Van Gogh Museum

Amsterdam is full to the brim with museums! There are so many here. Since we are residents of the city we decided to invest in the Museumkaart. This came in very hand when the teenager suggested we do a museum week during summer holiday. I thought this was a great idea and many of the museums were free for her age!

The first museum I am going to write about is the Van Gogh Museum.

I've never actually seen this part of the building due to the long lines!

Update January 2015: Right now, I have been twice in the last two weeks and neither time has there been a line to buy tickets or to go in, so if you are visiting Amsterdam over the next week or two make sure you go in...with no line this is definitely worth seeing!

The Van Gogh, as you can imagine is a very busy museum. The line can get very long, especially at the height of the summer we saw it start to wrap around the block!

To avoid this you can book your tickets online . Once you choose which type of ticket you want it lets you choose the day you want to go and the time in which you should arrive. You can show up anytime after your allotted time, but not before. 

We arrived 15 minutes early and were told we would have to come back so we walked down the street and got lunch....

I love this area of town, it is so unique.

After lunch we made our way back to the museum and walked right in....I love that when you book the tickets online you can either print them or have them sent for your passbook. It is so convenient!

You can only take photos in certain areas in the museum, which I actually like because this allows you to continually move through the museum and actually look at the art.

This happens to be one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings. It just looks so inviting, a place where you really could relax. My favorite fact about this painting is that the doors have faded to a purple color but they were originally a vibrant blue! 

Update January 2015: the above pieces on the wall have been taken out, they have since done an update to the exhibits at the museum, the new exhibit is Letters to my Brother.

However, even though the ones above are gone I did discover this one of Van Gogh:

It is just near the window...

I cropped it to make it look a little better!

How to get there:

If you are in town, the Van Gogh is easily accessible by foot, bike, and trams 2, 5,  24 and bus lines 142, 145, 170, 172, 174, and 197.

Have you been to the Van Gogh Museum or seen any of Van Goghs original works in person? He is by far my favorite artist so it was amazing to see some of his work. I can't wait to get to New York so I can finally see Starry Night!