Day 2 - Rain

May 31, 2012

It is clear that I am still getting adjusted to the time difference, as I woke up around 2:30am here and couldn't fall back to sleep until about 4:00am.  I meant to only sleep a couple more hours after that, but I awoke around 10:30am and bolted out of bed to start my day.  The weather began cloudy and a bit chilly.  I wanted to get some food and a few supplies, so I headed out to the Albert Cuypmarkt, the largest daily open air market in Amsterdam.  It was great, a classic European market with not only food but other wares as well.  I stopped for breakfast at one of the waffle vendors.  They make you a waffle on the spot and top it with any variety of chocolates and fruit.  I got one with dark chocolate melted on top, and it was so rich and delicious.  I also got a yogurt and berry smoothie which was good too.  I bought 5 oranges and 5 kiwi for 2.50 euro, a huge loaf of white flour bread for 1.50 euro, and two medium sized bricks of cheese (cheddar and gruyere) to go with it.  At the nearby grocery I picked up a trio spread sampler of olive/tomato spreads to go with the cheese and bread, as well as a bottle of rose wine from malbec and shiraz.  (I don't normally drink rose, but I thought I'd try something different.  I'd get dutch wine but that's hard to come by and probably not as inexpensive).  I also bought some dutch stoopwafels, which I thought were just circular thin wafer cookies, but I found out they have this type of delicious nougat-ish filling inside.  Now I sit munching on my bread, cheese, and wine, as my second small dinner.  The first was a dutch hot-dog with mayo/ketchup/mustard.  It sounds weird, but it was really good, and I scarfed it down after all the walking I did today.

Let me back away from the food-talk for a bit to explain what I actually did today.  Unfortunately, after I got back from the market, it began to rain, drizzling lightly at first but pouring toward the end.  I was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt and it was still a bit cool.  I took a nap after my market trip and then decided to see if I could go buy a Museumkaart and begin to visit some of the museums.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to go all the way to the Rijksmuseum today, but it turns out that's one of the only museums where you can buy the card.  The Museumkaart is 44 euro but it gives you free admission to virtually every museum in the Netherlands.  This quickly pays for itself, as entry to the Rijksmuseum is 14 euro, and others are similar in price.  With several museums on my agenda for the upcoming duration of my stay, this is the best choice for me.  Additionally, I appreciate the freedom of having the opportunity to revisit a museum if there was something I wanted to explore more at another time.  I got the card and explored the interior of the Rijksmuseum, even though I didn't get to take pictures of the exterior since it was so rainy.  This building was also designed by P.J. H. Cuypers, and it's another incredible example of the recurring juxtaposition of rational clean articulation and playful decoration, confined to an uncanny restriction.  This strange Dutch restriction I would like to explore more in my research, as it's something that passes through the generations and across typologies.

The works within the museum were quite amazing, primarily paintings from the 17thC Dutch Golden Age.  I have a feeling I will visit this museum again within the next few days, since the tie between painting and architecture of the time is a key element to my proposal.  This centers around Martin Jay's scopic regimes of modernity, one being the "Dutch art of describing," as set forth by Svetlana Alpers.  The Netherlands produced some of the most notorious painters of all time.  The Rijksmuseum features primarily works from Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer, along with their contemporaries, partners, and students.  I got to see in person some of their most famous works, including the many Dutch landscape paintings, the two of Rembrandt's self-portraits, Vermeer's The Kitchen Maid, and my favorite 'Street in Delft / The Little Street.'  It's always incredible to see the how the technique of painting really makes such a difference in the experience of a work.  I was also excited to find an interesting series of paintings by an artist I had never heard of, Pieter de Hooch.  He paints interiors, but what is compelling to me is his 'keyhole' technique, which shows beyond the interior of the house, through the framed window or archway, into the canal, and then past the canal to the other side.  I have the inclination that this is an important Dutch perspective, one that is only able to occur due to the urban organization, compression of space, and compartmentalization of streets with central canals.  Something to further explore.  

Following my trip to the Rijksmuseum I wandered down the Museumplein to the next closest museum: the van Gogh museum (designed by Gerritt Riedveld - a modern Dutch architect who I will study more soon).  I got in for free with my card, but there was only a half-hour 'til closing time.  This museum was absolutely packed, and I did not get to spend as much time as I needed, so I will be returning.  Van Gogh is a supremely interesting character with a compelling story, and I want to do him justice.  I also need to visit the Stedelijk Museum which is in the vicinity.  At the time I left, it was pouring and I was hungry so I hurried back to the hotel, stopping for my hotdog in the Rembrandtsplein.  My USA-European power adapter had broken so I was worried I was going to have to run out somewhere to buy a new one, but I checked in with the hotel managers first and luckily enough they had some extra, I suppose that visitors accidentally left behind!  And here I am.  I am going to try to consolidate some of my research tonight and hopefully with better weather tomorrow I can do some more site visits.  I am dead tired still, however, so I may not get very far with work tonight.  We shall see.