Traveling Times 10 : Museum Square in Amsterdam

In the center of Amsterdam there is a huge open space that hosts the major museums of the city: Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, and Stedelijk Museum.

The Rijksmuseum is the Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history. The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885. On 13 April 2013, after a ten-year renovation which cost € 375 million, the main building was reopened by Queen Beatrix.

The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. The museum also has a small Asian collection, which is on display in the Asian pavilion.

Rijksmuseum is huge and impressive. At the ground level there many paintings and historical artifacts ( which will be covered in future posts ). Low lighting gives and extra sense of mystique that I particularly liked.

The upper floor is even more impressive. An enormous space constructed in Gothic style with walls covered in paintings and beautiful stained-glass windows.

Inside you will also find a café and gift shops.

And you will be greeted by bronzed sculptures.

This is the back of the museum that takes you to the park. You can take your selfies here.

And a garden just beside the museum if you want to relax on the outside

Of course there is art everywhere.

After Rijksmuseum you will find Van Gogh Museum. Three levels were in my opinion an over stretch, but most of the visitors seemed to disagree with me and thoroughly enjoyed their tour.

Last in line is the Stedelijk Museun of modern and contemporary art and design. It was a vast collection of 19th – 20th century art and covers works that were created in our time and age, something I found fascinating since it is very rare , at least for me , to be exposed to the art of our time.

Expect detailed posts from my visit there, because it was a wonderful and thought-provoking experience.

Be Healthy, Smile and Steem.