Van Gogh and Canals

Monday 4th September
The weather gods are looking after us, brilliant sunshine greets us this morning. We have two planned, booked events today so we need to move our tushes, hustle our buns so to speak. Breakfast here at the Pulitzer is exhaustive, but we can’t dally, we do need to stoke the bellies with a quick meal before a busy morning and early afternoon. Our first appointment is the Van Gogh museum, I say appointment because the museum is so in demand that you have to book online at a designated time slot, the museum allows you only a 30 minute leeway in which to be late, after that you are shut out. We are due at the museum/gallery at 10.00am and the walk takes us parallel to one of the western canals, then south still following another canal until we cross over the Singelgracht a major canal that flows into the Amstel river, that then flows directly into the centre of the city of Amsterdam itself. According to Miss Apple this will take us about 28 minutes. We set off, constantly stopping to check our directions as our Australian voiced navigation takes us down streets and alleyways, unpronounceable to us and clearly just as unpronounceable to our guide, but she has a good shot at it. All the while we keep to a narrow pathway dedicated for mere walkers, while cyclists whizz by at a rate of knots in their dedicated wider lane, ringing their bells to startle you or to warn you of their impending approach, we are not sure which. Bicycles take all forms, small, large, some with passenger or goods trolleys out in front of the front wheel, others with kid seats in front or back. All ages cycle from one spot to the next, this is Amsterdam city centre, by far the easiest way to move around is by bike. There are 1.5 million bicycles in Amsterdam compared to a population of 800,000. This is not a car friendly place. As a pedestrian too, you have to be very careful, the many bicycles approach from every direction, charge out of alley ways seemingly without looking, the main aim it seems is to be in whatever place you want to be first. We wind our way around to our destination making good progress, quickly correcting our steps if the little man on the screen oversteps his mark. We arrive at our own specified time slot exactly on time, although a little hot, the day is sunny but still cool, the walk has heated us up. Once inside the museum we pickup our audio tour sets and proceed to look around. Like the British Museum, each item or painting is numbered, instead of typing the numbers one simply rotates a virtual dial on the audio set screen to select a number, then press play and listen. We take the approximately 90 minute “Explore at leisure tour” that starts on the first floor and extends to three levels. 

There are 200 Van Gogh paintings and even more drawings and sketches also a few by Paul Gauguin, a friend of Vincent’s but also an antagonist of sorts. The ear incident for example, sparked by a disagreement with Gauguin. A few points of interest about Van Gogh we hadn’t realised, his love of the Japanese style of painting, its simplicity appealed to him immensely. He painted the famous Sunflower painting five times keeping each version. In a year from May 1889 to May 1890 while a voluntary patient at an asylum at Saint Remy, Provence, France he painted 150 canvasses.

It takes us the full 90 minutes and more to take in all the works and listen to the stories about them, he wrote about his painting and sent the writings in letters to his brother Theo, some of those words are reproduced on the audio we listen to.


The time approaches for us to move on, we have booked a canal cruise, on the wooden canal boat owned by the Pulitzer at 1.00pm. We set off again using Miss Apple as our guide, she takes us on the scenic route, it’s all very scenic really. This time though we are directed towards the Holland Casino, then down on a pathway that takes us along the waters edge, this looks like a pleasant walk but our path is blocked after a short way and we have to retrace our steps due to maintenance works. We are conscious of the time and reroute ourselves, now having to pickup the pace somewhat. We finally connect with the Princengracht canal that takes us all the way to the Pulitzer. We arrive with just a few minutes to spare, just enough time for a comfort stop and we are on the platform waiting for the little boat named “The Tourist” to set sail. This little wooden boat was originally built in 1909 and has spent a good deal of its life plying the Amsterdam canals. The boat has a painted white hull, varnished timber window frames, with windows that slide down to open up the boat on days like today. Inside is small but plush, lots of varnished timber and brass with a beveled glass doored liquor cabinet. Padded seats on varnished bench seats are fit for a Queen and Prime minister, as it indeed was when Winston Churchill and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands toured the canals in her, after the defeat of the Nazis in 1945. In those days the little boat had a diesel engine, now fully electric it still plies the canals in a more ecological friendly way. 


