Fun and culture in Amsterdam

Amsterdam fun!

With canal houses resembling gingerbread cookies piped with white icing, Amsterdam charms with history.
And with more museums per square kilometer than any place else on earth, it would be easy to imagine the city as a vast open-air museum of Holland's Golden Age.  But the spirit of adventure, tolerance and freedom that built Amsterdam still lives and on a recent visit I was reminded of just how fresh and fun this city is.

View from Grachtenhuis Museum.

Flying over cobblestones on big rattling bikes, slurping cocktails under the stars on the back deck of a canal cruiser - exploring a UNESCO World Heritage Site has never been this exuberant.
Amsterdammers enjoy their city, spending much of their time outdoors on bicycles and boats, socializing in sidewalk cafes.  Visitors who alternate museum stops with a stroll through Vondel Park, a poke through an antique market, a stop for pancakes stuffed with apples or crusted with good Dutch cheese, are sifting in layers of pleasure not found on most historical or cultural itineraries.

Vintage finds.

Not that Amsterdam's museums are dry going - far from it.  If your heart has ever sunk upon being faced with acres of crucifixions and other religious scenes (and even with an art history degree, mine has), never fear here.   Art of Holland's Golden Age (think 17th century) was not commissioned by churches but by prosperous citizens.  Its subject matter - serene interiors, landscapes with windmills or comic skating scenes, portraits alive with personality and sumptuous costume - can be understood and appreciated by just about everybody at any age.

Museum shop, Van Gogh Museum.

4.5 million people come to Amsterdam each year, many to see the Rijksmuseum (the Netherlands' top tourism attraction holds several of Rembrandt's most important works including The Night Watch) and the Van Gogh Museum, to name just two of the city's top draws.
Adding to the already-rich offerings are the current multimillion-dollar refurbishment of established museums and the opening of new ones.  As part of Visit Holland's recent press group, I had the opportunity to sneak a peek at Het Grachtenhuis Museum (an elegant canal house with intriguing links to the American Revolution), the Scheepvaart (or National Maritime) Museum (seeming much like a ship itself with its light-filled, whitewashed rooms and scent of fresh-sawn oak beams), and the Amsterdam Historical Museum's fascinating new exhibition entitled Amsterdam DNA.  Another highlight was Tassenmuseum Hendrikje, a jewel-box collection of 4,000 bags and purses housed in a mansion on the Herengracht canal.
Afterwards, on my own for a few days, I explored the city on foot and by tram, revisiting old haunts and finding new favorites.  April is one of the best times in the year to visit Europe and the Netherlands.  From carpets of crocuses to babies on bikes, Holland is happiness, especially in spring.

Cafe Americain, American Hotel.

Crocuses in Vondel Park.

Investing in beauty: The European Fine Art Fair, Holland

TEFAF is the place to learn about art and the global art market.

If TEFAF Maastricht is the mother of all commercial art fairs, she is a gracious hostess with a salon full of fresh flowers and the best-informed minds of the international art world.
Often described as an incredible once-a-year museum in which everything is for sale, TEFAF this year hosted 260 of the world's top art and antiques dealers showing everything from classical antiquities to crave-worthy jewellery by Lalique and Cartier to masterworks by names straight out of art history textbooks: Canaletto, Breughel, Rembrandt, Renoir, Rodin, Matisse, Koons, Warhol, Bacon, to name just a few.

TEFAF's Haute Joaillerie section dazzles.

Over 150 private jets landed in Maastricht, Netherlands, between March 17 and 27.  I arrived by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines via Amsterdam as part of a North American press group invited by Visit Holland to experience the world's most important art and antiques fair firsthand.  We checked into the whimsical Hotel Mabi in Maastricht's historic heart, then it was on to the fair.
With a stint in commercial gallery sales in my past, I had some idea what to expect on the business end of things.  And with prices for many items in the multimillions, big business was definitely, quietly, afoot.  What I didn't expect was the convivial, festive ambience that makes TEFAF such a pleasure: fresh flowers by the thousands, excellent dining options, individually-designed gallery spaces providing intimate viewing areas, experts to learn from, an informed and passionate crowd.

A fairy-filled work by J.A. Fitzgerald (1823-1906).

Why attend TEFAF Maastricht if you don't have a few million Euro to spend?  The enchantment and emotion of seeing so much fragile beauty and history in one place.  To be in the company of--and learn from--people who have dedicated their working lives to art and those who choose to invest their money in the robust economy of culture and and tangible objects that are so much more than an asset.

A rare 7,000 year-old Greek idol.

Whether investing in art or just in your own pleasure, TEFAF Maastricht offers a brief window in time in which to glimpse rare and precious pieces before they pass from one private collection to another.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, TEFAF Maastricht 2012 promises to be even more extraordinary.