{"id":9219,"date":"2016-03-23T06:04:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T22:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=9219"},"modified":"2016-03-23T06:11:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T22:11:23","slug":"a-grey-sunday-in-amsterdam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=9219","title":{"rendered":"A Grey Sunday in Amsterdam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually I come\u00a0back to\u00a0the Netherlands when spring has started, but this time I was\u00a0earlier.\u00a0The weather was cold and grey, not inviting to go out and enjoy the countryside. Maybe visit a museum? \u00a0But which one, Amsterdam has more than 50<\/a> of them! Two of them are housed in patrician canal mansions and I decided to visit those.<\/p>\n

The famous Grachtengordel (“Canal Belt”)<\/a> of Amsterdam, clearly visible in the GE map below, has been declared an Unesco World Heritage<\/a> site in 2010. The three concentric canals were dug in te 17th century, the Dutch Golden Age<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Map\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First I visited the museum van Loon<\/a>. This merchant mansion was built in 1671, has had many tenants \u00a0(for example the painter Ferdinand Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt) \u00a0and owners and was finally bought in 1884 by the aristocratic family van Loon, who still owns it, but doesn’t live there anymore.<\/p>\n

\"2016-03-20<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2016-03-20<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is a collection of pictures. These mansions have a big garden, with at the back the coach house. The kitchen is in the basement, the (elevated) ground floor has reception and living rooms, the first floor the bedrooms. The second floor (not accessible nowadays) contained the servant quarters. The museum gives a good impression how the rich merchants\u00a0lived in those days.<\/p>\n\n\t\t