Art and Tulips
by Vergena
Today we went to Rijksmuseum to view different kinds of paintings from different periods of history. We mostly viewed artwork by Dutch people. It was a good day to go to the museum as it rained all morning.We saw a lot of work inspired by the Renaissance period from Italy during the early 15th century. The Renaissance means 'rebirth'.
We saw three art works by Van Gogh. His work is in the Impressionist style. He is one of the world's most famous artists.
We saw one of the most famous Dutch paintings, "Night Watch," painted in 1642 by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is a painting to show the union between the Dutch Protestants and the Dutch Catholics. It is a huge painting, and takes up a whole wall!
Another famous Dutch painter whose work we saw was Johannes Vermeer. He is well known for many paintings such as "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." The painting was the inspiration for a book and a movie that many have already seen. Vermeer is famous for using saturated blue color and pearls in his work.
Here's a short and interesting fact about the use of dogs in paintings by Dutch artists: Dogs symbolized warnings to people or for people to be more vigilant.
After lunch, it became sunny and it was the perfect time to go and see Holland's famous tulips. We went to Keukenhof Gardens to see all kinds and colors possible.
I asked everyone to comment on their visit to the gardens.Estafany: The Keukenhof flowers are really beautiful. Dang, that not all the flowers have bloomed yet. I wish it all bloomed fully and it would really feel like spring! Also I wish I can take those tulips home with me.
Alex: It was fascinating and very cool to see different colors. And I enjoyed the maze at the park. We enjoyed our time at the Keukenhof flower garden.
Margaret: The flowers are very beautiful with a lot of purple and pink.
Lucllie: Keukenhof flowers are cool. My favorite flower and color is pink and they are really beautiful.
Vergena: I think that the Keukenhof flower garden is awesome to me because it's a really different place than our home. There are lot of the flowers with colors.
Augusta- I think that Keukenhof garden is very beautiful. Wow, I was impressed because there were a lot of various colors among the flowers. The flowers smell very good and there were many different paths for us to enjoy walking and viewing flowers.
We went to dinner in Haarlem . It was a good dinner. Unfortunately, we missed our train home. We managed to board the next train to Uitgeest Station (our hotel area) at about 10:55 pm. It was late and we found out that the last bus to our hotel was at 9:20. We had to take a taxi back to the hotel. Whew.
Tomorrow is our last day. We will visit old towns where there are windmills. We will ride bikes and enjoy the views.
