Saturday 15th December Otterlo
Yesterday had been a long driving day in pouring rain. Our
campsite in Otterlo was on the edge of the Hoge Veluwe National Park , a very
beautiful place. The main point of
interest there for us, was not the beautiful natural surroundings, but the
Kroller Muller museum. This museum is
famous for its large collection of Van Gogh paintings that were donated to the
Dutch government by Mrs Kroller Muller when her husband's business suffered in
the 20’s-30’s depression and she was afraid that her wonderful collection would
have to be sold off. It was a wonderful
museum and contained many other fine works of art too. Probably the most famous painting there was
VGs yellow and blue café at night painting but I loved one of 4 old sunflowers.
There was also a huge sculpture park there which we wandered around, admiring
some and trying to work out the meaning of others. We then got back on our bikes and cycled
through the parkland back to the van where we had a late lunch before setting
of for Amsterdam. 
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| This is a sculpture - not a real tree |
Sunday 16th December: Amsterdam
We managed to find a campsite on the edge of the city. It was obviously geared up for a much younger
generation. The outbuildings and holiday accommodation were painted in bright
hues: yellows, oranges and purples. This
was confirmed when Jacqui’s shower was disturbed by a couple having sex in the
adjacent cubicle. Mike says we must try this on our return trip!
We got our trusty bikes off the van and set off for the city
which was about 6km away. Our main focus
for the day was to visit Anne Frank’s house.
This museum was a brilliant testament to her and her family and once
again brought home the horrors of living under Nazi dictatorship. We both took a lot from this visit and
perhaps the phrase that stays with me is that from her father Otto who said ‘to
build a future you have to understand the past’. Despite the horrors he experienced and the
loss of his whole family he went on to live until he was 91 years.
After this stop Mike and I cycled up the labyrinth of
waterways visiting various sites including the red Light district, the oldest
Brown café, the Golden Curve, the flower market and station. We both felt Amsterdam this time round to be
an anti-climax. We were not sure if this
was because it was not our first visit here, whether we had become blasé after
visiting other wonderful cities or whether the Anne Frank’s experience had left
us a little flat. We cycled home the
long way round (euphemism for getting lost
- but were frequently helped by very kind Dutch people) and spent the
rest of the evening taking advantage of the free wifi to catch up with e mails,
blogs and skyping family.
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