April Tulips in Amsterdam

 

April is Amsterdam's Tulip Festival in 85 locations around the city during a month that is still in lockdown, which is another way of saying it's not for tourists...but for the locals.

And for any of us nearby who just happen to have business there!

Such was the case for Astrid and me a week ago today when we had a business appointment at the American Embassy at 11:30 a.m.  Lucky for us, the embassy is at the Museumplein where Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum keep watch, as well as a handy underground parking garage.  

Talk about a perfect spot, especially since THIS was one of the 85 locations for a tulip display!

That's the world-famous Rijksmuseum!

The pool in front of it is used all year 'round for any number of things.

Right now it's for showcasing the tulips.

With your back to the Rijksmuseum, all the way at the end of the open field is the Concert Hall.

It's where we had tickets to Mozart's Requiem back in 2013, which we'll never forget.

[Out of the image to the left is the American Embassy.]

Back to the Rijksmuseum, now that you have the lay of the land.

Through that center archway is a through-way for pedestrians and cyclists,

either side of which you can peek into the common areas that are now empty of tourists.

It's a fast way to get from the front to the back of the museum without going around Robin Hood's barn!

For all the times I've seen this museum, I never tire of the easy-to-miss details.

If you don't look up, you have no idea what's there, much of which I'm sure I've still missed.

But back to the tulips.

At the sides of the pond are these huge pots with one tulip variety in each.

"A tulip for every Amsterdamer."

Who knew there could be so many different, exotic varieties!

With the embassy appointment over in time for lunch, we already knew our plan:

Walk over to our favorite Wagamama noodle bar a couple blocks away for takeout.

It's in the same courtyard as Hard Rock Cafe and the Irish Pub, all closed for inside dining.

Lucky for us, the Irish Pub also had takeout, from where we bought our Magner's cider.

OMG!  This is Happy Food for us, especially on a cold but sunny day.

But did I mention that no public toilets were open anywhere????

Takeout places would lose their license if they allowed us in for their WC.

(And thus only one bottle of Magner's!)

So we walked back right away to the Museumplein for our car and drove home.

We spent a total of 5 hours that day on our venture, with only 3 hours in Amsterdam.

Not a usual plan but totally worth it!

This is the time to smell the roses tulips. Just do it!

Brother Nelson in the Netherlands

You already know I took last week off because of Brother Nelson's visit with us for a week.  The most important thing to say from the get-go is that this is a post about NELSON and not so much about what we did or where we went.  It is NELSON I want to remember here....EVERYTHING about him that I can have and hold for the days I will not have him....

To start with, I discovered, as we talked about it, that the reason why this was like meeting him for the first time was because when he was 16 (and I was 13), he started working at the local grocery store after school.  That means he wasn't at home.  And once he graduated from high school, he was off to university, graduated, and got married.

So THAT'S why this is important to me.

To give more scale, Nelson is the oldest of us 8 kids (I'm #3 at 3.5 years his junior) and he lives in Holland, Michigan, where there is a huge Dutch community.  It was time for him to see the real Holland!

SUNDAY, 14 January:

We picked Nelson up at Amsterdam's airport on his 76th birthday!

[He came alone because his wife doesn't fly.]

From there it was fun and games in Amsterdam.

Mid-morning we had a latte macchiato break in the Rijksmusem café.

It was the closest thing to actually being IN the museum.

And then we did the touristy thing, taking a canal-boat ride around the city.

It's what you do when you have time only for the fast-track of the city.

MONDAY, 15 January:

Because Nelson had minimal sleep while flying over The Pond, we took Monday to get settled in.

He stayed in one of our community guest rooms at night and spent the days with us.

Eating.  Drinking.  Watching the news.  Talking.

We even walked to Aldi together that day.

Each day he caught up on his family and politics...at my laptop or his iPad.

That's when I really started LOOKING at him.

And started recognizing ME in him...or him in me?!

TUESDAY, 16 January:

After the day of rest, we took our long-distance drive to the Zeeland province in the west of Holland.

Our final destination was Oosterscheldekering, 117 km away.

But our first stop was the Basilica of St. Agatha and Barbara in Oudenbosch, 64 km. away.

[Did I mention that our mom's name is Barbara?]

Astrid and I had visited the basilica in 2010 and knew Nelson would love it.  He did!

We ate an uitsmijter lunch in the quaint small city of Zierikzee, 62 km. from the basilica.

Afterwards we stopped to see the Zeeland Bridge, the longest bridge in the Netherlands (top-right).

It's actually the longest bridge in Europe, spanning 5,022 meters (16,476 ft.).

It was then another 20 km. to the Oosterscheldekering storm surge barrier (bottom-center).

