Gouda, Holland, July 2010

I have mentioned that our hotel in Gouda was really a dump, but we found it to be a nice little town anyway, so the hotel shouldn't color our whole experience there. We were close to the town square, with its very interesting town hall right in the middle and many nice cafes surrounding it. On Thursdays they had the cheese market, which was a little cheesy, but ok. The sellers came in on old wagons, and everyone was dressed up in the usual Dutch costumes. Everyone, including us, came over and stared at these people and took pictures of them. They were very accommodating, and they had large pieces of their cheese for us to sample.

The little cafes around the square were very nice and offered simple meals all day long. We had accumulated a few words of Dutch, and they were touched that we tried their language, even though everyone could speak English.

We found a wonderful restaurant right off the square and had dinner there a few times. The food was exceptional; it was run by a husband and wife team, and it was packed every night, so we had to make reservations.

All in all the town of Gouda was a very nice little town, and we were glad to have spent a few days there. But we were ready for a big city and Utrecht was in our sights. We were ready to go.

Gouda, Netherlands July 1 - 8, 2010

Teresa;

The view from Mt Generosa

Daniele

Isabel and Marinella

We found the train to Gouda and boarded, dragging our luggage with us. We stood in the "compartment" part of the train, since it would be a short ride. The train was old and the compartment was not air conditioned; soon we were both sweating bullets. We finally got to the little station and dragged our luggage off. At these little towns, the train stops for maybe two minutes, so one has to be quick about getting on and off. Also, in these small old towns, there is usually just a staircase to go up or down to the get to the "station". In larger cities they have elevators or escalators or even ramps so the luggage dragging is not too painful. I managed to get my stuff down the stairs to the main little office and come out to the sunlight of Gouda. It was hot, in the 80's. There were taxi's waiting; we piled in and I gave him the address of our hotel.

This time we were not so lucky with our hotel; it was small and old. The lady at the desk gave us a ground floor room which was barely big enough for the bed. Of course it had no air conditioning; the one window we could open had a sawed off broom handle in the window to hold it open a few inches. The thing that aggravated me was that this place was the same price as the hotel in Delft, but what a change. We don't stay at four star hotels, but this was really the worst we had seen. Thank goodness we would not be there long.

We had planned for a quick trip to Lugano during our stay here in Gouda. We would leave most of our luggage in our room, pay up for the stay, and then take the train to Lugano for a couple of days, return to Gouda and then head to Utrecht.

Our Italian teacher/friend Teresa was in Lugano visiting her parents during that time and we wanted to see them. She had the two boys, Mahdi and Daniele, with her. We baby sat both of these darlings, and we got to know her parents when they came to see her in Dallas.

So on Sunday morning, July 4, we left Gouda early in the morning, rode the train to Basel, Switzerland, switched in Basel to Lugano, reaching there about 5:00 in the evening. I warned Jack that maybe they couldn't meet us at the train, but as we walked from the train to the station, we looked up and there they were: Mahdi, Teresa and Daniele and Guido, Teresa's brother! We were so excited to see them! Of course Mahdi knew us; he was turning five in a couple of weeks, but we wandered if Daniele, just two, would remember us. I think he did, sort of.

We went straight to Carolina and Leno's house to stay for awhile. They fed us, and we had a good time, trying to communicate with Carolina and Leno, since they do not speak English, and I certainly couldn't remember much Italian. But we were fine.

Teresa took us to our little hotel, where we had stayed several times before, and the owner had our regular room ready, with the fan that we had bought a few years ago.

The next morning Teresa took us to get our rental car, and we came back to have a birthday lunch with Isabel. She was celebrating her birthday by having a big lunch for all of us. Guido kept cooking food for us until we were completely stuffed. I have included some photos of the big day.

The next day was a big one; we loaded up everyone and took off for Mount Generosa. Both sets of grandparents (Carolina and Leno, Jack and I) would take Mahdi and Daniele on the train up the mountain while Teresa and Guido and Guiness, the family dog, would walk up part of the trail. The tricky thing was to distract Daniele onto the train before he realized that his mother was not with us. Teresa looked at me and said "you can do this, Jole. You have babysat all year, distracting him". We hustled everyone on the train and away we went! It was an electric train that was glued to the mountainside, and the earth seemed to fall away as we traveled higher and higher. We had a great time, and Daniele was fine with all of the excitement.

