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Vondel Park. AMSTERDAM. 43, Route. 405
8. Bisschop-Robertson, Study; M. Maris, no number, The bride;
405 +. Wood in a mist, 1957+. View of a town. — Cazrner 3 (47).
Recent Acquisitions. — Casrvat 4 (48). Drawings.
Three other rooms adjoining the vestibule contain about
940 studies and sketches in oil from the history of the Netherlands,
by Aug. Allebé, Joz. Israéls, Ch. Rochussen, and other well-known
artists.
From the Municipal Museum the Van Baerle Straat leads to the
N.W. to the Vondel Park (P1.D, ©, 6), the principal entrance to which
is on the Stadhouders-Kade (p. 379), to the W. of the Ryks Museum.
Near the end of the Van Baerle Straat, in the Vossius-Straat, which
pounds the park on the S.E., rises the Blind Asylum (visitors ad-
mitted to see the instruction on Wed., 10-12). On the opposite (W.)
side of the park is the excellent Café Paviljoen, which is a favourite
evening-resort (band in summer on Sun. 2-4 p.m. and on Frid.
evenings). To the S. of the pond rises a statue, erected in 1867,
of Joost van den Vondel, the most distinguished of Dutch poets
(d. 1679). He was born at Cologne in 1587, and afterwards went
to Holland with his parents, who were Mennonites. His principal
works are tragedies with choruses. — Farther on in the park is
the Melkhuis, 2 small farm where fresh milk is sold. — To the W.
of the Vondel Park is the Church of the Sacred Heart (Pl. O, 6), by
Pp. J. H. Cuypers.
The W. and E. sides of the Vondel Park are skirted respectively by
tramway-lines Nes. 1 and 2 (p. 365), the termini of which are at the
corner of the Ams eensche Weg and Koninginne-Weg, at the end of the
Willems Park, adjoining the Vondel Park on the S.
f. Excursions in the Environs of Amsterdam.
The neighbourhood of the Dutch commercial capital has little
to offer in the shape of picturesque scenery; but most travellers
will find much to interest them in the extensive system of canals
and sluices that has been constructed since the beginning of the
present century to afford to vessels of heavy burden the access
denied them by the silting up of the Zuiderzee. Of no less interest
is the other system of sluices intended for purposes of defence and
enabling the Dutch to place the entire district under water in case
of war. Amsterdam forms the centre of the national system of de-
fence, and plays in Holland the same part as Antwerp does in
3elgium (comp. p. 171).
On a tongue of land projecting from the N. bank into the Y,
opposite the Central Station (harbour-steamer No. 4, see p. 366),
stands the old Tolhuis, or custom-house, where there is a favourite
Café (military band on Sun, & Thurs. evenings in summer) and an
excellent view of the city. Here are the vast gates, called the
Willems-Sluis, at the mouth of the Noonp-HoLLANDSOHE KANAAL,
which was constructed in 1819-25 by Blanken, at a cost of about |