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Hello & welcome

My name is Tea and I am an Amsterdam based blogger, art lover, travel enthusiast, coffee and fashion magazines addict. And a founder of the Culture Tourist.

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Art & travel blog post series

Following the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh

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culturetourist

☆ Travel blogger & art historian based in Amsterdam
☆ Creating colouring postcards inspired by European destinations
🌍 Soon: Milan, London, Brussels

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I’m always thinking of Rotterdam as Amsterdam’s cooler younger brother.
It’s a city with a perfect combination of street art and stylish modern architecture, great food scene and relaxed vibe.
Here are some amusing facts you maybe didn’t know about Rotterdam:
🗯 It’s the second-largest city in the Netherlands and home to the biggest port in Europe
🗯 It was the world’s largest spy centre during World War One. Because of Dutch neutrality, and its strategic location in between UK and Germany, Rotterdam was home to many spies during that time
🗯 It was heavily bombed and almost completely destroyed within a day during the Second World War. Majority of the city centre was entirely gone. The decision was made immediately; there will be no restoring of the old buildings. Instead, they decided to build a new modern city
🗯 Rotterdam is today a modern architecture hub. And home to some very famous buildings like the Cube Houses, Market Hall or Erasmus Bridge, the largest bascule bridge in Western Europe (you can see that one on a photo here)
🗯 Erasmus of Rotterdam, one of the most important Renaissance humanists and philosophers was born in Rotterdam in 1466
🗯 And, an extra fact is that it’s going to host the Eurovision Song Contest in 2020. One more reason to visit it 😉
Have you been to Rotterdam?
@rotterdam_info #rotterdam

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“Rembrandt goes so deep into the mysterious that he says things for which there are no words in any language. It is with justice that they call Rembrandt - magician - that’s no easy occupation!”
This is how Vincent van Gogh described Rembrandt’s work in one of his letters.
On October 4th 1669, exactly 350 years ago, one of the most famous Dutch painters, Rembrandt van Rijn died.
His paintings could be found in so many museums all over the world. But, there are also many places linked to his life that could still be found in Amsterdam. Take a look at the link in a bio for more to learn more about his work and life in Amsterdam.
#rembrandt #theyearofrembrandt

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Here are some photos in case you wondered how does the view from one of the Cube Houses in Rotterdam look like.
I’ve got a chance to visit one of them during the weekend and was quite impressed ;)
@rotterdam_info #cubehousesrotterdam

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Working on a nice project about the tile tableaus.
So, I have a great excuse to spend a lot of my time exploring these 17th-century tiles at the @rijksmuseum.
#tiles #tiletableaus

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I’m going to spend next weekend in Rotterdam :)
It’s one of my favourite Dutch cities and I love its modern architecture, street art and a great vibe it has.
Karlo and I are actually going on one of our mum - son weekends, and we’re even more excited because our hotel is actually a large ship. It used to sail between the Netherlands and US, and we’re going to sleep in one of its rooms with those cute round windows.
Since the weather doesn’t look promising, do you have any recommendations for some nice indoor activities for us?
These are the photos from my last visit. And I’m hoping the weather forecast is going to change and we’re going to have some nice bright skies like the ones on these pics.
@rotterdam_info

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Texel is an island located in the northern part of the Netherlands.
I visited it a few years ago and loved the landscape, its diversity and tranquillity of it.
There is something mysterious and fascinating about the islands. They are somewhat isolated, and often there are many legends related to them. That are usually becoming a part of the local identity, as well.
I remember seeing one of @latootie illustrations inspired by some of Texel Islands legends for the first time and being immediately pulled into the tale. The colours of the pictures were the same as I could remember from my trip to Texel a few years ago. And I could feel the magic of the story just by looking at them.
Ever since I’ve seen some of Lotte’s illustrations inspired by Texel’s legends, I wanted to learn more about them. About her inspiration and the stories she was surrounded with while growing up at Texel.
So, I did an interview with Lotte, and you can read it on my blog (link in a bio).
Photos of illustrations by @latootie

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Have you noticed this statue in front of the @museelouvre in Paris?
There is an interesting story linked to it.
During the construction of the new wing of the Louvre Palace (where the museum is located today) in the 17th century, King Louis XIV invited a famous Italian architect and sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini to come to Paris and create a design for the palace.
Bernini came, but after his design was rejected, King Louis XIV asked him to at least create a statue of him. He went back to Italy and made a statue of the king from a single block of Carrara marble. After the king’s portrait was finished, Bernini sent it to France. But, king Louis XIV didn’t like it at all.
Instead of destroying it, he asked French sculptor Francois Girardon to make some additions and create a statue of Roman hero Marcus Curtius out of it. He did that, and the figure was displayed at the garden of the Versailles Palace for centuries. Until it was too damaged to be outside and it was stored inside the castle eventually.
However, during the construction of the new entrance to the Louvre Palace and a famous Pyramid in 1981, its architect I. M. Pei requested a copy of Bernini’s statue to be produced in front of the new entrance. And it looks like Bernini’s original, showing the famous king.
I’m just wondering what would Louis say about all of that...
#louvrepalace #arthistory

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