We walked, played and ate on the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful day and I got some great photos of the lakes in between the mountains, with the Alps in the background.

After a little rest we were ready to head down the mountainside. That got complicated because Daniele was tired, but I had to scoop him up and get him downstairs for the ride down. Teresa and Guido were going to hike halfway down the mountain and then hop in their car and meet us at the train station.

He was not happy and cried his heart out when I grabbed him up and took him to the train. He saw his grandmother and reached for her. That hurt my feelings, but of course I understood, since he had been with her for almost two months. He was almost asleep anyway, and when we got on the train his eyes closed and he was gone. Even Mahdi fell asleep on the way down. We had ice cream that evening and a walk around the park. We were ready for bed ourselves.

The next morning Teresa took us to return our rental car and then dropped us off at the train station. It was a very short trip but we had lots of fun and we were so glad that we saw them again. Mahdi asked me why we had to go back to Holland instead of Dallas, but I promised him we would return to Dallas in a little while.

Our trip back was a little sad, but we got back safe and sound that night about 10:00pm. The next morning we were on the train again to Utrecht!

In my next blog update I will write about Gouda - it is kind of an interesting little town. Please check in - and I have photos of Jack!

Delft, Netherlands, June, 2010, Part 2

Top two photos: the Old Church - leaning - and a curious scene in Delft; the old church and the Good Year blimp;

two bottom photos: Kinderdijk area and the organ of the New Church; new church at one end of the square.

The walking tour for Delft took us a few days. There was a lot to see, and we had to take frequent chardonnay breaks - a term we picked up from Jack's cousin Bob when we were in Paris together - and of course, we had to take many photos. The guide took us to see where William the Silent was assassinated in 1572, at the Prisenhof, the prince's court, where he lived. He was then buried in the New Kerk, so many of the Dutch royal family have been buried there ever since. In the 20th century Holland's queens have included Wilhelmina, Juliana and now Beatrix, the present queen.

The walking tour took us to the house where Vermeer lived his adult life; nearby was the artist guild headquarters where Vermeer was certainly a member. It took us to the Dutch East India headquarters, the powerful company that ruled the seas in the 17th century. We walked the length of the old Delft and crossed a now busy city street by the river to stand where Vermeer must have stood to paint his "View of Delft". Some of the landmarks are gone; the gates to the city are no longer there and the Dutch East India company no longer has its extensive warehouse in sight. But the silhouette of the new church and the steeple of the old church are just as prominent, and the river is still a busy place, with private boats moored along the edge and people still making their way to and from the places of residence near the water. I guess what mars the scene are the cars scooting nonstop along the bridge. Nevertheless, it was quite exciting to stand in the same place where he stood nearly four hundred years before. At that time Delft was a leading Dutch city and quite prosperous. Once the East India company moved its headquarters to Amsterdam, Delft gradually declined.

One of the next sights was the Old Church, where the three famous people of Delft are buried: Vermeer, Grotius and Leeuwenhoek. I was anxious to see their monuments but I was also in fear of my life - the old church tower leans quite dangerously! The brochure says that when it was built they filled in a canal, and the material they used was not the strongest, so as soon as the tower started climbing in the sky, it started leaning - think the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Dutch fooled with it for several years and then they said that they had solved the problem of its sinking and it was now secure. This pronouncement came in about the 14th century. I even asked the old gentleman at the church souvenir store; he said not to worry, they check it every hundred years or so, and it is perfectly safe. However, Jack happened to look at the sales slip that he received with his purchases, and it says in bold letters: Enter at your own risk!. You can see by my photo that the church tower is scary looking. I was glad to get out of there, no matter how much I wanted to see Vermeer's resting place.

It is so interesting to walk around these old cities which were so important in their heyday and see how the Dutch preserve their history and their important figures. I think they do an excellent job of trying to give the visitor a flavor of how these old towns flourished back in the 13th-17th centuries, while letting the modern city grow up around the old town. I don't know how they do it, but Holland seems to be in good economic shape and thriving.

