Final Day in Amsterdam









If we dedicated our first full day in Amsterdam to World War II, we dedicated our second to man-made works of beauty--a visit to the Rijksmuseum to see art at its finest (Vermeer's Milkmaid took my breath away. He makes a mundane task so beautiful and, since my life is full of mundane tasks that are beautiful pretty much only to me, it resonated...) and a canal ride to marvel both at the beautiful architecture and the incredible engineering. Unfortunately, Katie was done sightseeing by this point, so I had to run through the museum while she took a catnap after I finally got her to sleep in the museum gardens after an hour of screaming. I guess the Dutch Masters aren't her thing...

I couldn't help but reflect after our trip about the striking juxtaposition of our two days. Our first day to learn about and ponder man's frightening capacity for hatred and ugliness, and for following a crowd. Our second day to take in art of exquisite beauty and engineering clever enough to build a city (a whole country, really) below sea level. We saw the human capacity for evil and cowardice but also the ability to innovate and build and stand up for truth against all odds. Eric and I both commented that, in our own safe and easy lives, it's so hard to know what we would have done in Spinoza's place, or during World War II.

Sorry for the poor photos. I was alternately trying to take it all in and keep Katie quiet. Amsterdam is a really beautiful city, despite the ever-present aroma of herbs. Rebecca asked if there was a big bonfire happening, haha! We all really liked it. And Justin, who has fallen in love with Europe, loved the Netherlands best of all and thinks he might want to learn Dutch, unless he finds another country he likes better!

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