July 2017
I was day tripping into Amsterdam from Amersfoort, seeing chunks of the city as time and weather permitted. The day I was in the neighborhood of the Rijksmuseum it was one of those rare sunny days in that lovely city of canals, marijuana, bridges, and junkies. Should I basically abandon the rest of the day's plan and wander the halls of one of Europe's finest museums or do I explore the streets of Amsterdam taking photos in the lovely sunny weather? I was in no mood to be inside and Amsterdam is a great city for walking (minus all the rude bicyclists). The Rijksmuseum received a hard pass.
This was not the first time I had passed on a museum either. I did not see the Prado [see: the Prado] in Madrid until several years after I started to visit that country frequently and only then on a rainy day. I only saw most of the museums of Vienna [see: Art History Museum] because the week I visited was gloomy and rainy nearly non-stop. I would never be "anti-museum" - I live and breathe them. However, I also treasure time in outdoor exploration and for me museums should be visited as an alternative on bad weather days (or for specific "must-see" exhibits).
I remember I passed through the main gate of the Rijksmuseum and exited to the rear into some lovely gardens and the Museumplein. There, surrounding a grassy lawn (so unlike Amsterdam) was the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, and the Concertgebouw (one of the great temples of classical music in Europe). I was overwhelmed by all the culture in one place and it served to confirm that I had to return to Amsterdam one day, off-season, and dedicate time to a concert and museum-visits.
The nail in the coffin for the visit, by the way, was the ticket queue and the sheer number of visitors. Just no.
So it was that I visited Amsterdam and passed on one of the great museums of Europe - for now, anyway.
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