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Scratching the surface

There is no shortage of things to amuse the discerning visitor to Amsterdam.  Tucked between the less salubrious merchandise and experiences on offer are some truly magnificent pearls of culture which I cannot help but inhale deeply each time I come here. 
 
This trip has been no different in that respect, and high on my list was a return visit to the Stedelijk where we stumbled across an enormous exhibition charting the career of one of the Netherlands' most renown designers, Marcel Wanders.  The basement was the perfect setting in which to show off this design guru's vision-made-real. 
 
 
If poetry is about love
and art is about love
and theatre is about love
and if opera is about love...
why do we think design is about...
functionality?
Marcus Wanders
 
Marcel Wanders - Pinned Up, at the Stedelijk Museum (2014)
 


 
We are all poets, secretly engineering.
Marcel Wanders
 
 
 
And it did not stop there.  We have since been dazzled by a spontaneous street dance performance right in front of the Rijksmuseum and blown away by a (quite literally) hidden gem of a Catholic Church built 350 years ago concealed in the attic space of three conjoined townhouses in the Canal District. 
 
 
 
 
Time spent outside has featured prominently, with beautiful moments spent in several of the fantastic open spaces this city proudly offers those who live here and tourists who manage to leave the coffeeshops.  After all, there's little better than a bit of taart al fresco in the sunshine. 
 

 
 

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