For Bob and Peggy: Food, Glorious Food, etc., etc.

By now you know the routine:  we fly to Atlanta, take care of appointments, spend a weekend with the kids, spend the next Sunday - Thursday with Bob and Peggy while the kids work and Nicholas is in school, and then go to the cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains before winding down to fly back home.

This is the time with Bob and Peggy when we weren't at the Skyview Atlanta Ferris wheel or the Candler Field Museum and airport.  And this is the time when Astrid in particular finally relaxes and says "This is vacation."

Fasten your seatbelts, especially if you like good food and drink.

First of all, Bob and Peggy got married in 2004 while I worked in assisted living before retirement.

Peggy was the executive director and I was lucky to attend their wedding.

Shortly after that, they started building their house out in the boonies south of Atlanta.

THIS house.  And I've been there every year since...now with Astrid.

In case you wonder why we like to go there, it's the FOOD, stupid!  HA!

Let's start with breakfast.  Look at who makes the waffles.

To tell you the truth, they both do the cooking.

And we all do the eating.

See, Peggy does her own part, this time for lunch.

And we all do the eating.

To cater to our Dutchness, they even make their own split-pea soup.

And we all do the eating.

By late afternoon, it's time to test the home brew!

This year we got to taste Bob's Chateau Roscoe Chardonnay and Chilian Malbec.

Roscoe is their dog!

See!?!?!  That's Roscoe.

We first celebrated the fabulous brew out on the wrap-around porch.

If it wasn't his wine, it was Bob's Brew of beer, Horansky style.

He's been making beer for years, so we knew what to expect.

We Cheer Beer!

And if that wasn't enough, Bob even made us a mean banana martini.

By now I know what you're thinking:  what boozers.  HA!

But you couldn't be farther from the truth.

Everything in moderation, one drink at a time...over several days, of course.

And to show you the truth whereof I speak, check out the basement.

I suppose if it were meth it would be Breaking Bad (which I've yet to see)?

By the time you get to supper, you'd better have an appetite...

as though you hadn't eaten all day, of course.

See how Bob and Peggy both do the cooking together?

It's a beauty to behold.  A joint collaboration.

And we all do the eating.

Then there's the fun-n-games, like with Bob's 1951 GM toy.

Last year he was just starting to restore it.

This year we were queens for a day, taking a ride.

Every morning Astrid and Bob took Roscoe for a walk.

Astrid put the GPS watch on her arm one day (above left).

The next day she put it on Roscoe's collar (above right).

Isn't that the cat's meow!

In the afternoons Astrid and I took our own walks together,

once to Jackson Lake right down the road.

That particular day and time the kids were getting out of school.

Did you know the Dutch have a few of these American school buses that are party buses here?  Yup.

Another day we walked two miles down the road to the corner store,

and luxuriated in the autumnal abundance in front of us.

And since it just happens to be Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, how's that for an ending note!

Good God, good friends, good food...let's eat!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

La Caponnière in Gorinchem, NL

One of our greatest delights is now sitting on our doorstep here where we live in Gorinchem, NL:  La Caponnière, a wine-tasting locale situated in a bomb-proof artillery position in Gorinchem's fortress wall from 1893.  It's just a 10-min. walk away from our apartement...and opened this past October.

Whenever we go on a walk around our citidel city, we pass right by La Caponnière.

She's sunk into the wall below ground level and is 20 meters (65 ft) long in the ground,

3 meters (10 ft.) wide, with 2 levels and walls 4.5 ft thick.

 It was through our newspaper in mid-January that we found out she is now open

every Saturday and Sunday from 1-7 p.m.  We went that Sunday, immediately!

OMG. Entrez, s'il vous plaît.

 Talk about C.O.Z.Y.  In Dutch, that's gezellig.

We entered when it wasn't busy and met the owner right away:  Steffie.

And that's when we found out she's the daughter of the man at Wijnhandel van Ouwerkerk.

We take all our guests there, starting with Robin back in 2012, remember?

So now we have this new place to add to the "must see" list.

 It's one of those places that just oozes with old-world charm.

Talk about a photographer's heaven, even in low light!

Before the place started filling up, we went down to the basement where all the goodies are stored.

See what I mean about old-world!  And photography heaven!

Back upstairs, the place was starting to fill up with coziness personified.

A roaring fire in the wood stove was so inviting.  How could you resist it.

Midway between the fireplace and the cashier's counter we found our own table

and enjoyed our own glass of Kopke port.

And we will do the same thing with YOU, whenever you come to visit!

On that note, wish us a Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary today.

Is that possible, already?  YES.  And we'll drink to that!

Just for the Halibut

My ex-boss always said that:  just for the halibut.  And now that I live here in the Netherlands, where halibut abounds, I still get a giggle whenever I can use it.

