There are about 35 identified paintings by the Ditch Master Johannesburg Vermeer. Ray and I have seen about 22 of them! On Tuesday (car day) we visited the Mauritshuis in The Hague and added The Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665) to that list. It is sometimes called the Mona Lisa of the North. It is one of Vermeer's most famous Works. Honestly, I prefer it to the Mona Lisa which underwhelms me whenever I visit the Louvre.
I’ve included a stock photo of the Mona Lisa for reference. I would love to hear your opinions. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Many of you have been asking about the mural at our Airbnb. Here is the reply from our host: A friend of ours is a graffiti artist. We had this ancient wall and did not want to renovate it without losing its ancient character. We asked him to design a wall painting in which the wall would also have a roll. He came up with this, an Aztec wall art in which the ancient wall is integrated. We like travelling and love this kind of art and we were right away in love with the idea. He made this piece of art in 1.5 days
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Today was our “car day”. Ray managed to get a sweet deal on a rental by agreeing to drive their promo car. Among a few other places, we were able to travel to The Maeslantkering (Maeslant Barrier). The Netherlands is flat and wet. Approximately one-third of it lies below sea level. When a significant storm hits it can be catastrophic. In 1953 The North Sea Flood covered land to over five metres above sea level. There were more than 1800 casualties. Realizing that this could happen again (especially with the changing climate) the Netherlands developed a long-term plan (Delta Works) to address storm surges. Although the first stage was completed in 1958 the barrier we visited was constructed from 1991-1997. The ingenious plan was to have a barrier that would only block the waterway when needed. Nieuwe Watereg is the main waterway of the Port of Rotterdam so it must stay open as much as possible. Fortunately, the barrier has only been used three times since 1997. The Maeslant Barrier has two 210-metre-long barrier gates, with two 237-metre-long steel trusses holding each. When closed, the barrier will protect the entire width (360 metres) of the Nieuwe Waterweg. The design was so innovative that it was featured in the program Extreme Engineering. Ray took a time-lapse video of a cargo ship passing through the opened barrier--check it out. Back to trains and trams tomorrow. That is probably a good thing. We may have driven down a bike lane at least once. You are always in my prayers. Love Mom If you are interested in learning more, here is the link to the Extreme Engineering video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwhoIWVTmQw If you google “largest tulip garden in the world” you will land on Keukenhof. Each autumn 40 gardeners plant seven million bulbs by hand over two months. We probably missed a few, but it felt like we visited ALL seven million. They cover 79 acres! It poured rain most of the day, but that didn’t stop the crowds from coming. In fact, over the eight weeks Keukenhof is open it sees almost 1.5 million visitors. Every one of those visitors seems to enjoy taking tons of selfies. Visitors to St. Peter’s Square in Rome also share the beauty of Keukenhof. Every year enormous amounts of flowers are gifted to decorate the square for Easter. This year the Bishop of Rotterdam came to Keukenhof to bless the flowers before departure. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have some of these special flowers? I chatted with the bulb sellers and was surprised to discover they ship inspected bulbs to Canada. You can’t buy them now because they are in the ground, but can you imagine receiving some of these beautiful bulbs in the fall? I'm tempted😀 Which do you like best #1, #2, #3, or #4? You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Yesterday felt like we were travelling by train all around Amsterdam but not exactly in it! We hit up the historic village of Zaanse Schans to the north and then finished off the day with a professional soccer game to the south.
