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And breathe. The year-long hoopla that has marked the build up to Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary finally comes to an end on 27 October. A last crescendo of events on the big day itself includes the cutting of a 75 metre long cake into 7,500 pieces at 7.50am on Dam Square by the Dutch city’s Mayor.
With that, Amsterdam will return to some sort of normality. Goodness what they will come up with to beat that for the 1000th.
The Autumn is a fabulous time to visit Amsterdam, a destination most famously linked with the tulip season in the Spring.
Read more: Jenny Packham’s guide to Amsterdam
But the late year colour palettes perfectly suit the city as the leaves on its 400,000 trees turn shades of yellow, crimson and orange reflected prettily in the waters of the canals and falling against the gorgeous ‘brick gingerbread’ backdrop of the gabelled houses that align them.
The Dam remains one of favoured city break destinations for Londoners — all year round. And to reflect that demand Eurostar is stepping up its services between the two cities to five trains a day from 15 December, increasing capacity to 3,000 passengers daily.
The new timetable will see services from St Pancras running from a pre-breakfast 6.16am departure, getting into Amsterdam Centraal in good time for lunch at 11.20.
The last departure leaves London at 17.04pm arriving at 23.30pm, in time for a nightcap, or alternatively a long session of clubbing — depending on your taste.
But it was not for the all-night fleshpots that Amsterdam is rightly renowned for that we had in mind. There are few places in the world where there are many all time art ‘bangers’ to be seen within a short walk of each other than the Museum Quarter on the south western fringes of the historic centre of the city. And I was out to collect as many as I could.
We stayed at the Conservatorium, originally built as a bank in 1897 but converted into a conservatoire in the 1980s. From its cavernous central atrium it is barely a five minute walk to arguably the world’s greatest gallery devoted to a single artist, the Van Gogh Museum.
The stunning but starkly modernist building — a sobering corrective to the dreamy 17th and 18th century aesthetic of most of central Amsterdam — opened in 1973.
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Remarkably, after Vincent’s death in 1890, a huge proportion of his work remained in his family’s hands. His nephew VM van Gogh transferred the entire collection — made up of more than two hundred paintings, five hundred drawings and 900 letters — to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation.
The result is spectacular. And not just because of the wondrous art. Van Gogh’s progress as a painter is annotated by the letters on display, particularly the correspondence with his affectionate and supportive brother Theo. The result is a moving biographical journey through the short and often tortured life of the genius who created the Sunflowers and The Starry Night.
Wallow in the colours and luminosity that make the Van Gogh Museum one of Europe’s most important art collections
Put aside half a day and wallow in the colours and luminosity that make this museum one of Europe’s most important art collections.
Alarmingly its long term future is in doubt as the Dutch government has not yet committed to help fund a major and essential overhaul of the building due to start in 2028.
Another five minutes walk away — though perhaps best saved for another day, there’s only so many artistic banquets even the most greedy culture vulture can take in one sitting — is the majestic Rijksmuseum.
This houses 8,000 works from the Middle Ages to the 21th century but its undoubted highlight is the extraordinary Gallery of Honour, showcasing many of the glories of the golden age of Dutch art. Four of the 34 known Vermeers are here, including one of the most famous of all, The Milkmaid.
At the far end of the church-like gallery, its high altar if you like, is Rembrandt’s phenomenal 1642 masterpiece The Night Watch. It is still under restoration, which fortunately for art lovers, is being conducted in situ in a specially designed glass chamber.
But even the most hardened bagger of famous art works runs out of steam eventually. Fortunately the museum district and its environs is as well served as anywhere in Amsterdam with great places to refuel.
We lunched at the Shiraz Jardin des Vins wine and taps bar on Lijnbaansgracht next to the canal just a few minutes stroll from the Rijksmuseum.
A very decent plate of charcuterie at €17.50 and a glass of Tempranillo at €6.50 sitting in the Autumn sun people watching is a most satisfying end to a hard morning’s art viewing.
For dinner you could try Buffet van Odette on Prinsengracht, also handily placed for the museums. This is a classy whitewashed restaurant where, unusually for central Amsterdam, most of the voices we could hear were Dutch. A relatively short menu could include ravioli, ricotta and radish at €21.50 or white sea bream for two priced at €46.
There is of course a world more to Amsterdam than its museums and art galleries, but they are extraordinarily good. We all need something to look forward to fill that long gap between the sybaritic excesses of summer and the self indulgence of Christmas. Feeding the soul in the Dam fits the bill very nicely.
Jonathan Prynn stayed at the Conservatorium hotel where double rooms start from £593 a night. He travelled with Eurostar with single fares from London St Pancras starting from £39
