Amsterdam
From 19th to 22nd of December I went on a short trip to Amsterdam together with a colleague and her friend. The weather was pretty cloudy and we didn't see too much of the sun. Of course those are the shortest days in the year, so we experienced mostly night and didn't get to see as much of that beautiful city as we had hoped to. But during the winter season there is a light festival showing off numerous installations centered around light.
But Amsterdam is breathtakingly beautiful at night, too, mainly because of all the "Grachten" - little canals that cross the city in many places. They reflect the water and make everything glow.
On the other hand though during those long nights there is a light festival in Amsterdam, called the "Amsterdam Light Festival" with lots of colorful, bright installations throughout the old part of Amsterdam. We walked the whole route and saw a lot of amazing things. Sadly a lot of the installations were only accessible by a boat tour that we didn't have the time to take.
The ones we did see we found very nice. We had expected them to be more "spectacular", interactive and faster. But in reality they seemed to be more about meditation and also the recycling of resources to build a better future. One was made out of a whole bunch of old bicycle wheels.
Another one used old batteries that had already been tossed into the trash but could still be used to illuminate a giant globe made of empty beer cans and a few hundred LED-Lights. That one I sadly didn't take a picture off. Then there was one that used old milk-jugs that were painted on the outside and illuminated from the inside, and one made from computer parts and other things.
Two days an two half days (because of driving) weren't nearly enough to experience everything the city offers, so I guess I will have to come back some other time.
From the things we did get to look at I found the "Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder" pretty cool, it's a house where a church is built into the attic. That dates back to times when not all religions and confessions were publicly accepted, and a rich merchant built his own chapel into his house to be able to hold church services anyways.
We had to skip the Anne Frank House, which I really would have liked to see because the diary of Anne Frank left a great impression on me after we had to read it in school a few years back. It's hard to imagine the circumstances they lived in, so I'd love to actually get a look at it some day.
#sk