Tag: art

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2026 Part 1: In Search of Tulips and Windmills – April 30, 2026

Where We Take A Walking Tour Of Arnhem And Discover Its WWII History

Followed By A Visit To A Great Art Museum

There were two starting times for the walking tour of Arnhem and we lucked out with the later one. I’ve never heard of Arnhem before booking this cruise. It turns out that it was the site of an important battle during WWII.

This is the John Frost Bridge. It was destroyed and rebuilt multiple times during WWII, most recently in 1949 after the war was finally over. The battle of this bridge is depicted in the 1977 movie “A Bridge Too Far” (which I’ve heard of, but never seen – war movies aren’t my thing).

We were in the “leisure” group, which meant we were walking more slowly and would see a lot less of the town; that was fine by us.

We walked towards the city center and came to the remaining gate from the old city walls.

The front
The back

The city center is fairly small. We saw St. Eusebius Church right in front of us after entering through the gate.

Eusebiuskerk (St. Eusebius Church)

Here are some photos from around the outside and inside the church.

Statue of a tartegrade by Arno Coenen to blend science with traditional religious iconography
Caroline bells
Big bells
Inside of the church
Church organ

Near St. Eusebuse Church is St. Walburgis Church. We didn’t go inside this one. This church dates back to the 14th century

Our tour guide, Rob, had mentioned in passing about an old synagogue on the street behind the St. Eusebius church. Surprisingly, there were several Jews in the our group, and we all wanted to see the synagogue. So we did.

Rob didn’t know the current size of the Jewish population in Arnhem, but it seemed that the synagogue is still in use.

Front of the synagogue
Holocaust memorial. The suitcase is a reminder that Jews are always ready to flee

We also saw stumbling stones

Time was running short – we didn’t have much time between the end of this walk and the beginning of our next excursion, so the group headed back to the bus.

Shortly after lunch, we boarded a bus to take us to the Kroller-Muller Art Museum and Sculpture Garden. The art collection was donated from the private collection of Helene Kroller Muller. During WWII, the entire collection was hidden in a bunker and managed to survive. There was a fabulous collection of Van Gogh, Monet, and other very famous artists.

Van Gogh is my favorite painter. We saw paintings that I’ve never seen before in person.

There was a room where we could take our photo as if we were sitting in the cafe in Arles as depicted by Van Gogh.

There were a couple of nice pieces showing pointilism:

The Orchard by Theo Van Rysselberghe
The Seine at Mantes by Paul Signac

These are some closeups to show the dots of paint in The Orchard.

We went outside to view some of the sculpture garden. It was rather large and we didn’t have enough time to walk through it all.

Floating Sculpture
Animal Head (it’s just creepy)
Judith and Holofernes
Jardin d’email
Needle Tower. Held together by wire and tubes.

Driving through the park on the way out, we saw this hunting lodge:

Everybody on the bus was drifting off – it had been a long day.

Tomorrow: Kinderdijk and more windmills!

Amy & Andy’s Excellent Adventure 2025 Part 2: To The (Almost!) Bottom Of The World: All Good Things Must Come To An End

January 7, 2026: Where We Have A Few Hours Before Our Flight Home, And We Manage To Get Lost, As Is Tradition

After breakfast, we go back to the room and cram everything into our suitcases. After we check out and store our bags for the day, we venture out to spend just a little more time exploring Buenos Aires.

At the front desk’s recommendation, we take an Uber to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. It is a delightful little museum – all of 2 and a half floors, with a wide range of exhibits: from antiquities, to Impressionist and Modern art.

This guy reminded me of George Burns (z”l)

Figure 112

I liked the iridescent quality of this painting

Hermenegildo Anglada Carnarasa “Los opalos” 1904

These are hair combs – they are HUGE.

Spotted this Dega from across the room.

I felt bad for Jesus in this carving – he’s missing his nose and a few fingers.

Anonymous (Spain 13th Century) “Virgin with the Child”

Here’s the Modern Art

Antonio Berni “Pesadilla de los injustos” 1961
Luis Felipe Noé “Introducción a la esperanza” 1963

And another one that was easy to spot.

Amedeo Modigliani “Bust of a Woman” 1920

I’m not familiar with this artist.

Raquel Forner “El Drama”

The best thing about this museum was how ramps were built into the design of the entire building. There was no need for any steps at all – ramps were everywhere! Unfortunately, the elevator door had some kind of psychological problems – it always started to close as soon as it was fully open, even if you were standing in the doorway.

When we were done with this museum, we decided to find another small museum. Andy had a reference to a “design” museum that was open 24 hours. We suspected it was an open-air museum. Trying to follow Google’s walking directions, we randomly came across interesting things.

Bartolome Mitre in Mitre Square
A better view of the monument to Evita Perón
Pope John Paul II

After a while it became clear we had no idea where we were nor any idea where this “museum” was. A kind passer-by stopped to ask us if we needed help. Andy showed her his phone and what we were looking for. She studied it for a couple of minutes and then announced: “This is not a real place.”

So whatever that was, it didn’t seem to exist. We gave up.

We found a place to have lunch. At that point it was time to head back to the hotel, but we had *just* enough time to squeeze in one more stop at Freddo’s for ice cream!

This is the last photo I took in the cab on the way to the airport.

Hasta la vista, Argentina! It’s been a blast!

Coming in April, 2026: Tulips and Windmills river cruise in the Netherlands