Day 17: Kroller Muller Museum

First of all, Happy Independence Day!...no one here celebrates for obvious reasons, and it saddens me.  Wore my USA shirt today to represent.  Another American stopped and asked me about it even.  I'm sure he was proud.





This morning--at 8:30 am, no bueno!--we were picked up by a bus and taken to the Netherlands' only official nature preserve.  Within the nature preserve is the Kroller Muller Museum, known to be one of the most beautiful museums in all of Europe.  Cars and buses are not allowed to drive within the preserve, which is home to animal like deer and wild boar, so we were dropped off at the entrance.  At the entrance is a big lot of bikes and you grab one and ride to the museum or around the park.  The park was so beautiful! Certain parts looked like an African savannah, while other parts were pine forests.  The bike ride was flat and very fun.  I think it's a really nice way to make your way to a museum.


The Kroller Museum holds so many amazing past and contemporary works, although has a very limited selection of the classics and is therefore mainly and impressionism through now(mid 1800's-present).  There were so many impressive Van Gogh, Seurat, Mondrian, Picasso...works housed within this Frank Lloyd Wright inspired building.  The museum is lit by natural skylights and glass walls but with a little help from electricity as well.  Although I loved the museum, I did not like my growing hunger and tiredness.  I know this seems to be a trend with me, but really can we just eat on time already!? We were picked up at 8:30 and by 2:45 we had not had a break or any food.  I started to stop listening to my professor and to start dreaming of turning my back on the talk and make a straight shot for the cafe...and a chair.  Eventually Marek let us free and we did get some tasty sandwiches, and maybe a piece of chocolate decadence cake.  Lunch was nice because a guy Taylor sat with us and he was really funny, and that combined with FOOD lightened my mood.

After lunch we heard some more mumbo jumbo about paintings and then we went and explored only a portion of the vast sculpture garden.  The garden was very lovely, and manicured.  Some sculptures were a bit odd--I definitely struggle with the "brilliance" and "genius" of contemporary works that I believe to be straight-up ugly--but I just liked being able to walk around and enjoy some fresh air.  It was actually really hot and muggy and by the time we had rode back through the park I wished I was not wearing pants. (just re-read this last statement and I would like to change it to "wish I was wearing shorts" haha...)




*quick side note: I hate when people make a big deal out of nothing.  Riding our crappy bikes we were trying to ride with no hands, and as I did this my bike started to swerve and so I put my foot down to stabilize for no more than 2 seconds.  I was nowhere close to a crash, but still people laughed and asked if I was ok.  Calm down.

group shot on this huge and interactive sculpture

On the ride back Tracy and I got the last seats sitting facing Marek and Steve.  Luckily I did everything in my power to sway the conversation away from art, and we ended up having a very pleasant conversation.  When I got back to the dorm, Angie, Erin and I went to a little cafe next to the windmill and had some drinks and french fries to celebrate Independence Day.  A lovely but tiring day.  The professors promise us that tomorrow will be short!