Amsterdam - more sights, and tilt

Sunday & Monday, 28-29 may

We participate in HomeExchange, which supports just what the name says: someone stays in your home, and you stay in theirs. In this case, our wonderful Amsterdam hosts were home while we stayed in their spare apartment, and they will come to SF later this year, to stay in our lower flat. 

On Sunday, they took us on a bicycle ride north of the city to a village called Waterland, many of whose buildings date back to the 1700's.

It was great to get out of the city for a ride past canals and through fields that are actually below sea level. (Fortunately, only some of the roads were paved with cobblestones.)

On Monday, we returned to our sightseeing. During a long walk, we saw more of Life On The Water: many houseboats are moored along the river and main canals. Most of the bridges are low, but some drawbridges allow taller boats to pass:

Our first stop was the Amsterdam Museum, which illustrates the history of the city. Among the more recent artifacts was the "white car," promoted in the 1970s as perhaps the first car-sharing program in the world:

It was very high-tech for the time, with computerized lifetime subscriptions, automated unlocking of the cars, and automatic refueling after return. Unfortunately, perhaps because the subscriptions never expired, the program could not be sustained. 

Another example of forward thinking in Amsterdam was this sign:

We then went to the Old Church, which, like the New Church, is no longer a church. (Both were Catholic churches, all of whose paintings, statues, and other decorations were stripped off and destroyed by Protestants in a time referred to as "the alteration" in the late 16th century.)

Now the church houses art installations. The current work, covering the floor, is about shelter -- a traditional purpose for the building and the spiritual institution it represents -- and consists of about a hundred gold foil blankets designed for hikers, firefighters, etc. in emergencies. The combination, in a mostly silent space, was impressive. 

Some interesting vestiges of the church's earlier days remain, including the seats in the choir (near the altar). I didn't see any explanation of the many unusual carvings, of which this is only one example:

We end our tour of Amsterdam with an observation that seems obvious, but hadn't really occurred to us until we saw the evidence. The city was built on a marsh, surrounded by water, and it's not exactly rock-solid stable. Look carefully and you can see that these homes are more than a bit out of plumb:

In this building, the wedge at the second level of windows is even more obvious:

But they're still building a new subway. I bet it will take bikes. 

Amsterdam: the big museums

Friday and Saturday 24-25 may

We spent our time in two of The Big Museums, and two others that are be lesser-known but very good. 

The only place in the VanGogh museum where you can take a photo is beside a floor-to-ceiling enlargement of his self-portrait, where the crowds were even denser than in the rest of the museum. We had a great time there, at the cost of navigating all the other fans, but I didn't get any choice photos. The two-building complex has been completely renovated very recently, and it's very informative. In addition to VanGogh's many drawings and paintings, some of his letters are on display, with spoken translations into English. I assume that every visitor to Amsterdam comes here, as they should. 

The museum also had a large exhibition of prints from Paris, including familiar Toulouse-Lautrecs and many many other artists' works. The staircase in the exhibition building was itself a beautiful collage of blowups, though I'm not sure that comes across well in my photo:

We left Vincent behind and went to the Rijksmuseum, at which we were apparently not the ten-millionth visitor:

This place is like the British Museum in London or the Prado in Madrid -- it's pointless to try to "do it" in one visit. So we carefully kept sight of each other in the large rooms full of people, and saw what we liked of the Rembrandts and other masters. Some of those paintings are HUGE and incredibly detailed; you could do a thorough study of silk clothing just from the paintings of wealthy burghers.

As usual, we looked for smaller collections of interesting works or artifacts, and as usual I was happy to see maps. 

And here's a wind instrument with which you can play two tunes at once:

But the brain can absorb only so much, and after we were satiated, it was nice to sit outside. Fountains are always fun, and this woman won the lottery:

The next day we set forth again, this time to the maritime museum, nicely indicated thusly:

The building was once the navy arsenal, full of gunpowder. Now it's a spacious museum illustrating Dutch seafaring and the wealth that resulted from it. The exhibits are designed to include kids, without detracting from the adult experience. There was a whole section on Dutch whaling, from which I got two photos of baleen. On this one, kids go inside the whale through the baleen:

and in this one, you can see a slab of the real stuff:

We saw lots more inside, including navigation instruments and figureheads -- all very impressive. Then we went outside and boarded a replica of a Dutch East India ship:

This was as much fun as the Balclutha at the Hyde Street pier, with lots of artifacts that illustrate life on board -- though without Smell-O-Vision, I'm sure I underestimate the odors. Like, hammocks are fun, but for months on end?

