I Amsterdam

Saturday April 23, 2011 Day 297

We boarded a tram and rode down to the Van Gogh museum where we saw a wonderful exhibit of Van Gogh paintings. The museum contains the largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world. There were also works by Monet, Pissaro, Millet, Manet, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec and other painters who influenced Van Gogh. As a lagniappe, there was a Picasso in Paris exhibit in the annex to the museum, so we got a twofer. This was excellent as well. I didn’t realize that Picasso had his first show in Paris before he was 20, and by age 25 had a major influence on the art scene in Paris and the world. He lived to the ripe old age of 91. In contrast, Van Gogh only took up painting at age 25 and killed himself at age 37. Alas - what a loss to the world.

We ate lunch in the museum, which was rather crowded, probably because of the holiday weekend. After leaving the museum, we rode the tram out a ways, then got off and walked a bit. We were sitting on a bench outside a shop eating ice cream when a bicycle bell rang and we looked up to see a groom in his tux riding a bicycle with his bride in a carriage attached to the front of the bicycle. We waved and applauded and shouted encouragement. Unfortunately I did not get a photo as they passed by too quickly.

This is the sort of bicycle in which the groom conveyed his bride.

The city has a slogan of “I Amsterdam,” and we came across the huge slogan on the plaza outside the museum.

Keukenhof

Friday April 22, 2011 Day 296

We returned to the excursion company and redeemed our voucher for tickets to the Van Gogh Museum, a canal boat ride and Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden. The latter involved a 40-minute bus ride, after which we had about three hours in the gardens. The gardens only open about eight weeks every year and are famous for their tulips. They were absolutely beautiful.

Our bus driver took a detour to show us some of the fields

If you look carefully, you can see a little girl in this shoe

Keukenhof means Kitchen Garden, and is situated on 15th century hunting grounds. It was originally the source of herbs for the castle located there. In the 19th century, the Baron and Baroness Van Pallandt assigned two landscape architects to design the grounds around the castle. The present garden was established in 1949 by the then-mayor of Lisse, a nearby town. The idea was to present a flower exhibit where growers from all over the Netherlands and Europe could show off their hybrids – and help the Dutch export industry (the Netherlands is the world's largest exporter of flowers).

Wooden shoe boots - skating wooden shoes - pumps - Sunday wooden shoes

dike wooden shoes - garden wooden shoes - smuggler wooden shoes

After our return from the gardens, we walked down, located our canal boat tour company and boarded the next boat. We took an informative and interesting tour through many of the canals of Amsterdam, entering the port of Amsterdam as well. It gave us a lovely view of old and modern Amsterdam alike.

Check out the angle of these buildings one to another!

We ate an early dinner at an Argentinean steak house, then walked back to the hotel and retired early, as we were exhausted.

Beautiful Amsterdam and the Anne Frank museum

Thursday April 21, 2011 Day 295

Ugh - duvet with no sheet. We had to turn the fan on to try to keep the room cool so we could sleep. Otherwise we were much too hot.

We left the hotel for a pastry breakfast and to explore the city. We dropped by our excursion company to verify its location, then set out for the Anne Frank House. This was a really good museum, but we failed to purchase our tickets ahead of time and had a long wait in line.

A beautiful canal, graced by a lovely swan

We watched the swan navigate the canal while we ate breakfast

I like the curve of these buildings

Anne Frank

 We walked around Amsterdam some more, taking in the sights and the atmosphere. The houses are tall and very narrow - so narrow that each house has a beam protruding from the top of it, and many have hooks on those beams. The beams are for moving furniture into the houses, as it is impossible to move furniture up the narrow stairs inside.

Modern row houses in Amsterdam's old city - note the beams above each one

An enterprising business has found a way to advertise to bicyclists -
The Amsterdam equivalent of putting a flyer on the windshield.

We had a good lunch at cupcake bakery - ham and cheese sandwiches and cokes. I do hope the café has not staked its reputation on its cupcakes, because the cupcake we shared was lousy - too dry, and the icing was too greasy. We bought some Amsterdam cookies there - butter cookies in the shapes of the tall, narrow Amsterdam houses. Delightful!

We tired after a while, so we returned to the hotel for a nap. Refreshed, we went out again for dinner, this time at Indian restaurant, where the food was pretty good. Back to hotel afterward, we Skyped with Shelli and Brennan, then called it a night.

