Look back: Netherlands in Photos

After having an amazing time in London, Saurabh and I decided to visit Netherlands. We had booked a room in Qbic hotel close to Amsterdam city station. This hotel was pretty funky but surprisingly the bathroom didn’t have a door.

Light show

We decided to check out the city at night and took a train/cable car to Vondelpark area. Christmas is an amazing time in Amsterdam when artists from all around the world decorate the city with light sculptures and colorful installations. It was an amazing experience to take the ferry ride at night to see these beautifully lit sculptures.

Amsterdam at night

Riverside

Van Gogh Museum

Being an artist and a big fan of impressionist style of painting, naturally, my first place of interest was the Van Gogh museum. We didn’t have to stand in the ticket queue for long because it was the off-season. This museum gives great insight into Van Gogh’s life as an artist, his paintings which completely changed our perspective about him. The museum has an amazing collection but photography was prohibited.

Van Gogh museum

Vondelpark Area

After seeing Van Gogh museum we walked around Vondelpark area. It is a large city park in Amsterdam and close to Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and Van Gogh Museum. There is a riverfront and some great shopping streets nearby too.

Downtown

Rijksmuseum

Next day we visited Rijksmuseum (pronounced “Racks Museum”). It houses several amazing paintings by artists such as Vermeer, Rembrandt, Steen, and Van Dyck as well as some exceptional collection of antique objects of the Dutch culture.

Paintings of the old masters:

Painting by Willem Claeszoon Heda and Portrait Van Een Meisje in het blauw by Johannes Cornelisz

The Milkmaid by Vermeer and Old women Saying Grace by Nicolaes Maes

Kinderijk windmills

Next it was time to visit other areas of Netherlands. We took a train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, which is another major city of Netherlands. Our first stop was the windmills of Kinderijik. This have been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1997 and has the largest concentration of old windmills and water-pumping stations kept in their original state.

Windmills at Kinderijk

Madurodam

Next we took a bus to Madurodam, which is a miniature park in Den Hague. It has some amazing replicas of famous Dutch landmarks such as windmills, museums, tulip fields, and airports.

Madurodam

Overall Netherlands is a really beautiful country that is full of life. Next day from Rotterdam we took a train back to Amsterdam and then a flight to our next stop Iceland.

~ Shuchi

Originally published at our-travel-story.com on July 27, 2015.