For our last day in the Netherlands, we didn't have much planned. We visited another Van Gogh-centric museum, and wandered around Amsterdam for the rest of the day. What was great about this last day was how the Dutch continued to remind me of their friendliness.
Itinerary of the day: Day trip out of Amsterdam → Kröller-Müller Museum (in Hoge Veluwe National Park) → Amsterdam → The Nine Little Streets (De Negen Straatjes) → Cafe Winkel → Depart the next day
I own a book called "Off the Tourist Trail" by Eyewitness travel, which suggests alternatives to replace popular tourist attractions. It suggests Kröller-Müller Museum as an alternative to the crowded Van Gogh Museum. Is it really? We'll see about that.
The museum is not close to Amsterdam, and it requires 1 train and 2 buses for the duration of 1h40mins.
Ede-Wagenin----ok we didn't even attempt to pronounce this, that's why having place names prepared in writing is important.
Here a photo evidence of why signage in the Netherlands suck. At Ede-Wageningen station, we needed to transfer to a bus, but there were multiple exits. This was just about the most helpful thing ever:
SO HELPFUL THANKS
AND OF COURSE WE GUESSED THE WRONG EXIT FIRST
While waiting for the bus, my friend and I discussed over this ad that we had been seeing everywhere in the past few days.
Gratis is free...Koning is king, but what's Koningswup? Free King? We knew that this year's "Queen's Day" was supposed to become the "King's Day" as per the coronation of King Willem-Alexander. To coincide with this event, we speculated that if 15€ is spent at Albert Heijn, we might get that orange fluffy thing with a crown. To confirm this, we asked this lady who was also waiting for the bus.
She proved our speculation to be correct, but also wouldn't stop talking after answering our question! She said the orange fluff is called a "wuppie", and it is Albert Heijn's marketing tool & mascot. I love fluffy ball like things, so my friend and I were determined to get a wuppie after we return to Amsterdam.
In order to enter Kröller-Müller Museum, it was obligatory to also buy the ticket into the Hoge Veluwe National Park. At different entrances of the park and at the museum, hundreds of free white bikes were available for visitors to use. My friend was still traumatized from the Zijpe Bike Day experience, so we opted out the biking. Otherwise, this would be a great activity to do in conjunction with the Museum.
Kröller-Müller Museum's iconic sculpture, Monsieur Jacques. He is not a portrait of someone, but apparently a stereotype of the Dutch middle-class man.
Unlike the Van Gogh Museum, Kröller-Müller Museum was more than spacious.
Vincent is back y'all
This museum was the private collection of Helene Kröller-Müller, which was then donated to the state. She was one of the first people to recognize Van Gogh's genius. She started collecting his work avidly, which eventually made this museum the second largest collection of Van Gogh paintings. Other big names in her collection includes Picasso and Renoir.
At the Van Gogh section, this was as crowded as it got.
Here are a few of the Van Gogh paintings I really liked. "Country road in Provence by night".
"Four Sunflowers Gone to Seed" How weird is it to describe sunflowers as powerful?
"Pink Peach Tree In Blossom (Reminiscence Of Mauve)"
"Bridge at Arles (Pont de Langlois)" The colours are insane. Now I want to attempt a palette like this...
"Cafe Terrace at Night". I've came to known this painting all my life because my parents had a poster copy hanging in our old home. Very emotional to saw it in person.
So was Kröller-Müller Museum really equally as good as Van Gogh Museum? Yes, but that doesn't mean anyone should come here just to be a hipster traveler. I thought I had more of a "revelation" at Van Gogh Museum, but Kröller-Müller Museum also has some of his iconic works, and the quietness really adds to the positive experience. If you can only visit one, choose base on which pieces you want to see.
There weren't many options nearby, so we just had lunch at the Museum Cafe "Monsieur Jacques". I was unexpectedly impressed by the quality and price! For 12€, I got a generous portion of sandwich + salad plate, and a huge bowl of soup. All the ingredients were fresh, and full of flavour. Can't say the same for every other museum cafe!
It was a nice day out so we ate on the terrace, and got a few visitors.
Outside the museum is the outdoor sculpture area, which as you might already know is not my thing at all. Besides, one needs a good amount of time to enjoy these sculptures as they are placed among a large area. We had a bus to catch so we skipped this part.
