Vondelpark

This drawing is of a patch of vegetation by one of the little ponds in Vondelpark, a large public park in Amsterdam. Trying to capture the light, and the reflection in the water, interested me.

When I was in Amsterdam I stayed at an Airbnb near Vondelpark. The location was just about ideal for my visit. The park itself was pleasant, and, in Amsterdam fashion, packed with people enjoying the space. The park borders the museum area. The Rijks, Van Gogh, and Stedelijk Museums were a 25 minute walk through the park from the apartment, so I enjoyed it often.

In the mornings there would be groups of people exercising, and on an evening or two there was a concert. And, of course, as throughout the parts of the city that I saw, cyclists speeding by in all directions.

The people that I saw in Vondelpark seemed to be the healthiest, happiest group of people that I have encountered. People of all ages, alone and in groups, talking or quiet, moving or settled, at home in a public space. I found the city at large to be an intelligent, humane civic experience. I will try to describe it more specifically in a future blog post. 

When I offered my positive view of Amsterdam to a Dutch person in America a few months later, he implied that maybe my perception was a clouded by marijuana smoke. It wasn’t, really! 

But I should note that I only saw a few areas of the city. And subsequent reading on immigration and politics in Amsterdam, and the Netherlands, has provided some balance.

One afternoon, on my way back to the apartment after my day at the Rijksmuseum, I decided to stop at a bench, in a spot that looked comfortable enough, and draw what was there. That effort ended up in the drawing above.

It was a nice sunny day, and it was early enough to have walked the other way, into the center of town, before heading to the apartment. In the city center I liked to walk along the Spiegelgracht, then make a left onto the Prinsengracht, my favorite canal route, for a meditative stroll, before stopping at a supermarket to pick up something for dinner. But I was tired. My feet hurt from all the walking, more than I felt able to overcome at the moment.

As I was drawing, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a young woman exclaim “Mooi!” (beautiful!) to her friend, and they came over to congratulate me on my drawing. When I said “thank you” they switched from Dutch to English. It was nice to remember that.