The Last of Amsterdam

I am back home in Austin and Mom is back in Phoenix.  Just a few more pictures from our trip that I found interesting and then that will be it for this adventure.  I had a great time and I believe Mom did too.  So here are the last photos.

Someone is having a birthday!

 

A water fountain

 

A bride at the Keukenhof Gardens

 Yes that is a car on top of the houseboat.  There is also a dinghy up there.

Stacks of cheese

                                                             I loved this dog's ears.

 This played music similar to a jack in the box.  He had a tin can collecting coins.

 Saw this the first day from the taxi.  Unfortunately never got back to try it.

Paddle boats on the canal

 

The official boy with his finger in the dike.

This Santa was sitting on the edge of a house boat.

                       This says something about doing the poo tour and
                       discovering what poo can do.

Lovely matching shoes for him and her and a matching bag.

I think that is pretty much it.  I hope you enjoyed being a part of our adventure to Holland.

Painting Fun

Today, our last day in Amsterdam, we went to a painting workshop at the Dutch Costume Museum. Here they have a variety of Dutch costumes or clothing on display. Supposedly there is a village in Holland where they still wear this type of clothing. We received instructions on the dot painting technique they used and we were set free to paint a black tote bag. The first one is mom's bag. The second is mine.

Here are some examples of the clothing. I remember reading that some of the hats or headpieces the women wore had 17 parts and used up to 60 pins.

Later we met my cousin Dianne for dinner in Vondelpark. This park is like New York's Central Park. We sat outside at a restaurant and had dinner while visiting, catching up on our families, and laughing about memories of growing up, especially at our grandma and grandpa's farm. Dianne lives in Atlanta and we haven't seen each other in probably 20 years. She was in Amsterdam for work this week.

Crazy how life works!

Headed back to Houston in the morning. Will spend the night there Thursday and mom will fly back to Phoenix on Friday morning. Then I will head back to Austin. I've had a fabulous time and I think Mom has enjoyed it as well. Hope everyone has enjoyed following along with us on our adventure.

Delft, The Hague and Madurodam

After a relaxing morning, we went on a tour to see the Delft China Factory in Delft, Holland.  This is the famous blue pottery/china that is handpainted.

In the pictures above, you see two artists working on painting pieces.  The bottom two pictures show the display of Christmas plates and the plate created for my birth year.  There was not a plate for mom's birth year because of it being during WWII.

Our tour took us through the workshop where our guide showed us the steps for creating a thimble. In these pictures you see the area with all the molds, the kilns, and an employee sanding a plate.  Our guide showed us how they pour the clay into a mold, wait, and pull out a thimble.  Then it is put into the kiln for 20 hours. Afterwards, once it has been sanded of irregularities, the painters begin their work.  The piece is fired in the kiln a second time.  There are also pieces created using a pattern transfer and are not painted by hand.

Hand painted designs will have markings on the bottom similar to the poster.  It includes the initials of the artist. Our guide held up two plates and asked if we could determine which was hand painted and which was transfer work?  Do you know?

The plate on the left in the picture is hand painted.

After leaving Delft, we drove through the political seat of Holland called The Hague.  Our tour guide pointed out all the  embassies of the different countries, the Yugoslavian Tribunal (where a war criminal killed himself in front of the judge), and all the other UN buildings.  This picture shows the Peace Palace.  Money for this building was donated by Carnegie and each country provided something as well.

Then we traveled to see Madurodam.  This depicts a version of Holland that is 25x smaller.  Since we have not been all over Holland some of it was unrecognizable to us.  So we sought out those places we could recognize.

In these pictures, you will see canal cruise boats actually floating through the water, the monument from Dam Square, Anne Frank's house, and Westerkerk.

Here we see a tulip farm, windmills, a beach on the North Sea (we did not visit ), beautiful flowers, and mom's new friend.

These things made for an interesting day.

A Visit to Zaanse Schans

Just outside of Amsterdam is a small village called Zaanse Schans.