Throughout the day, Roger had to keep reminding me that I must use my eyes, not just my ears, when crossing the street or, indeed, even walking down the sidewalk. There are bicycles everywhere!

Off to Amsterdam

Wednesday April 20, 2011 Day 294

Our train didn’t leave until 10:20, so we didn’t even pack until the morning. We paused outside the gare at a Paul restaurant and bought quiches and a brownie for our lunch on the train.

The trip to Paris was uneventful, as was our transfer from Gare Lyon to Gare du Nord on the subway. Having used the subway for two months last summer, it was no problem to navigate between the stations. We only spent about an hour in Paris, and part of that was in the subway, so once we made the transfer, we exited the gare and walked along the sidewalks for half an hour, savoring Paris in springtime and looking for some artisanal ice creams. These we were denied, but the walk was great for stretching our legs between train journeys. When we returned to the gare, we did spot a Hagen Daas Ice Cream stand, so we indulged there in some glacé before boarding the train. We read mostly until reaching Brussels, after which I slept.

Our arrival in Amsterdam was uneventful, and our hotel was located right next to the train station, so we had only a short walk to reach it. Once we were checked in, we went out and strolled around the city a bit. We had dinner in a tapas bar and strolled some more afterwards. It does not get dark until after 9:00 here, even though this is only April.

A bicycle storage area near the train station

Orange is the national color of the Netherlands.

Market Lagniappe

Tuesday April 19, 2011 Day 293

When we got to the market this morning we paused at a vendor whom we do not usually visit - they sell coffee and some sweets, and we do not usually indulge in either. I don’t know exactly why we lingered at their booth, but we did, and I spied some caramels at 35 Eurocents each. I selected six and the gentleman behind the counter asked us where we are from. It turns out he was born in Michigan and graduated from A&M with a degree in aerospace engineering. We chatted a bit while his partner served clients. He admitted that he got side-tracked a bit from his degree! We left when the partner got overwhelmed with helping customers.

I finished the boutique picture today. It took a lot more work than I anticipated - it is full of little details. I am pretty pleased with it - as I find I am with those paintings which take more time. A part of me wants to keep up the hour paintings because they are satisfying on one level - I make push myself to say something with paints in a very short time. But I do like the more finished appearance I get with a more complex painting.

The tea goddess strikes again!

Monday April 18, 2011 Day 292

The tea goddess struck again, attacking Roger this time. He was holding a teapot when it broke, and he suffered a cut on his thumb. It was not too severe, but he had to call me to come make the salad - otherwise he was going to bleed all over the lettuce! He refused to bandage it at first, but he finally gave in and let me put a band-aid on it to help stop the bleeding.

Last fall we signed up and paid for tickets to go see a British comedian at a local venue through the AWG. Unfortunately, I failed to write it down on the calendar, and the date is Thursday. We have already scheduled our train and excursion tickets to go to Amsterdam, with a leaving date of Wednesday. So I put out a call to my AWG friends (posted an email, actually) asking if they knew anyone who would want two extra tickets. We found a buyer and I agreed to ride the red tram out to the Sablassou stop to meet Cerese. It was good to get them sold, since we were not going to use them, although I would have liked to see the show.

I painted again today - I am in the last throes of the local boutique painting.

The dishwasher as a storage place for dirty dishes

Sunday April 17, 2011 Day 291

I woke up late and loafed the rest of the morning. It is really, really good to be home. We went out for a walk before settling in for the afternoon. I painted in the afternoon - still working on the boutique picture.

Living without a dishwasher has made me come to appreciate that appliance more. It is not that I mind doing dishes, but I do mind doing them more than once a day. However, in a small kitchen like ours, there is nowhere to put the dirty dishes where they are not in the way; so I generally end up washing the breakfast and lunch dishes in the middle of the afternoon, then whoever does not cook cleans up after dinner. On Sundays and other non-chess days, Roger gets to do the afternoon dishes. He loses on two fronts when chess gets rained out.

Last day in Nice

Saturday April 16, 2011 Day 290

Aaron went out again for breakfast. Our morning goal was the Nice Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, which was a 20-minute walk from our hotel. The front of it is graced with a piece called The Square Head. Inside we saw a number of works by Arman, who is fast becoming a favorite of Aaron and myself.