Our last stop was the Dutch Resistance museum, another excellent display of information and many artifacts. Although the story ends well, with the liberation of the Netherlands after D-Day, it has very painful aspects that we didn't know about, like the Hunger Winter of 1944 (I think). Of course we knew that Dutch Jews were taken to concentration camps, but I didn't know that huge numbers of non-Jewish men were deported to German work camps. The museum made a big point of the horrible options facing everyone after Rotterdam was pretty much demolished, the government surrendered, and the country was occupied: adapt, collaborate, or resist. The stories of regular people, some heroic and some just surviving, were very moving. I especially liked the teenaged boy who, when the Germans confiscated all the radios, built tiny crystal sets that could receive one sort-of Free Dutch station; it reminded me of the boy in All the Light We Cannot See. 

Finally, one of those serendipitous sights, snapped in some small park we walked by:

Amsterdam

Wednesday 24 may and beyond

Another smooth European train trip brought us to Amsterdam on Wednesday. In addition to the large diverse crowds as we walked from the station to our lodgings, we noted the obvious: bicycles are everywhere, in huge numbers. Close to the station is a gigantic, free, multi-level bike parking lot, of which this is a small part:

Nobody wears a helmet, many people have kids sitting in front or behind, there are bike paths along all the streets, and as a pedestrian you watch carefully and stay out of the way. 

The station is large, old, modern inside, and very big-city:

We started our sightseeing at the royal palace, which was once the city hall. We saw only the (huge) great hall, which has Atlas holding up the world at one end:

The floor of the room has three large circular maps -- one showing the stars and constellations, the other two the eastern and western hemispheres. My photos are hard to read; zoom this one to see the Mediterranean at about 35 degrees:

Our other main destination was the so-called New Church, built about 600 years ago. It's no longer a church, though the organ is still played. It houses temporary exhibitions, and currently the World Press Photo Foundation has its annual display there -- outstanding photo journalism of the past year. 

There are some photos of animals, some inspiring sports shots, and an almost overwhelming number of pictures recording human-inflicted disasters. It was very sobering to see image after image of atrocities of many kinds -- violations of human rights, religious persecutions, political oppression, etc. one wall made me especially sad; it's the Photo of the Year since 1955, and almost every single one was infuriating, heartbreaking, or both.  

The day ended on a happier note, and so will this post. Here's the light fixture at a Catalan/Asian tapas bar where we had dinner:

Another light fixture in a café we passed:

If we were in Germany, the sign for a sausage restaurant would say "Wurst," but we're in the Netherlands, so it's a bit different. (The wardrobe malfunction could happen anywhere)

And if you've just seen the Worst, perhaps this is better . . . and I can't explain what this sign is advertising:

Brugge - fun photos

May 20 - May 24

Here is a somewhat random collection of fun stuff we saw in Brugge. Maturity alert: the last photo below may not be appropriate for young viewers. 

This shot is a little fuzzy, so maybe the eyeglasses for sale would have been helpful:

Here's a musical froggy outside a upscale clothing store:

Lots of people ride bikes in Brugge, and we saw more than one public tire pump:

The History of Chocolate museum gave plenty of attention to the Central American origins of the drink, including its spiritual importance. Illustrating the traditional reverence for the dead, this ancient Mayan bowl caught my eye. It's disrespectul of me to think it looks like a skeleton in a tub:

Tourists here can get a ride in a horse-drawn carriage clip-clopping around the cobblestone streets. This fountain is used to water the horses:

That made perfect aesthetic sense to me. But I don't understand the two monsters coming out of this fountain-guy's mouth:

OK, the final photo, which I warned you about earlier. I don't think she's really a repair person, but who knows:

Brugge - more sights

Tuesday May 23

In case you wondered if Brugge really is SO charming and SO old (compared to US cities), here are a few more notes. 

As a very Catholic town back when people actively fought over indulgences and a Bible written in something other than Latin, Brugge has an annual Procession of the Holy Blood, which we missed by leaving the day before this year's celebration. The Basilica of the Holy Blood is guarded by this crusader:

(and someone keeps all the gold statues really clean.)