So, just for the halibut, how about no collages today and only single images I picked out from last week's post on our Mozart Requiem concert in Amsterdam on February 17.  Most of these have or will end up on my Shutterchance photoblog.  But for those of you who don't visit there, here they are, in the order in which they were taken:

The Magere Brug (bridge) spans the Amstel River in Amsterdam.

Different view of the same bridge and river.

I had fun with this reflection of the Rijksmuseum on a sunny day.  With a bit of manipulation and flipping the image, I tried to make it look like Rembrandt's famous Night Watch on display there.

You know by now that I love tweaking images, just for the halibut!

I don't want all my images to look like tourist snapshots.  HA!

(and yes, that's the Rijksmueum from the Museumplein side)

Whenever I can get away with it, I love to do selective coloring!

This red carpet on the Concertgebouw stairway seemed a perfect candidate for it.

Lucky for us, a gratis drink came with our ticket.  How could we say NO!

I always say "Always look up!"

So I did, while in my seat before the concert began.

As I said to Astrid, how could eveything be out of focus except her!

Yup!  Another candidate for selective coloring.

But THIS is the one that still tickles me to no end.

Don't you just love it when you are so pleased with yourself!

That's Jelle on the left looking at Olga on the right and giving his approval, I assume.

The maestro's hands.  He's no flash in the pan!

Pieter Jan Leusink is the director, signing CDs after the concert.

One last candidate for selective coloring as we passed through Vondel Park to Wagamama.

I don't care what anyone says, sometimes it's fun to play around...

...just for the halibut!

Amsterdam's Mozart Requiem

Remember back in December when we went to the Christmas concert at the St. Martinuskerk in Amersfoort, ca. 30 miles east of where we live here in Gorinchem, NL?  And how one thing led to another...namely that the PR man of the choral series, Peter Streefkerk, gave us 2 tickets for another concert in appreciation for my images?!

The concert we choose was the Mozart Requiem in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. 4 reasons:

1. I had sung Mozart's requiem in the Columbia, SC, Choral Society back in 1971.
   
2. I have always wanted to see the inside of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw after seeing the outside many times.  It's considered one of the world's top concert halls because of its acoustics.
3. Mozart never finished this piece before dying in 1791:  he was 35 years old!  The movie Amadeus is one of my favorites which I'm now eager to see again.
4. We wanted to pick a concert in February, before our up-coming river cruise in March (yes, you heard me).

No sooner had we picked our concert than Peter had the above tickets in the mail to us for last Sunday,
a week ago, on a gloriously crisp and sunny winter's day.

We were there in plenty of time to mosey along from here to there.

It helps that we both are familiar with the city!
The famous Magere Bridge and Heineken Experience just happened to be on our way.
Interestingly, that's the Amstel River...and another beer altogether.

 Did I mention that the Concertgebouw faces the Rijksmuseum from across the Museumplein?

It's getting ready to show Rembrandt's Night Watch after years of museum renovation.

Once you see it, you never forget it, trust me.

But it was the Concertgebouw that held our interest this day, even if in the shadows.

At least the entrance around the corner (bottom above) was in the light.

Our seats were in the North Balcony, so first thing was to climb the stairs.

Talk about red-carpet treatment.

And before we did anything, we peeked in and found our seats while the place was still basically empty.

From the stage viewpoint (top left) we saw our balcony (top middle).

Little by little the heavenly space started filling up.

But first, we went for our gratis drink that came with our tickets.

Did I mention red-carpet treatment?!

And don't you love how Het Concertgebouw marks the stop line for the wine!

The Concert Hall's organ, built in 1891, is it's crown jewel.

But as you can imagine, I was short of eyes, bouncing off all the walls!

Schumann was right behind us.  Mozart was in front of us on the opposite wall.

All the ghosts of music past wrapped themselves around the hall.

 When the concert master started tuning up the strings...ahhh, it would begin.

It really was gonna happen!

Have you ever seen this kind of basset horn?  It was new to me.
Mozart asked for 2 of them and got them.

(click any image/collage to enlarge)

During the concert the tympani was hidden from us, under the balcony.

But I had fun watching her tune it up beforehand.

NO PHOTOGRAPHY DURING THE ACTUAL CONCERT!

So all these images are before and after pieces, often during applause.

Don't you love the prima donna...standing out like a sore thumb brilliant jewel!

Not to mention the conductor, Pieter Jan Leusink!

It really doesn't get any better than this....

...or this!  

They deserved every accolade in the book.

I wanted to watch them coming and going over and over again...

especially for the encore, which is my favorite piece of the Requiem:  Dies irae.
(Yes, I sang along under my breath!)

mozart requiem - dies irae door algeva

We hated to leave, but loved seeing Conductor Pieter signing his autograph in the downstairs lobby.
What a great way to end a beautiful concert!

We ended the beautiful day at one of our favorites, Wagamama.
And then picked up our car at the AJAX arena for our hour's drive home.

This was a Christmas that kept on giving.  We'll never forget it!