Monday, September 25, 2006

The Lowlands of Holland

Between me sleeping through my alarm clock, Ryan forgetting his passport at home, missing the tram and some other force that didn't have luck in our cards for the day, our scheduled 8:15 departure from Brussels didn't find us in our final destination of Ede (pronounced eed-uh) Wageningen, Holland until 4:00 pm. In the end I suppose we did have fairly good luck, considering that we saw nearly 300 Van Gogh's at the Kroller-Muller (along with plenty by Picasso, Mondriaan, Braque, Brancusi, and Giacometti, to name a few) and grabbed two white bicycles on our way out to cycle through miles of the Hoge Veluwe, Holland's largest National Park. The bicycles are free with entrance to the park, a great bonus that I think is one of the best inventions ever. I think we should petition for the same thing in America. It's a brilliant idea. Side note - did you know that the average Hollander rides about 1000 kilometers every year on a bicycle? The Kroller Muller was fantastic, and I'm pretty sure it's the last major art museum in Holland to check off my list. For as much as I love classes about art history, there is nothing like seeing a real work of art in person. Especially Van Gogh, with his gobs of color that just pop off the canvas. Thankfully we caught the last train back to Belgium and the last metro back to my apartment. What a day.-Natalie Merchant-

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