We took a trip out of the city one day. We wanted to see Kinderdijk, an area near Delft that was declared a UN national heritage sight. It is where the Dutch built several windmills - there are still 19 there - to manage the sea from coming back on the land. It was complicated to get there, but the Michelin guidebook gave it a purple - their designation for not missing a sight - so we made the effort to get there.

We walked over to the train station and boarded the train to Rotterdam. Since this city was an important industrial city during WWII, it was bombed first by the Germans and then by the Allies, so nothing historical is left there. It is still very important economically, since it is near two important rivers: the Rhine and the Maas. It has so many new buildings that the Dutch call it Manhattan on the Maas; we weren't going to spend any time there, but this trip would give us an opportunity to at least see it. The train station was connected to its metro station of course, so we followed the signs and boarded one of their subway lines to the south of the city. The metro was very crowded that day; Holland was going to play in one of the knockout games of the World Cup and people were getting to work early so they could get home and watch the afternoon game.

We rode the metro to the south bus station and waited awhile for the bus that would take us farther south to the Kinderdijk. That bus ride was an hour long; it was already getting hot and it was very sunny. I wasn't really looking forward to a day in the sun, but I was hoping to find some shade. We finally got there - it is a huge expanse of canals with windmills situated every several hundred meters apart. Now it is a tourist area, but the windmills are actually run every month to keep them in condition. People actually live at the base of the windmills and maintain them. There were lots of people there, mostly on their bikes. We walked a mile or two to get good pictures of them. It was sunny and hot, but there was a nice breeze, so it was pleasant. After we walked a long distance we came back to the boat ride and spent an hour on the little boat which took us way out to see many more windmills. There were teen agers jumping off the small bridges to swim a bit in the clear water.

We decided we had enough of nature, so we trudged back to the bus stop - these buses may be few and far between but they show up always at the time they say will. We made our way slowly back to Rotterdam where we jumped on the metro, then took the train back to Delft. It was a long day, and we were tired, but it was fun to see what everybody thinks of when they think of Holland: the windmills. And, oh, by the way, Holland won the game that day, 1-0.

We did not got to a modern Delftware factory, but we did a bit of shopping for some typical porcelain for which Delft is known. We were going to Lugano the next week and we wanted to bring something to Carolina, our friend and mother of Teresa, our friend from Dallas.

We were getting ready to leave Delft and get to Gouda, the little town know for its cheese. We had a great time in Delft, but we were ready to push on and explore some more of Holland.

We checked out of our little hotel, gathered our belongings and took the walk to the train station. Again, the trip to the station would be longer than the train ride to the next stop. And I wasn't any too happy that it seemed to be getting hotter and hotter. We were lucky to have air conditioning in Delft; what would be our fate in Gouda? We would soon find out!

Delft, Netherlands June 24-30, 2010, Part 1

The day started out warm, as we headed to Delft on the number 1 tram from the Hague. The distance between these two cities is only a few miles, and there is no open countryside. We cross several waterways, and one is a drawbridge. Three big boats work their way through the water as we wait on either side of the drawbridge. We come to the immense construction, stretching for a few miles. I see the old, elegant train station coming into view, and I tell Jack to get ready, we are getting off the tram. We drag our luggage down the few stairs of the tram as people wait to get on the tram. We walk several blocks to our hotel; Jack is giving me dirty looks every once in awhile, since he has my big bag and my cosmetic bag. They are much too heavy and he wants me to throw out my stuff. I apologize to him and keep walking. Thank goodness Holland is flat!

We finally get to the little hotel and Jan Wilhelm is waiting for us. We sign in and he takes us upstairs to our room - no lift in this old building. But he helps us with our luggage. Our room is huge! It has a sitting room, a nice area for the bed, a wonderful bathroom and an air conditioning unit. I am in heaven. Jack looks at our reservations to see how much this room will cost. We try to stay in hotels which are not too expensive - not more than about 80 euro a night. That translates into about $100 per night. It turns out that Jan Wilhelm has given us one of his larger rooms, since we are staying almost a week.

Guidebook information

Delft is known for its blue and white ceramics. It is the hometown of Grotius, the father of international law, Johannes Vermeer, the artist, and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who perfected the microscope.

The name delft means moat. It was founded in 1074, and its peak in prosperity was in the 13th and 14th centuries because of its cloth trade and its brewing industry.

