Bust by Banksy
All I know about art I learned from a Banksy exhibit in Amsterdam.
Spent my last full day seeing yet another museum and walking around the city. The SOMO museum was having a Banksy/Warhol exhibit. I didnt know that Banksy did studio work but everything was framed and on paper-limited edition prints except for this bust. Fun show and not too exhausting.
The two most important consumer destinations conveniently located next to each other.
Spent a great deal of time just sitting in cafes today because it was sunny and warm. Just about the first warm day since Berlin. The seating was packed everywhere and the city is swarming with tourists.
I did one last tourist thing and walked to the old Shipping building built at the beginning of the twentieth century a literally a work of art as well as an office building. It’s now fully restored and a 4 star hotel. Everything about it inside and out is designed and detailed to the max. Down to the door handles. Every clock in the building is one of a kind. The building was profiled in a show at the Stedelijk museum which is where I learned about it.
Ironwork around the Shipping building.
Above the front door of the Shipping building.
More details
Me in Dam square. This is where I spent a lot of time the last time I was here. Mobbed with people and the kids are still sitting around waiting for something to happen that never does. The bike and pedestrian traffic around the square is so intense that they have cops holding back the mobs so the traffic and trams can get through. Almost impailed by a Japanese tourist with the ubiquitous selfie stick. I think you need one with your visa when leaving Japan. (I do know that’s racist) But true!!!!
Originally cloistered housing for nuns.
Don’t remember if I yet posted this panorama which I learned right after was not proper to shoot. The development is now rented out exclusively to women – not nuns – who open the gates to the public for limited times and ask that there be no photography. I truely missed the sign. If you look on the staircase on the left someone is sitting outside in the sun. Apparently the whole area was very run down but the city stepped in and restored it all. You expect little boys in wooden shoes to walk by.
One last canal scene in Amsterdam.
AMSTERDAM, what a great place! So sorry to leave tomorrow.
BTW they say that the canals are three meters deep. One meter of water, one of mud, and one of bicycles.
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