Monday, August 25, 2008

Laag-Soeren and the Dutch Countryside

After we left Amsterdam, we drove in our rented car to the tiny Dutch town of Laag-Soeren, where we stayed in a beautiful guest house facing the towns only street. While the amusements were somewhat limited in Laag-Soeren there were plenty of things to do nearby including the Kroller-Muller Museum and the Open Air Museum.

The Kroller-Muller Museum was a large museum complex spread across several acres of Dutch woods. It was composed of an art museum, a sculpture garden, and miles of trails upon which visitors could ride in complimentary bikes. Inside the museum were works by Picasso and Van Gogh and many other "old masters" as well as contemporary photography. For me, the major highlight was seeing Van Gogh "Cafe-terrace at night." I couldn't believe I was looking at the real painting, the fact that Van Gogh's own hands had spread the paint blew my mind!







The Open Air Museum (Openluchtmuseum) was pretty much the most amazing museum that I have ever seen. The "museum" was really acres of woods with reconstructions of historical Dutch homes and buildings. We visited a farm from the 1700's, a candy store from 1900, an old church, and hundreds of other buildings all set up to reflect the way they would have looked. It was so much fun walking around the "town" and imagining what life would have been like in the Netherlands through the ages.



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