It's the largest of the 13 Delta Works, protecting the flooding of the Netherlands from the North Sea.

It's 9 km. long and was built after the North Sea flood of 1953 when 2100+ lives were lost.

The Dutch said..."never again!"

WEDNESDAY, 17 January:

By now, understand how fun it was for me to watch Nelson, seeing what intrigued him most.

Astrid was well prepared to stop on a dime after all my weathervanes.  HA!

That day our favorite Loevestein castle wasn't open, so we went to Doorwerth, 70 km. from home.

We wanted Nelson to see a real castle.

We got there in time to first eat lunch.

Notice how much fun we had over our meals!

I could show you more of the castle but, remember, this is more about NELSON.

And ME in relation to him, my big brother.

From the castle, across the Rhine river, we spied the Driel locks 

and decided to go see them before heading home.

These locks are normally closed but if high water is coming in from Germany,

they'll be raised to prevent flooding.

Have you noticed that the Dutch think ahead in relation to catastrophes??

The world has much to learn from this country that is 26% below sea level.

THURSDAY, 18 January:

You know what they say about the plans of mice and men!

Suddenly, out of the blue, the Netherlands issued a CODE RED wind advisory.

It was actually Code Orange when we drove along the dijk to Brakel to check out the river level.

By the afternoon, 66 semi-trucks had flipped over and all train/plane transportation was cancelled.

The Merwede river reminded Nelson of Lake Michigan during a storm.

Astrid and I had never seen it so tempestuous!

Needless to say, we went back home and decided to change the schedule up,

to walk our Gorinchem city citadel wall that afternoon instead of the next day.

It ended up being a good plan.

And that evening we walked over to our favorite Malle Molen restaurant for supper.

FRIDAY, 19 January:

Our last full day together began with Kinderdijk...the magical UNESCO village of 19 windmills.

We had some of the best light of any time Astrid and I have ever been there.

It's only 29 km from home.

The mechanical screws were working overtime, pumping out the water.

I was glad Nelson got to see them operational.

From Kinderdijk we drove to Fort Altena in Werkendam, 34 km from Kinderdijk.

Our favorite Fort Vuren was closed because of a bat population they are protecting right now.

But Nelson still got the general idea from this 19th century fort about the Dutch line of defense,

going all the way back to before WWI.

That day we had lunch at the fort (top row).

Back home we went to our 3:30 Happy Hour, here where we live, to eat advocaatjes (middle).

And then for supper we ate Dutch pancakes at our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant,

out in the polder (bottom row).

SATURDAY, 20 January:

With a tear and a smile, and breakfast under our belts, we drove to Amsterdam in time for Nelson's noon flight back to America.  

I really do mean with a tear and a smile.  I know that this is probably the only time, first and last, that I will ever have like this with Nelson, the Elder of our Hart tribe.  I have a catch in my throat as I say it.  Trust me when I say I will have and hold it for the rest of my life.

THANK YOU, Nelson.  THANK YOU for choosing us.

We'll never forget it.

Jean Tinguely in the Stedelijk Museum

Did I mention that I had an appointment to renew my passport on January 23rd?

It so happens that the American Embassy in the Netherlands is on one corner of the Museumplein in Amsterdam, so when Astrid and I knew we'd be there, we planned a day of it, making sure we'd capitalize also on our museum card.

My appointment at the embassy (top and bottom-left) was at 10:45 a.m. on one of our colder days.

We passed it at both the beginning and end of the day, since we parked nearby.

See the Rijksmueum (bottom-right)?

If you know the Museumplein (museum square), you know about these museums:

the Van Gogh and the Rijksmueum are the best known.

And directly across from the Rijksmuseum is the Concert Gebouw (hall), left-center.

Then, just to the left of the Van Gogh Museum is the Stedelijk Museum, on the same square.

It was less than a 5-minute walk from the embassy.  A no-brainer and a first for me

Because it was lunch time when we got there after my appointment, but not where we planned to eat,

we had a rare sugar fix in the museum's café to tide us over till our afternoon lunch.

This was the Monday after Saturday's Women's Marches held around the world.

Approx. 3,000 women and friends marched in Amsterdam.

When we were ready to start our tour of the Jean Tinguely exhibition inside the museum,

Astrid first ran down the hall to see if the big staircase was still there.

She remembered it from her last visit 20 years ago.

YES.  It was still there.

Other exhibits were in the museum but the only one interesting us that day was Jean Tinguely's.

This was his Machine Spectacle from 1 October 2016 to 5 March 2017,

25 years after his death.

Before we did anything, we participated in the one interactive exhibit at the entrance.
As you can see in the video below, the movement of this sculpture is maintained by the visitors.