Zaanse Schans boasts that it has eight windmills. Two sit in their original location. Six were relocated here for preservation. I imagine it was quite a site to see them arrive on lowboy trailers. Each windmill has a name. We climbed De Kat (the cat). De Kat is a working windmill. Using the power of the wind raw materials are ground to produce paint pigment. The gears inside are massive. Of course, they sell the pigments in the gift shop. Of course, I bought a couple of colours. You can never own too many watercolour paints, right? While at Zaanse Schans we were able to answer a couple more questions. First, how many cheese samples are too many? Second, how are wooden shoes made? Well, I ate 21 free cheese samples at Henri Willig before I stopped. Our favourite was the lavender goat cheese. It was the colour purple. The wooden shoe museum was fascinating. Their shoes are produced by machine. They are so strong that they have the same safety rating as work boots. They claim they are comfortable with heavy socks. I tried a pair on and I’m not sure I agree. Maybe you have to get used to them. Have any of you tried them? Then we headed south to the Johan Cruijff Stadium. This is home to Ajax Football (think soccer) of the Eredivisie (Premium League). The stadium holds 55,865. It was at almost full capacity. Ray is a huge football fan, so I’ll let him tell the story. Oh, did I mention we tried fries with mayonnaise from a food truck outside the stadium? Not a healthy choice, but SO yummy! You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. When you visit Two Frans Hals Museums you would expect your painting of the day would be by Frans Hals. Nope, my favourite was Satire on Tulip Mania by Jan Brueghel the Younger 1640. Now, to be fair, they are both considered Dutch Masters.
As the story goes, when tulips were introduced to the Netherlands around 1593 the Dutch went WILD. Rumour has it that at the height of their popularity tulips sold for approximately 10,000 guilders, equal to the value of a mansion on the Amsterdam Grand Canal. Around 1637, when the greedy tulip sellers were the greediest, the price of tulips dropped. Disaster! It makes sense that Bruegel made fun of the tulip buyers and sellers in 1640. He even painted them as monkeys! Let’s see if you can find some of the characters he painted in his story.
I’m sure this painting has many more stories to tell. For the art lovers, there will be more galleries to come. You are Always in My Prayers. Love Mom. Saturday is market day in Haarlem. A perfect opportunity to try out some of the local food options. We love free samples. Of course one of the first offerings was Stroopwafels. They are a perfect combination of gooey, crunchy, and sweet.
The Dutch eat about 4 kg more cheese per person per year than the average Canadian. We were keeping up with the Dutch gobbling up free cheese samples. We felt so guilty that we just had to buy some of the very expensive truffle cheese. We googled it when we got back and discovered it was Spanish cheese. No worries. It was still amazing. Now we have an excuse to try more Dutch cheese tomorrow. You would think we were too full for lunch. But no, we checked out the soused herring at Vishandel Jak. Ray loved it. I preferred the kibbeling—battered cod chunks. The day wasn’t all eating. We visited a church and a couple of art galleries. I’ll show you my favourite painting in the next post, but share the music from the church now. St. Bavo Church has an organ that reaches 30 metres high and covers the whole west wall. It is considered one of the most beautiful and historic organs in the world. Mozart played it when he visited Holland in 1766. Now, it wasn’t Mozart, but someone incredibly talented was playing it when we entered the church. Magical! What a day. I’m definitely going to bed with a full belly. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Over 40 km of bike riding today to two very different experiences! We spent the morning at Circuit Zandvoort. It is home to THE FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN DUTCH GRAND PRIX. My brother knows EVERYTHING about Formula One racing, but me—not so much. It was a practice day at the track. There was still lots to check out. My favourite part was watching them change out the tires. Now that is cooperation! In the afternoon we biked through fields of tulips to arrive at The Tulip Experience. We were surprised to learn that it is unlikely the flowers we see in the fields will end up on someone’s dining room table. They are being grown so that healthy tulip bulbs can be exported all over the world. Sadly, they do not export to Canada. Here are some interesting tulip facts:
The biking here is amazing. There are so many bike lanes that it makes it safe and easy. Although most people do not wear helmets. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Words you don’t want to hear—“We are heading back to the gate so the mechanics can have a look at the plane”! Spoiler Alert: we arrived safely, but late, to make our connection in Iceland. There wasn’t time to snap a photo, but watching me run through the airport with a 7 KG backpack must have been hilarious. After our flights and a couple of trains, we are settled in. Loving Zandvoort, the beach, and Luciano’s Ice Cream (just a two-minute walk from our place). The adventure begins. You are Always in our Prayers. Ray & Diane Our journey to all things TULIP begins 10th. We are excited you have decided to join us.
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AuthorRay & Diane Homewood |