I only know one word in Dutch and it’s godverdomme, or God damn it. Even though I have a Dutch brother-in-law, my best friend in high school was Dutch and I worked with Dutch engineers for six years (don’t get me started…godverdomme), it was Teddy Van der Horst back at Bankers Trust, who taught me the word. I did my first banking internship in the North Europe Group of the Europe Division in 1976. Teddy worked in the Division and was a colorful character in an array of colorful characters that populated the 15th floor of 280’Park Avenue. Teddy was probably gay in the days when bankers were not out of the closet, but mostly he was Dutch. His Dutch came out vividly when he got agitated, which was quite often. So “godverdomme” was forever on Teddy’s lips as he inappropriately riffled through the inbox of Joep de Kooning, his fellow Dutchman who cared far more about his personal options trading than about the mundane paperwork of the Dutch desk. Teddy was anxious to displace Joep on the Dutch desk and showing the world Joep’s incompetence was his modus operandi. Godverdomme was a big part of the plan apparently.
I have been to the Netherlands many times over the past fifty years, but never as a tourist, always on business of some variety. Kim and I are spending a few days in Amsterdam before boarding our Viking Rhine River cruise tomorrow. Cousin Pete & Nancy flew in to join us on the expedition today. Yesterday and this morning, we walked the cobblestone canal streets and marveled at the quaintness and proliferation of two-wheeled transport (75% bicycles and 25% electric bikes, by my estimate). They say there are 1 million bicycles in this city of 940,000. They are literally everywhere. The canals, canal houses and bicycles define the city. Not getting run over by a godverdomme speeding bicycle is a primary goal of visiting Amsterdam as far as I’m concerned.
Today our agenda consisted of going to the Van Gogh Museum and the Heineken Brewery Experience. What could be more Dutch than Vincent and beer? Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, though he only became famous after his death. He was born in Zundert, Netherlands, the son of a pastor. He tried and failed at several careers like art dealer, teacher, banker and even a missionary before turning to painting at age 27, largely self-taught. He was intensely productive but almost entirely unsuccessful commercially…he sold only one painting in his lifetime. His brother Theo, an art dealer, supported him financially and emotionally throughout, and their correspondence (800+ letters) is one of the richest records of an artist’s mind ever preserved. His early work was dark and somber (The Potato Eaters, 1885). After moving to Paris in 1886 and encountering Impressionism and Japanese prints, his palette exploded into the bright colors and bold brushwork he’s known for. In 1888 he moved to Arles, in the south of France, entering his most famous period, producing Sunflowers, The Yellow House, and Café Terrace at Night. He invited Paul Gauguin to join him, but their relationship deteriorated, culminating in the infamous incident where Van Gogh cut off part of his own ear. He voluntarily committed himself to an asylum in Saint-Rémy, where he painted The Starry Night. He died in 1890 in France, from a gunshot wound generally believed to be self-inflicted, at age 37. After his death, Theo’s wife Johanna worked to promote his work, and Van Gogh became one of the most influential and celebrated painters in Western art history with his paintings now selling for hundreds of millions of dollars. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam holds the world’s largest collection of his works (over 200 paintings) and is one of the city’s most-visited attractions.
And nearby, there’s the Heineken Brewery Experience. Heineken is one of the world’s largest beer brewers, founded in Amsterdam in 1864, interestinhly at the same time as Vsn Gogh was learning to paint. 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought a small Amsterdam brewery called “De Hooiberg” (The Haystack), which had been brewing beer since the 1590s. He wanted to bring cleaner, higher-quality beer to a market dominated by low-grade ale. Heineken hired a scientist, Dr. Hartog Elion, a student of Louis Pasteur, to develop the “Heineken A-yeast” in 1886. That’s a proprietary yeast strain still used in Heineken beer today and one of the company’s most closely guarded secrets. The company grew rapidly, winning a gold medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1889. By the early 1900s, it was exporting internationally, including to the U.S., which was timed well, since Heineken became the first beer imported into the U.S. after Prohibition ended in 1933. The company expanded globally through the 20th century, acquiring breweries across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The red star logo (added in the 1930s) and green bottle became globally recognizable branding. Heineken N.V. is now the second-largest brewer in the world by volume, operating in over 190 countries, still headquartered in Amsterdam. The original Heineken Experience museum sits in the old brewery building on Stadhouderskade, near the Van Gogh Museum.
After a good long day of walking 11,000 steps and dodging speeding bicyclists, we went to dinner at the most Dutch restaurant we could find. It’s a small bistro called The Pantry and it’s wedged into a street full of other restaurants. It’s notable by its lines of people waiting to get in. But we had a reservation, so we got seated promptly. The menu was all sausages, potatoes and sauerkraut, cabbage and beets. We had to do it and yes, Pete had to order a Heineken to wash it down. After some Dutch profiteroles covered in powdered sugar, we wandered back to the hotel along the canals in the fading pink light of dusk, sidestepping the bicycles and wobbling on the brick and cobblestone streets. Tomorrow we will do the barge canal tour and the Anne Frank House to round out our quick visit to this charming 750-year-old city. Godverdomme!