Delft today is an intellectual center, because it has schools of natural sciences, hydraulic labs and technical university.

Its ceramics became known in the second half of the 17th century, mainly as a technique similar to chinese porcelain. By the 18th century the delftware had competition from the German and English porcelain, but it is still made today in several local factories.

Walking Tour

It was a beautiful day, so we got our map from Jan Wilhelm and started for our investigation of the town. The hotel is in old Delft, and old Delft was our interest. Usually the Holland towns have a church or a stadhuis (town hall) in the center of the town, with an area known as the plein, similar to a piazza, plaza, place, etc. We found this area of town and it was probably the best laid out area we had seen in all of Holland. The "new church" (built 1381) on the right, the town hall on the left, and a huge area in between. Cafes, bars and stores were situated all around the plein. The middle was saved for sauntering, talking and visiting. And on certain days they set up the market: fruits, vegetables, cheese, fish, pastries and meats on one end and clothes, shoes and electronics, books and odds and ends for buying and selling. This area was truly the center of the city and had been for ten centuries.

It was midday and we were hungry, so we looked around for a place to eat. There are dozens of cafes around the plein, so we picked one and sat down. We really liked this little cafe and went back there for dinner. We people watched and took in the many sights around the plein.

We found the tourist office, next to the fish market that had been there for several centuries. It is still open everyday and still busy. The tourist office gave us a good map and a good walking tour, which we tackled immediately.

We started with the new church which stands on the square. Most of the royal family of Orange are buried there: William the Silent, an important historical figure in Netherlands history has a very impressive mausoleum. (In the 1500's the Dutch were tired of Spanish oppression, so William the Silent raises an army which began the Eighty Years' War. In 1584 he was assassinated in Delft).

This new church started out as a catholic church but in the 1500's the Dutch adhered to the teachings of Calvin and so stripped the church of any adornments. We have found most of the churches of Holland to be quite plain, white walls but many stained glass windows, usually depicting historical events. People can pay to climb up to the tower to see a fine city view, but we decided not to try that. Old, steep stairs and heights are not our favorites.

Across the square is the town hall, a fine old building that has a long history. Here in Holland the bride and groom come here to sign their papers, and during our stay in Delft, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, several wedding groups came here for the ceremony. I am not sure if the wedding ceremony is staged in any of the churches, but the legal ceremony in the town hall is very important.

We divided our walking tour into several parts, since we were going to be in Delft a few days. We were ready to get back to our room and set up our "home" for the next week.

The Hague,2

The walking tour of the Hague took us down streets and through neigborhoods full of history and stories. Holland still has a monarch, and the Queen Beatrix has a home in the Hague. We stood in front of it, and I had to compare it to Buckingham Palace in London. This one is on a much smaller scale, though elegant. The flag was flying, which meant she was in the city, but we never got to see her.



We saw many embassies on our walking tour; they fly their country's flag prominently. Spain had just been beaten by Switzerland in the first leg of the World Cup, and down the Langestraat, the two embassies were sitting next to each other!



Along the way there were many memorable sites and homes of important people who had lived in Holland during its heyday. Holland is another example of a country that was quite powerful in the 16th century, so many centuries ago.



We visited the small museum dedicated to Esscher - the artist who was fascinated with mathematical ideas and drew the salamander going in and out of the picture. He had castles with waterfalls that looked like they started on one level and then ended up on another level. I did not realize that he was from Holland. He lived most of his life in Italy; he loved the sun and the warm weather.



One Saturday it was going to be quite rainy so we decided to treat ourselves to a movie! Fortunately, the Dutch do not dub the movies, only subtitles. That is one of the reasons that the Dutch speak English with an American accent. They watch all of their movies and TV programs from America and hear our broad accent. Jack's cousin Bob had told us that Letters to Juliet was a good movie, so we treated ourselves to a relaxing afternoon. We especially liked the scenes of the Tuscany. We also learned another thing about the European football. Holland was playing that afternoon, and when we got out of the movie we went to the theater bar and asked if there was a score yet. He said yes; we said what is it? He said 0-0. We just looked at him and then realized that since so many soccer games end up with 0-0, that it is a perfectly good score...