Today we had a  private tour with a costumed guide named Ingrid.  She lives here and provides personal guided tours dressed in authentic costume.  She took us to see the pewter maker where we were able to see how they take melted pewter and put it in a mold to make a spoon. The spoon circled in red was made while we watched.

Then Ingrid took us to see the clog maker.  As you walk in there is a display of different clogs.  Here are a few.  The first picture is a clog for horses.  Ingrid said that clogs did not originally begin in in Holland.  They were first used in southern France.

The we watched as the clog maker created a new clog made from the block of wood he is holding in his hand.

Ingrid invited us into her home, which is an original home from the Zaanse area.  As she shared information about the home and the background of the area, we enjoyed a cup of lemonade.

Ingrid took this picture of us with the windmills in the background.

After we left Ingrid, we checked out the cheese shop before heading back to our van for the ride back to Amsterdam.  Following some lunch, I retired mom to the hotel room and I went to see the exhibition called "My Name Is Prince" that is traveling the world.  Unfortunately you could not take pictures.  There was concert footage and displays of outfits, albums, song writing notes, guitars, awards, and many other cool displays.  I learned many new things about Prince from the exhibit:  He is only 1 of 2 people to ever have a #1 song, #1 album and a #1 movie all at the same time.  He loved the Batman tv show of the 60's and that theme song is the first song he learned to play on the piano.

The weather was beautiful and it was another fabulous day in Amsterdam.

Lazy Sunday

After a croissant breakfast at a near by restaurant, we took a taxi to Oude Lutherse Kerk-Old Lutheran Church.  We attended a service there in Dutch.  It was a lovely old church with a very small congregation.

Then we walked to the Bloenmarkt (Flower Market).  You could basically buy any kind of flower or bulb here along with all kinds of knick knacks.  Then we went to the NEMO Science Museum so we could go to the top of the museum for the view.  There is actually a road that goes underneath the museum too.  Of course there were tulips on display as well.

While mom rested I walked over to the Anne Frank House.  It is under renovation and tickets must be booked online head of time.  Besides I am not allowed to go there until Lauren and I come to Holland.  But I did want a picture.  This is where Anne Frank and 7 other Jews hid for 2 years in an area smaller than 1000 square feet.The church in the picture is Westerkerk which was built in 1631.  Rembrandt is buried inside but no one knows where for sure.  Also the chimes ring every 15 minutes and these are the church bells that Anne Frank writes about hearing.

Saturday in Amsterdam

While mom rested, I went out for a walk for a few hours. I wanted to visit the Royal Palace or City Hall in Dam Square. This is one of four official residences of King Willem Alexander. The balcony above the entrance is where the newly married Royals would greet the people.

In the center below you see the official coronation portrait of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.  In the photo to the right you see a desk.  This the desk where Queen Beatrix sat and signed the document abdicating the throne to her son, Willem-Alexander.

In Dam Square you see a white obelisk.  It was built in 1956 as a WWII memorial.  The Nazi's occupied Holland from 1940-1945 and deported 60,000 Jewish Amsterdamers.  The Hunger Winter of 1944-1945 killed thousands of people and forced people to survive by eating tulip bulbs. This monument is now considered a monument for peace.

In the 1500's Amsterdam was taken over by Protestant extremists.  For the next 2 centuries Catholics had to worship in secret.  Here is one of the  secret Catholic Churches-De Papegaai Hidden Church.

Here is another example hidden in the Begijnhof courtyard.  The windows were blacked out as well to conceal that it was a church. 

The Begijnof neighborhood has sheltered single women since 1346.  Beguines were simple, pious women who had dedicated their lives to God.  The last Beguine died in 1971 but the the area still provides subsidized housing to single women, mostly Catholic seniors.

The English Reformed Church was buit in 1420.  The Pilgrims found sanctuary in this church before sailing to America.

This black wooden house is the city's oldest dating back to 1528.

Saturday night we went on a dinner train experience.  4 course mackerel appetizer, vegetarian soup, and lamb for dinner with a lovely dessert to follow.  We also had some great wine and a lovely train ride.

Another great day in Amsterdam!