The dread about having so many transferring of vehicles is to miss connections. Our first bus was late by 10 minutes, so we ended up missing our second bus. We had to wait for another 40 minutes for the next one!
The troubles with transportation didn't end there. For some reason all the train schedule for the day had been changed last minute, so the departure times I looked up the day before no longer applied. We were not very sure if we got on the right train back to Amsterdam, so we asked this cute guy sitting across from us.
He not only looked up the train schedule for us on his mobile device, answered our question, and even put away his laptop to chat with us! What is this Dutch friendliness I couldn't handle!? Turned out that this guy visit Ontario quite often for family.
Then
Why didn't I get his email or something (/facepalm)
After we got back to Amsterdam, we went to a Albert Heijn to ask for wuppies. We didn't want to spend 15€, so we asked the cashier if we can buy the wuppies directly. The cashier, without saying anything more, just grabbed a handful of wuppies and gave them to us for free!
Horray for Dutch friendliness!!
You can see the resemblance if you look hard enough...
All around Amsterdam banners like these were put up as the last Queen's Day was approaching. The "WA" logo I assumed stands for Willem-Alexander.
"The Nine Little Streets" is a shopping district in Amsterdam on the west side of the inner canal belt. My friend liked to "wander around pretty streets", so I followed her despite my indifference.
We first went and check out a Saturday market in the Jordaan area, but it didn't impress. While my friend enjoyed browsing boutique shops, I stayed on the street and stalk the locals, hoping to spot and snap a shot of somebody that might look like Hetalia Netherlands. In the end I only got a Russell Crowe. Disappointing.
The highlight in this area for me was eating at Cafe Winkel, where many backpackers claimed to have "Amsterdam's best apple pie".
The Cafe was really crowded, so the waiters already had slices of apple pies standing by. They were being sold at flying speed!
Verdict on this apple pie? Yes indeed it might very well be Amsterdam's best apple pie! The sweetness level was spot on, the crust had a solid texture, and the cream was fresh. Apple chunks were generous, and the pie overall was not a bit too oily.
I couldn't compare it to other apple pies in Amsterdam because we had not tried any, but relative to The Hague's apple pie at Dudok, they were neck and neck. Cafe Winkel's version was a bit more rustic. A must try in Amsterdam!
One last look at the Westertoren...wait how did they put the flag on there?
For dinner we tried The Pancake Bakery on our way back to the B&B. I thought we should at least try Dutch pancake once before we leave. This place was extremely popular with tourists, so we had to wait for a while.
In short, I couldn't believe such a thing required queuing. Not really worth it. The pancakes were nothing but salty, hard to chew dough. After one slice we started adding syrup while singing "O Canada" to try to make it more palatable. In fact, many things on the menu sounded Canadian! (Canadian Omelet with bacon...really)
The only good part was actually the jenever I ordered! It was delicious! Got to have some of that Dutch courage before heading out!
The next day it was time for our flight back to Canada. We had our first hands-on experience with this "automatic luggage check-in machine" that looked like a space capsule. many people were confused as to how to operate them, and the KLM staffs still had to help them do so, which made us question whether using self-serve methods like this speed up the process at all...
Schiphol airport was also a reality check for me...my dream airport gave me a pretty average impression. It did have very nice lounges, and more shopping than I could ever hoped for, but in terms of actual airport operations, I did not find them particularly efficient or innovative.
As Schiphol started playing a bunch of Celine Dion songs, we were ready to go home!
Remember how I complained about the crappy food that were served on KLM on our departing flight? The food on this returning flight was AMAZING! Hard to put it into words, but everything tasted more like real food! As I've guessed, KLM's food and service is way better if the crew is not North American...
Bonus points for wrapping the food in Vermeer lol. There was speculoos ice cream dessert afterward (amazing as well according to my friend), but I was sleeping like a dead person.
There were definitely some disappointments on this trip (missing Kinderdijk and tulips)...but no trip can be perfect. Just by the amount of details I am writing in these trip reports, I know this trip was still a very rewarding one. Unfortunately we hadn't stayed in Belgium long enough to form an impression, but what I remember the most about the Netherlands is their people, as cliche as that sound. Their lifestyle, long legs and blunt humour...and not to mention the friendliest country I've ever been tot. The Dutch might not be the best at making signs, but I will really miss their hospitality!
