted to Protestantism from Catholicism. Originally, the Catholic churches were stripped of their decoration and coverted to use by Protestants, but then, they began building Protestant churches.
Inside the church
Woonbootmuseum (Houseboat Musuem)
Amsterdam has lots of houseboats in the canals, and we went to the houseboat museum. The houseboat used to be used to carry sand and gravel, but it was converted for use as a houseboat in 1917. The houseboat was remarkably spacious, except for the tiny, cupboard bets where the family that lived there slept. I did not realize that houseboats required so much maintenance. Since the houseboat is made of iron, it must be dry-boated every 3-4 years for maintenance such as puting a protective coating against rust. Amsterdam is no longer issuing new leases for houseboats, so houseboats cost as much as a house, plus more money for maintenance. The houseboats have all the amenities of a house with hookups for electricity, phone, water, and sewage. It seems like a neat way to live in Amsterdam.
Entrance to houseboat
Houseboat living room
Houseboat living room
Houseboat kitchen
Houseboat kitchen
Van Gogh Museum
It is amazing to see the progression of Van Gogh’s paintings. He was self-taught and the rapid progression of his skill is incredible. All of his great works were produced in just 10 years. He died so young at the age of 37. His first paintings were so dark and dreary of peasant farms in the rural Netherlands. His brother, Theo, was an art dealer in Paris who wrote telling about recent trends in art and encouraging him to use brighter colors and stop using black completely. Van Gogh’s paintings are much better once he does this. 🙂
We went to the Van Gogh Musuem on Friday night, so there was also a live concert going on in the open area in the middle of the musuem. They had a camera set up above the audience and projected the image of the audience onto the wall. Since the audience was sitting in blue chairs and on blue carpet, they were able to filter out the blue to insert the audience into Van Gogh’s painting, The Harvest. It was really cool. We saw a women in blue go into the audience, and she disappeared into the painting.
Van Gogh Museum
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