Kroeller-Mueller Museum

This morning, we awoke to brightly sunny skies and freezing temperatures. It was a beautiful day to be out and about, but the temperatures told us "in and about" would be much smarter. With that in mind, Markus suggested we take a drive out of the city to the national park at De Hoge Veluwe and visit the Kroeller-Mueller museum. The Kroeller-Mueller Museum features a massive private collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings, and today we got to see quite a few new-to-us beauties. Remarkably, the museum allowed photography as long as there was no flash, so we managed to capture a few images to bring home with us. Unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of Jennifer's new favorite, a version of "Sunflowers" Van Gogh painted in 1887 that looks nothing like the uber-famous nearly-all-in-gold tones "Sunflowers" that Jennifer (okay, so lynch me now) doesn't really like. Here are a few beauties we'd like to share, just to give you a taste of what was on display today:





No stranger to museum strolls, Ellie made herself right at home, walking confidently from room to room, giving each work a casual appraisal before moving on. She also tested out the comfort of the occasional bench we came across...



Here, surrounded by studies for Van Gogh's "Potato Eaters", Ellie was overwhelmed by the darkness of the paint and needed to lie down.



To round out our fabulous day of new experiences, Ellie received a very special present this afternoon: a new bicycle. She has been fixated on children's bicycles for a few weeks now, which is a rarity for her (she is usually content to see but not have things). She asks often about bikes, and that makes sense given the prolific nature of cyclists here. Today, we found a bicycle in just her size. Though she has no interest in working her legs to make the pedals move (yet), she is most thrilled and proud to have a bike of her own, complete with baby seat for Lolo.