Culture and public transport

Zutphen

It was a grey, damp morning, more suited to culture than boating. Though what we hadn't realized was just how long it would take to reach the museum by public transport. First an easy 10-minute stroll to the station, then a 20-minute wait for a 20-minute train ride to Apeldoorn, then a cold and damp 25-minute wait for a 30-minute bus ride to Otterloo, where there was thankfully a connecting bus into the national park to about 200 metres from the museum entrance. On the credit side, we did discover from the first bus driver that we could buy 65+ cards, which gave us unlimited bus travel all day for just 1.50 euro – quite a bargain!

So we staggered in a bit after noon, and this genial character, Maitre Jacques apparently, was the first to greet us:

We agreed we were hungry and needed sustenance before tackling the art, so we headed for the self-service restaurant for a salady lunch, accompanied by Van Gogh wine, which turned out to be not at all bad. We admired their system for keeping small children amused:

Then it was time for the serious stuff. The collection, which was assembled by Mr Kroller and Mme Muller, who was the one with the money, is extremely impressive. She had a particular thing for Van Gogh, and bought about 90 of his paintings, of which they put 40 or so on show at any one time, rotating from time to time. The show was much more enjoyable, and less crowded, than the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, which we struggled with last summer. But before we reached the Van Goghs, there were examples of other Impressionists and post-Impressionists: Monet, Pissaro, Seurat, Sisley, Renoir et al. We liked this portrait of Mata Hari, the (in)famous WWI spy, by Israels:

I would never have taken this portrait of a violin-playing clown to be a work by Renoir without the signature:

Then it was on to the Van Goghs, the heart of the museum. They have many of his rather dark early works. Others cover his time Paris and later Arles where he discovered Mediterranean light. Here are just a few examples:

Moving on, there are good Picassos and a Bracque, and also paintings by Leger like this:

Outside there is a sculpture garden, which we explored between rain showers, liking this floating number spinning in the wind:

After a while aching backs and sore feet persuaded us to call it a day, so we headed for the bus stop, though Diana decided to borrow one of the free-to-use white bikes to cycle to the next stop, by the park entrance. Either way it was another half-hour wait, but the connection was good at Otterloo, and we arrived at Apeldoorn station with two minutes to spare for the train back to Zutphen. The weather had cheered up a bit, so Diana took some photos as we sought out a butcher and fruit and veg place for essential supplies:

Tomorrow we plan to stroll around the town a bit more, and then head on up the river. Not sure how far we'll get.