The chapel is decorated throughout, on the ceiling as well as the walls:

The aforementioned holy blood (of Christ) is a relic from the Crufixion, and we saw people today venerating it with deep emotion. I'm not sure what's involved in the annual Procession, but the market square has large temporary grandstands with many rows of seats, and the event is advertised everywhere, so perhaps we'll regret leaving early. 

We saw another impressive interior in the city hall -- a large meeting room in which official events were held. Its walls are filled with illustrations of historic people and places, and even the ceiling has small emblems and crests at each joint of the vaults:

Here is Philip the Good (whose name I like) initiating the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430, celebrating his own prosperous domains and honoring a small number of.very privileged knights:

Back outside, some centuries-old emotion is reflected in these statues in front of the city hall:

(Zoom in on the statue on the left to see his pensive, pained look.)

Moving from the religious to the commercial and mechanical, we visited one of four remaining windmills of the 29 that once existed in Brugge.  This one still works -- that is, its big vanes and sails still turn, though it no longer grinds grain:

As the wind moves the sails, a big wooden cogwheel (the vertical one below) drives another wheel (horizontal) that grinds the grain between the stones. While we were up inside the mill, the operators took the brakes off the sails and we saw (and felt and heard) the power of the wind. 

It was a little claustrophobic, but very cool for the mechanically inclined. 

Brugge charm

Saturday, May 20 and beyond

After a week with our friends, we parted company and headed on to new adventures. We drove back to Bergerac to drop off the rental car, then spent about ten hours on trains. (Though we've been to Paris twice on this trip, we've been below ground both times, transferring from one train station to another, and haven't seen anything more interesting than metro stops.)

We arrived in the city of Brugge on Saturday evening. I've always called it Bruges, which is OK, but it's in the northern part of Belgium which is more Dutch-like than French-like, and it seems more respectful to use the name the locals use. 

Brugge was a big important city in the 14th and 15th centuries, but its harbor silted up and the economy collapsed. Now it's smaller, not so important, but wow is it charming. Here are some examples of the absolutely typical architecture in the market square:

Here (in your face, Willie Brown) is the city hall:

Hundreds of years ago, another important building was the Belfort, seen here at a distance beyond one of Brugge's many canals. (Residents of the Millenium Tower, note that the Belfort tower has been leaning about four feet since 17-something, and they've been monitoring it ever since.)

If you climb the 350 or so steps up he tower (as we of course did), you get a great view:

There's a carillon in the tower, playing tunes on the many bells from time to time. The bells can be played by a person at a console, somewhat as an organ is played, though it's all mechanical, not electric, and the musician literally pounds his fists on the levers. It can also be controlled by a drum that's like a giant old-fashioned music box with pegs that cause the bells' cables to be pulled when the drum turns. The drum is periodically reprogrammed (to use a 20th-century term), which means that someone moves all those pegs so that a different song will be played. (Sorry about the reflected windows in this photo, but maybe they'll help you get a sense of scale.)

Finally, one more photo of a canal and a brick building. The old part of Brugge is chock full of scenes similar ro this:

Limeuil

Thursday May 18

Rain was forecast for today, and we were lucky to get going before the downpour. We went to the town of Limueil, where the Vézère and Dordogne rivers meet. Like so many other places here, the view is beautiful. The Dordogne comes in from the top of the photo, and the Vézère from the left, then they continue as the Dordogne to the right:

If you walk straight up from the river(s), you reach a really interesting garden. In addition to its various flowers and trees, and its specialized areas featuring scented plants and medicinal herbs, the garden is very educational. Here's the set of bins illustrating four stages of Le Compost:

There's also a beehive surrounded, of course, by plants that bees like. The hive has windows that let you see the bees:

We saw at least two groups of schoolkids being shown around, and here's the younger group eating lunch inside:

And if you have had enough of the garden, you can play a giant game of chess:

We left Limueil just as the rain started, and went to the town of Monpazier, where we had stayed on our previous trip. We wanted to walk around, but the wind and rain were too much for us, so we counted ourselves lucky to have seen the confluence of the rivers and the gardens, and headed for home. The chateau, that is.