Holland – an experience in itself! Do not miss the Dutch cities with their sights and interesting museums or the typical landscape with mills, dikes and green meadows. You can also discover all of this on bus tours in the Netherlands.
In the capital Amsterdam you will find museums with works of art by Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt, Vermeer and many other painters. The magnificent gabled houses from the Golden Age can be admired during a walk. The port city of Rotterdam will also show you its best side. The most important cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam with the Rijksmuseum, the Wester Kerk, the Maritime Museum, the city scales De Waag, the Munt Tower or the Amsterdam canal; the city of Rotterdam with the Erasmus Bridge, the City Hall, the Montevideo Tower or the Kunsthalle; The Hague with the New Town Hall, the Mauritshuis, the Klosterkerk, the largest congress building in the Netherlands; Utrecht with the Dutch Railroad Museum.
Anne Frank House
When traveling to Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, a visit to the Anne Frank House Museum is an opportunity to familiarize yourself with a section of the life of the Jewish girl Anne Frank.
Anne Frank’s diary
Born in Frankfurt am Main in 1929, Anne Frank fled the Nazis to the Netherlands in 1934, where she lived together with her parents and a sister from 1942 in a previously planned hiding place in a rear building on Prinsengracht. There she kept her diary in Dutch, which later became famous.
A betrayal that has not yet been resolved led to the arrest of Anne Frank and most of the family members in August 1944, who were then taken to Auschwitz concentration camp and later to Bergen-Belsen, where Anne Frank died of a serious illness in March 1945
Anne Frank becomes a symbol against the inhumanity of National Socialism
Anne Frank’s diary was published as early as 1947. This fact led to numerous privately organized tours through the rooms of the building on Prinsengracht. In the 1950s, the house with the hiding place was saved from demolition and has been part of the Anne Frank Museum since 1960.
At the request of Anne Frank’s father, the hiding places in the rear building were left unfurnished and only contain a few personal items from his deceased daughter.
In the neighboring buildings belonging to the museum, various exhibitions are presented that deal with the diary of Anne Frank and aspects of the Holocaust.
Modern technology connects to the original location
Today the Anne Frank House is also a digital 3D museum. In it, the former rooms of the front and rear buildings of Prinsengracht 263 can be experienced virtually during an online tour through the rear building. Additional picture and sound documents complement the historical events. A café and a book shop complete the museum’s facilities.
The museum, designed on the basis of the diary entries, provides an overwhelming impression of a period in Anne Frank’s young life, which tells of flight, persecution and privation, but also of small joys and personal goals.
Canal cruise and tulip time
When you think of Amsterdam, you think of canals, tulips, bicycles and coffee shops. The unique flair of this city attracts millions of visitors to the charming metropolis every year. Amsterdam is full of wonderful contradictions. You can find history on every corner and at the same time the city is very modern. It exudes the charm of a small town and is still open and cosmopolitan. The selection of art and culture is huge, as are the shopping opportunities.
On a discovery tour
They joke that there are more bicycles in Amsterdam than there are residents. No wonder, because the city can be explored very well by bike, on foot or on the water. A tour of Amsterdam is best started with a canal cruise. This gives you a good overview of the city and allows you to write down the sights that you want to visit later. If you want, you can also pedal on the water and take a pedal boat. This has the advantage that you can explore all the magical nooks and crannies that the big boats cannot reach.
Art and history
A cultural highlight are the city’s famous museums, such as B. the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank House, the Rijksmuseum (National Museum) or the Stedelijk Museum. In the Amsterdam Museum you can immerse yourself in the history of the city, which was founded at the end of the 12th century around a “dam” in the Amstel river.
Tulips from Amsterdam
Flowers and plants of all types and sizes can be found at the Bloemenmarkt on the Singelgracht. This floating market is an experience in itself. Everything a flower lover could wish for is offered on barges. Those who are specifically interested in the tulip should visit the Tulip Museum in the Jordaan district.
Shopping
Amsterdam has beautiful boutiques and cafes. You can shop in style and take a leisurely stroll, for example. B. in the Jordaan district, in the Haarlemmerstraat or the PC Hooftstraat.
Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam’s most beautiful museum
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is impressive from the outside alone. The largest and probably most beautiful museum in the Netherlands, which was reopened in 2013 after ten years of renovation, is a masterpiece of architectural architecture with its combination of Gothic and Renaissance elements. A visit there is a must, regardless of whether you are traveling alone or as part of a study tour group.
Art in church interiors
Inside you feel like a church with side aisles, vault paintings and a choir. This is by no means about religion, but about art, culture and the history of the Dutch since the Middle Ages. 8,000 art objects tell of this in 80 halls spread over four floors. They lead the visitor through 800 years of contemporary history. Nowhere is the Dutch Golden Age more impressive and present than here. During that cultural heyday, which lasted roughly the entire 17th century, around 700 painters stood at their easels, who made around 70,000 paintings a year. This work is unprecedented in the entire history of art.
Rembrandt’s Night Watch
Some of these wonderful pictures hang in the Rijksmuseum. This includes works by Frans Hals, Jan Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruysdael and Rembrandt van Rijn. The highlight of the gigantic museum is on the second floor, where everything is tailored to one work: Rembrandt’s Night Watch from 1642, on the front of the choir. Of course, other famous works can also be seen in the so-called gallery of honor: The Maid with Milk Jug by Vermeer, The Happy Drinker by Frans Hals, The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn and The Drunk Couple by Jan Steen.
Epochal surprises
Other rooms on this floor, such as the Canal Room or the Haarlem reception room, convey the feeling of being immersed in a whole century. Furniture, porcelain, silverware, paintings, costumes and figures give an insight into a certain era. In general, the museum is full of surprises from the Middle Ages to Mondrian. Sculptures, clothing, weapons, jewelry, ship models, musical instruments, ceramics and Asian art are waiting to be discovered.