The next day we went back to the Centrum for the antique market. This was not your usual flea market; the people showing their wares were professional. Jack found some beautiful Chinese worry bells; they were two silver bells about the size of golf balls in a beautiful box. The man said the Chinese would take the two bells in their hands and rub them together to make their troubles go away. They had a melodious sound to them. Jack was trying to find a present for Daniele, our little friend whom we baby sat in Dallas for almost a year - every Friday from August to April.

We were going to see our friend Teresa and her two little boys, Mahdi and Daniele. She was our Italian teacher of so many years ago, and we were also neighbors in Dallas. They were going to be in Lugano, Switzerland, visiting the grand parents, and Teresa wanted us to come see them. We were working on plans to get down there for a few days, so we needed some presents for the boys. Daniele, just two, loves to bang things together, loves to shake things and love boxes, so the box of the Chinese worry bells seemed the perfect gift for him.

Jack had already picked out a present for Mahdi - a model plane. I thought it was too old for him; Mahdi will be celebrating his 5th birthday in July - but Jack thought it would be perfect. We also needed a present for Marinella, the cousin who was just a year old, and a present for Lino, the grandfather, and then we would be set.

The tram that we rode back and forth from the centrum also went all the way to Delft, our next stop. One of the ladies who worked the desk at our hotel lives in Delft, and she told us the tram stop close to our new hotel. If we were going to drag our luggage on the tram and then get off in Delft and walk to our new hotel, I wanted to be sure it was possible, so I volunteered to ride the tram to Delft and check out the location of our hotel there.

It was a good thing that I did, because several things were going on in Delft. The first thing was, the stops had changed; they were actually shut down due to major construction in that area. When I realized our stop was no longer a possibility, I asked the tram driver and he told me another one would "be in the vicinity". I got off there, looked around and spotted the old church of Delft that was our landmark. I found Old Delft and followed the numbers until I came to our hotel: Bridges Hotel. It is in the old section of Delft in an old building with no elevator, but the lobby was really a charming sitting room. I liked it immediately. The ownere, Jan Wilhelm, was there to greet me. I told him my story, and we looked at the map to determine the best way to get to his hotel from the tram stop. He told me that the city was undergoing a major public work to move the train tracks from above to below the city. It would take about ten years! Sort of like Central Expressway redo in Dallas. Anyway, I retraced the steps Jack and I would have to take with our luggage on Thursday, waited for the next tram to take me back to the beach and report what I had found.

We were nearing the end of our stay in the Hague, so we assessed what we hadn't seen and what we wanted to see once again. Of course, the Maurithuis was on the repeat list, and one other, the municipal museum, is full of local artist's work: Piet Mondrian is the most famous, and the De Stijl group is the famous architectural group. The building itself is very interesting, designed to make the most of the natural light. We had a great time just walking around and discovering all the many displays. It was located in an interesting part of the Hague, where many international companies have their offices.

Our last day was a busy one, because we had made reservations for a guided tour through the Peace Palace. Andrew Carnegie had donated funds to house the international arbitration court, and the Netherlands donated the land. Each country has donated furnishings for the palace, and the Administrative Council meets there is an enormous table with seats decorated with the countries' coat of arms. Our guide, a law student, didn't tell us much about the workings of the Peace Palace; he more or less showed us around and commented on the building itself. I wanted to see an actual trial but nothing seemed to be happening at that time.

We went back to our hotel, gathered our belongings, hopped on the tram and made our way to Delft. We were looking forward to finding all about the place where the artist Vermeer spent his whole life.

The Hague, Part 1

The Hague is different from the other cities we have visited in the Netherlands so far. It is not considered a large city, but its downtown, or centrum, has many huge new buildings designed by leading architects of the world. The building in the photo is the city town hall and library. It is designd by Richard Meier. For those of you who are architectural followers, Richard Meier designed the Rashovsky House on Preston Road in Dallas. He also designed the modern art museum in Barcelona.

Guidebook information:

Up until the 13th century the Hague was just a hunting lodge for a count of Holland. But since it was near the sea, it soon became a vacation spot. Then by the 15th century, it became a merchant's town. For some reason, by the 17th century, it became the center of diplomatic negotiations, and today it is the seat of the International Court of Justice, sponsored by the UN, as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration. There are many embassies and international offices here.