THIS is Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), a Swiss painter and sculptor.
He's "famous for his playful, boldly kinetic machines and explosive performances.
Everything had to be different, everything had to move."

"Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods
in advanced industrial society." --Wiki

There were 166 works in the exhibition, 66 of which were machine sculptures.
Some exhibits were just...exhibits.

Only 42 of the 66 machine sculptures were functioning,
but you could at least see the others and imagine what they could do.

The favorite room for both of us was this one, with all the shadows.
Wheels within wheels and shadows of wheels within wheels.

This particular exhibit was H U G E and could be seen at its length, width and depth.

My biggest surprise, however, was seeing Tinguely's collaboration with Niki de Saint Phalle:
HIS WIFE.  Who knew!
She goes all the way back to Hannover, Germany, for me, in 2005, and Atlanta in 2006.

If you know Niki de Saint Phalle's work, you see the collaboration.

The last exhibit of the day was a room filled with rusty farm equipment.
In fact, you can hear the screeching sound of it at the end of the following video.


Here is a video showing only 6 of the machines in movement.
The machines may look sturdy but actually are extremely fragile and cannot run constantly,
lest they break.  Some hadn't been working for years and had to be restored.

Interestingly, Tinguely believed that "Everything in motion will eventually destroy itself."

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Talk about working up an appetite!  Besides'the museum (and passport renewal, of course), our other main goal of the day was to eat at our favorite Wagamama noodle-bar restaurant, just minutes away.

So, from the Stedelijk Museum we walked towards the Rijksmusem,

where we spent a few minutes watching the skaters on the iced-over pond.

Directly in front of the museum is one of Amsterdam's two IAMsterdam photo-op sculptures.

The other one is at Schiphol Airport, where, if you visit us, you'll probably have your photo taken!

But, finally, here we are at Wagamama to end our day.

Comfort food for the soul.  It doesn't get much better than this.

And guess what:  it took only 9 days for me to get my new passport back from the USA.

Now I wonder if "they" will allow my Dutch wife to return with me later in the year???

For Don and Ruth: The Netherlands in July

Now that they arrive home today, back in the U.S. of A., here's a celebration of the fact they really were here where we live, here in the Netherlands.  Sister, Ruth, and her hubby Don, really did come and visit us.  It's a big deal because after 6+ years, this is a FIRST for any of my 6 remaining sibs.

So, Don and Ruth, this is for you, to show you really were here with us:

Friday, 22 July:

We picked you up at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after your all-nighter flight,

and did the obligatory photo-op at IAMSTERDAM.

From the airport, we parked at the AJAX soccer arena and took the Metro into the city center,

where we then went straight to the Rijksmuseum area.

We were all hungry by then and walked straight to the nearby Wagamama, 

our favorite Japanese ramen bar.

It was also a good plaza for picking up your Amsterdam/Dutch souvenirs.

And because this was Don's first visit to Amsterdam,

we chose the fastest way to see the city with a 75-minute canal cruise.

And then went home!  It was a full day.

Saturday, 23 July:

After a hearty breakfast in our apartment, we drove on the dijk to nearby Fort Vuren.

We knew Don in particular would eat it up.  Which he did.

We stopped at the Herwijnen stork village and found a few storks still breeding.

And then took the ferry across the Merwede river to the Loevestein Castle
(now with leaves on the trees).

That's where we spent most of our time that day, inside and out.

It's known for all its interactive fun...for kids of all ages.

As I recall, Don hit all 3 of his marks.

We have grown to love this castle because of all it's different floor levels,

plus nooks and crannies.

Don, of course, was intrigued by all the wood!

Next door to Loevestein is the delightful city of Woudrichem,

where you climbed up the windmill, while I stayed below with the "brethren." 

Once home that evening, we walked to our favorite Greek restaurant on our main canal,

sitting at our favorite table in the corner of the bay window.

Sunday, 24 July:

After a typical Dutch breakfast of uitsmijters (thanks to Astrid),

we took our Gorinchem citadel walk.

I always think of you when I see the huge sycamores and chestnut trees.

I think we all love how things work...like the sluices/locks everywhere in the Netherlands.

And where the walls can go up in case of high water...also intriguing,

as well as the new guardian deities from South Korea, gifted to the city.

I think Don had a South Korean student this past school year?

Nothing wrong with a good photo op, of course.

Then we went to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder...

before ending our day at Kinderdijk, one of our favorite places on earth.

Okay, so maybe these were OUR favorite places, but we wanted you to see them.

ALL of them.  And here's proof that you did.

THANK YOU for coming to see where we live.  Now you know why I'm in heaven here.