On the way to the museum, we passed this unbearably charming bench. Nice!

Arman

Another Arman

This dress is made entirely of recycled material.
The body consists of water bottles, and the decoration is of woven and frayed plastic bags 

We had lunch at an outdoor café near the museum. We cut our time a little close and had to move along quickly to the hotel to pick up my suitcase so that I would make my train on time. We got to the station with only 5 minutes to spare. Fortunately my train was on Track A, so it was just a matter of stepping through the door and boarding. On the train, a young man was sitting in my seat, so I settled into another of the many empty ones in the train car. This lasted until Toulon, where a couple got on and indicated that I was in their seat. So I, in turn, ousted the young man from my seat. I don’t know where he moved to, but he left the car entirely.
 
I had a 20-minute layover in Marseilles, and our incoming train was a few minutes early, so I had time to grab some pasta with salmon, a couple of cookies and a small salad in the train station and I ate them on the train. Roger met me on the platform in Montpellier - I think he was really glad to see me!
 
It was so good to get home. The trip to Nice and the Côte d’Azur were good, but I really missed having someone who has a goal in mind when traveling, and knows what it is we are going to do, and with whom I have discussed activities to be had. This was not the case with my family, who spent too much time trying to figure out what everyone wanted to do.

Cannes

Friday April 15, 2011 Day 289

Happy traditional tax day. For the first time ever, we filed an extension for our tax return. We are pretty sure we will get a refund, but we do not have the paperwork nor the incentive to do our taxes here.

Aaron went out for breakfast and brought back pastries and a surprise - strawberries. Yum!

We planned to go to Cannes, and we waited forever in the ticket line - more than 1.5 hours. When we bought the tickets, we informed the clerk that there are two seniors in our group. She printed out a single ticket and handed it to us. We assumed that we did not get the senior rate, but we just shrugged and moved on - some of the clerks give it to us, others do not. The cost of the tickets was so little that there would have been very little savings in the senior rate.

Cannes, when we finally got there, was much like the rest of the Côte d’Azur - mountains or mountain cliffs, with a harbor below. There was no hop-on-hop-off bus there, but a small tourist train took us around the major areas of Cannes.

Tiny houses in Cannes

Cannes harbor

We boarded the train to head back to Nice in the late afternoon. While we were on the train, the conductor came through to check tickets, and she was accompanied by two SNCF (train company) security men. Shortly after they entered our car, a gentleman sitting behind us rose and tried to leave. He was instructed to remain so his ticket could be checked, and he received a written summons or fine of some sort. When they got to our seat, I handed over the 4-person ticket. She glanced at it, looked at all of us, then asked how old Aaron was. I told her 38 (oops! He is only 37). Apparently we bought 4 senior tickets this morning. This didn’t seem to bother her much. She looked at one of the security guys and they exchanged a shrug, then she punched the ticket, returned it to me and moved on.

My cold is full-blown now. Unfortunately, I did not bring enough zinc lozenges. I have plenty at the apartment, but only a few here, and I already used them all up.

Monte Carlo

Thursday April 14, 2011 Day 288

We took the train to Monaco this morning. Monte Carlo is a vertical city - there ar several public elevators in the city, and one gets around primarily by bus. We chose to ride the hop-on, hop-off bus again and got a good view of the city. We hopped off first at the Japanese Gardens, and had lunch before we entered the gardens. They are small, but quite lovely.

Later we hopped off at the Princess Grace rose garden, in part because I misread the description and thought there would be a lot of sculpture there. We were a week or two early for most of the roses.

Sculpture in front of Princess Grace Rose Garden

Our next hop-off was at the Oceanographic aquarium. It was pretty mediocre after some of the really nice ones we have seen in the States.

Around 5:00, we decided to return to the hotel, as we were exhausted. All that hopping wore us out! The 5:00 train was running late; otherwise we would never have caught it. It was packed with daily workers headed home from their jobs in Monaco. We were like sardines - barely able to move, and when someone wanted off, we had to squash together to make room. Fortunately, no one wanted on at any of the stops. We stood for the entire 20-minute trip.
 
I have a cold setting in. I dropped into a pharmacie and bought some Listerine in the morning while waiting for a bus in Monaco. I gargled at lunch, leaving the bathroom smelling like mouthwash!