We float around the canals for another ninety minutes, looking up at the street scenes, the narrow houses, three or four stories tall, standing at attention like soldiers that have stood on parade for hours and are now a little wonky. 


As we travel down the canals, permanent floating homes line the waterways, many have made their homes here for years, now they are allowed to stay but no new ones allowed in. The boat homes are in various states of repair or should I say disrepair. Some loved and cared for, some slowly dissolving into the brackish water around them. Now permanently anchored and immovable, they all are now property to be bought and sold, average price for a permanent water view euro$300k. 


We pass by a junction where you can see bridges line up ahead of you like a never ending reflection in a mirror. 


One part of the canal system takes us into the “Venice of the north” here the canal waters lap against the sides of buildings just like in Italy. Then we emerge out into the wider waters of the Amstel River, modern buildings and architecture front the wharfs of this waterfront district, a completely obverse and surprisingly refreshing side to Amsterdam city centre.


 Travelling back into the old canal system we find somehow we must have completed a loop, we are heading back down the Princengracht canal back to the Pulitzer’s dock and the end if our tour. 

The Pulitzer is situated on a corner between two canals, they occupy about four building facades on both canal facings and the interior spaces that run through the middle. Consequently the interior is like a rabbit warren, full of corridors and steps that change from one level of a building to another level of what used to be an adjacent building without you even realising. A central courtyard takes up some space in the centre of the complex, partly covered by glass passageways and dining areas and partly open for summer use. We make our way to the rear of the building where the restaurant “Janz” is, outside there are chairs and tables setup against the canal, so that one can enjoy a snack or drink from the bar, with a water view. We take a seat and order cappuccino’s, the coffee is good here, plus a Dutch version of bruschetta, not quite as the Italians would do it but enough to fill a gap until dinner tonight, inside at this very restaurant. 

After our break we decide it’s time to relax awhile in our room before dinner. 

Dinner time rolls around once again, I must admit I like the formality of it all, dressing for dinner and making an occasion and celebration of our night out together. 

The hotels restaurant, sits on a corner alongside a canal and a bridge that crosses over it. The long twilights are not only an English feature the days ends here linger on too! We are seated and I order a glass of champagne for us both while we discover the contents of the menu. The waiter suggests some oysters to go with the champagne, I order just two for me, as Amanda is not a fan, and we continue our menu investigations. We order a salad of beets, fennel, small squash, watercress sprouts, and a green vegetable, with a conical shape made up of tiny florets that tasted like raw cabbage (in a good way) with a puréed goats cheese and balsamic vinegar dressing to share and our main course, a lobster risotto. In Australia we think Lobster, expensive, but here, as in the US and England Lobster appears on the menu often and is not anymore expensive than say beef or lamb. Nowhere near the same size as at home though, but still tasty.

Along comes the salad but no oysters yet, I ask after them, they are coming I’m told. Meanwhile cyclists are still whizzing by the window, their hair flowing out from their heads, no helmets here as they make there way to where ever they are going.

We order a glass of Chardonnay in anticipation of the risotto that arrives with out delay but still the oysters are illusive. Our salad finished the table is cleared, ahh! the oysters are coming. I linger over the last drop of champagne, that the oysters would have loved to be part of but the lobster risotto arrives instead. I enquire again about the oysters, the waiter is surprised obviously having no idea that oysters had a part to play in this scene. I cancel them anyway, they’ve missed their opportunity for a starring roll. We resume our meal, the risotto is in a word fantastic, creamy and full of the Lobster flavour. We have had two waiters and two servers, they have not talked to each other all evening. Having finished our main course we are quickly offered dessert, yes we will take a look at the menu, but give us a break, let us finish our wine and digest our dinner just a little. The break extends on and on though with no dessert menu, until we ask for one. We choose some ice cream, chocolate for her and pistachio for me. The first waiter that offered up the oysters now puts two glasses on the table, we look at him, he quickly jumps in, some dessert wine for you sir, on the house, since we stuffed up the oysters, it appears the table behind us enjoyed them immensely. Behind the scenes some communication has occurred.

The night ends on a good note as I discuss the style of dessert wine with the waiter that has has served us, red, sweet and French very unusual, I have only had this style in Australia, more of a vintage port style, he doesn’t know the grape variety but it is good. We enjoy our ice cream and then return to our room to recharge for another day tomorrow.