We stayed at the beach, however, a little town called Scheveningen - the Dutch swallow the "ch" - more like "k" and then "gutteralize" the "g" like the German "ach". You try it!

When we arrived on June 14 it was still very chilly, and the beach was so windy we could not believe that people would be out sunning. But it was perfect for the wind sailing and the kites. We struggled up the street to the North Sea, amazed that so many people could stand this weather. By the time we left about a week later, the wind had calmed down, the beach was perfect, and it was wall to wall bodies. You know me, though. I don't like the sun too much, so I was content to leave the beach to others.

The little beach town had lots of hotels and I am sure later on in the summer it was packed with people on holiday. Along with all of the hotels are places to gamble, to eat, to listen to music, etc.

We were more interested in the town of the Hague, however, so we hopped on the tram right outside our hotel and made our way downtown. The scenery on the tram was just beautiful; old mansions, huge trees lining the streets, people on their bikes. It was a great ride. Our tram went right past the Peace Palace, where the Court of Justice is. It is a grand old castle-looking structure; we read in our guidebooks that when they built it they deliberately did not pick just one kind of architecture, so it could be all things to all countries. As a result, it is a hodge-podge of a building, but rather elegant.

When we got downtown, we discovered the same thing as in every other town in Holland: construction in a big way. If they are not renovating their old residences, they are expanding the tram line or widening the streets.

The Centrum

We made our way to the tourist information office. From other cities in Holland we knew that this office would have great city maps and very interesting walking tours. We were not disappointed here. They had three different walking tours, depending on whether you were interested in architecture, historic structures or just sites of interest. As usual, Jack wanted to tackle all three, so we would be busy for the next several days.

We also wanted to find a bus/tram map. In a big city like this, it is almost impossible to get around only by walking, so we needed the bus information for all the spots that interested us. Also, we really learn a city when we have to figure out where things are, how to get there by public transportation, what stop to get off, and where to catch the bus to get back home. In Holland, they have a great bus and tram system: they announce the stop and it appears in the LED readout. Some of the buses have the routes listed, so you can follow along and figure out how many stops until yours.

The first thing we found was a great shopping area called the Passage. It is just like the Galleria in Milan; it is covered and the shops are very smart and expensive. We had a great time window shopping, and I found an Aveda salon just around the corner, so I made an appointment to get my hair done the next day.

We pulled ourselves away from shopping to follow the walking tour. The first stop was the Binnenhof (inner courtyard). This area has many old buildings which are now their seat of government - we just happened onto a crowd who was waiting to see who the new Prime Minister would be. These old buildings house the upper House of Parliament. I wanted to wait until the announcement was made, but Jack was anxious to get to Mauritshuis, so we moved on. I found it fascinating that ordinary people could just walk through this courtyard, where all of their politicians were housed. There was no police or security to remind us that important people were doing important things inside this building. What a different feeling in Holland than in the US of A.

Today was the day that I saw Girl with the Pearl Earring. The Mauritshuis, the city museum, was the house of a rich Dutch tobacco plantation owner in Brazil, in the 17th century. Johan Maurits. He gave his house to the Dutch government, along with his art. It is a splendid little museum, just big enough to be able to saunter around and enjoy the art.

Vermeer's View of Delft is also here - a very large piece compared to his other work. But I must admit, I was there to look on the Girl with the Pearl Earring. The movie, made from Tracy Chevalier's book, with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johanson, is a favorite of mine, and the story of how Vermeer came to paint this particular picture was very clear in my mind. Of course, Chevalier made up the whole story, but it was a very touching one, and I wanted to believe that it was sort of true.

The painting was exquisite. It has a prominent place in the museum; it is in one of the last rooms to view, so the anticipation is there as you walk in the room. She is really beautiful. I am almost tearful when I finally see a painting that I have studied or liked and find the real one, hanging in a special place. I sat there for a long time, just admiring the simple beauty of it.

There were many other beautiful paintings in that small museum, like the Frans Hals Laughing Boy, and the Jacob Ruisdal's Dutch landscapes, and the Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson. It is truly a gem, and I am not sure how many people really know about it. We went back a couple of times, even on a Sunday afternoon, and there were not many people visiting it.

Well, this was enough for one day, so we headed home to the beach and plan our next day's outing.