Forty-five art lovers are unpacking their suitcases across North America this week, having recently returned from Fine Art Connoisseur’s sixth annual Fine Art Cruise.
This successful adventure began with a five-night stay at the Grand Hotel de l’Europe in Amsterdam, where FAC Publisher Eric Rhoads and Editor-in-Chief Peter Trippi led guests on a four-day tour through such major sites as the Rijksmuseum, Rembrandthuis, and Van Gogh Museum, plus out-of-town excursions to the Kroller-Muller Museum at Otterlo and the Maurithuis in The Hague.
A cool day cruising the Rhine
Peter Trippi lecturing about Boughereau in Strausburg
The group decamped on October 26 to AMA Waterways’ luxurious new ship the AmaCerto, where they spent seven days and nights sailing down the Rhine River through the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland. On-land visit highlights included the Rothschild family’s enormous Kasteel de Haar, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Köln (as well as that city’s magnificent Gothic cathedral), the famously beautiful cities of Wiesbaden and Heidelberg, Strasbourg’s elegant Palais Rohan, and generous helpings of Black Forest cake in the picturesque city of Freiburg.
A visit to the restoration studio of Lara van Wassenaer in Amsterdam
Surely the most thrilling day was the one spent sailing through the famously beautiful Rhine Gorge, lined with castles and with vineyards that plunge down the slate hillsides to the water’s edge. Peter Trippi delivered three contextual lectures aboard AmaCerto, and a festive Halloween party — complete with inventive art-inspired costumes — closed out the week in style.
A full article about the cruise will appear in the February 2016 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur.
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