theres always another gallery somewhere...

''There is no blue without yellow and without orange'' Vincent Van Gogh

Talking of galleries I went to Amsterdam last September for a birthday break... I've been to the city many times but my partner had never visited so alongside lots of pavement cafes and brown bars we did the usual interesting rounds of sights and galleries. We caught the Van Gogh Museum just at the wrong time. The day before they had celebrated opening a new wing with a walkway of sunflowers which were given away at the end of the day - an explanation why so many people had been walking about clutching bunches of glorious giant blooms as we staggered down cobbled streets looking for our hotel, and the next week they were opening an exhibition of Edvard Munch paintings which I would have loved to have seen. However, the museum itself is still really pleasant - the famous painting of sunflowers being central to the exhibition and the space has a light airy feel allowing the paintings to glow.

birthday girl with poster of famous sunflowers

The other excellent gallery not to be missed in Amsterdam is the Stedelijk Museum of Contemporary Art. This wonderfully spacious gallery is beautifully curated with an extensive eclectic collection of diverse art.

Lichtenstein - not a particular favourite but still impressive to see real size...

we gave the Rijks Museum a miss on this trip as after a while we got ''museum leg''.. to say nothing of the sore feet from doing about 22 miles wandering along scenic canals and various markets.

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Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

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Planet Ruby Starrs

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