Museums

The Rijksmuseum is the Netherlands’ premier museum. Unfortunately for current travelers, it is under renovation until sometime in 2008. During this time, a temporary exhibit called “The Masterpieces” is on display in the Philips Wing, while additional works have been parceled out to other local museums for exhibition until the renovation is complete.

 

When at full operation, the Rijksmuseum contains the world's largest collection of paintings by Dutch masters such as Rembrandt, Van Ruisdael, Vermeer, de Hooch, Terborch, and Gerard Dou. Perhaps the most famous of them all is Rembrandt’s celebrated painting The Shooting Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch,better known as The Night Watch.

 

Nearby, Vincent van Gogh has a museum all to himself. The Van Gogh Museum displays more than 200 van Gogh paintings, exhibited in chronological order. There are also close to 600 drawings on display.

 

Amsterdam’s most popular tourist attraction is easily Anne Frankhuis. Anne Frank was just 13 when she started penning her famous diary, but instead of writing about normal teenage angst, she documented her family’s fight to stay alive as they hid from Nazis in one of Amsterdam’s canal houses. They went into hiding on July 6, 1942 and were forced to live in almost complete silence for over two years until they were betrayed, captured and sent to concentration camps. Anne’s last diary entry is dated August 4, 1944. She died of typhus in March of 1945. Her father Otto Frank was the family’s only survivor, and he was responsible for having Anne’s diary published. It has since sold more than 13 million copies, in 50 languages.

 

Visiting Anne Frankhuis is a sobering experience and a reminder of one of our world’s most horrific periods.

 

Note: Lines can be very long, especially during the busy tourist season. Try to go early in the morning or late at night (it is open until 9:00pm from April to August). Otherwise, just be prepared to wait. The line is long, but the experience should not be missed.

 

Amsterdam has several other museums including the Amsterdams Historisch Museum (exhibits focusing on the history of the city), the Joods Historisch Museum (a history of Jews in the Netherlands), the Museum Willet-Holthuysen (a canal-house museum furnished as it would have been during the 18^th and 19^th centuries), and Museum Het Rembrandthuis (Rembrandt’s home).