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.

Leiden, Holland June 2010

The train ride to Leiden was only a few minutes, just enough to get comfortable and then it was time to jump up, grab our bags, and stumble throught the station to find a taxi. The ride to our hotel was even shorter; we were literally within walking distance of our hotel, but then we didn't know that until we got there! We apologized to the driver, but he was very gracious and thought nothing of it.



I must say that our little hotel room was one of the weirdest we had ever stayed in. We couldn't get the door all the way open; the king-size bed blocked it. The room was very small, with a bathroom included, though the shower was good. It had a narrow passageway to the window - we had to stack our suitcases there and then scoot sideways through it to get to the small desk where we set up our computer. Fortunately it had a window, so I could cock my head up to see the sky. We asked if there was a pot to boil water for instant coffee; the hotel said oh no, only the deluxe rooms get coffee pots. I rolled my eyes at that one, but the internet connection was rather cheap per day, so we at least had internet. We went to the store and bought a little travel coffee pot, so there! It is nice to have a hot drink in the morning; it gets you going.

We started exploring by visiting the tourist office to get brochures, maps, walking tours, etc. The walking tours are great, because it takes you to all different parts of the city that you may not have even noticed.

Leiden is a pretty little town, with a long history. It had a technical college from the middle ages, and even Einstein came here to teach. It capitalized on its river, the Rhine, by letting it meander through the middle of town. And for some reason it has many good little restaurants. We really enjoyed our stay here.

The World Cup is starting here, and we are taken up in the excitement. USA was to play England on Saturday night, so naturally we went to the English Pub on the corner to join the crowd. We thought we would be in the minority, but we found out that there were many American fans there - they were going to school or were just in Holland for the summer. When England scored its goal, there were shouts of joy, but when USA got the goal - the English goalkeeper stopped the ball but it bounced out of his hands and rolled into the net! - the whole pub was excited and chanting USA,USA. I really got into the whole game - there is something about being part of the crowd during a game, isn't there? There was a friendly guy standing next to me - we were all squashed in together, of course - and I asked him about the rules whenever anything happened. The next thing I knew another guy next to me said "how can you be so passionate about something and you don't even know the rules??" I wanted to say, what is complicated about this game - you just kick the ball into the net? But I just shrugged my shoulders and kept on cheering. His girlfriend was American and she sympathized with me and gave me some hints about the rules. It was a fun evening, and I was thrilled that team America was popular.

It is amazing that all over Holland there is so much construction going on. They are renovating old structures, they are building more roads or subways, they are laying new pipe for sewers, etc. This country seems to be thriving. I was glad to see that, amid all of the horror stories of European economy collapsing. I don't see Holland having that kind of problem, at least not in their public works.

We enjoyed our time in Leiden; the neigborhoods are very accessible and the canals are well kept and pretty. We were having a good time.

We happened to notice that one of the busses that passed by our hotel actually went to the Hague central station. That was our next destination, so we decided to just drag our luggage down the street a few blocks to the bust stop instead of getting to the Leiden train station. It made a lot of sense and we could enjoy the countryside on the bus. Our destination day dawned; we had a quick breakfast and then we were on our way to the Hague. Good bye Leiden, hello the Hague!



Leiden is a university town; it actually had the first university in all of Holland in the middle ages. There are lots of students there, which makes for lots of bars and cafes.



We were back on the street in a few minutes to discover our surroundings. Downtown the old Rhine River meets the new Rhine river, so there are various waterways and canals there, which makes that part of town very lovely. We immediately found the shopping area; most of British towns has this same kind of setup. It is a very long street for pedestrians only, except in the mornings when trucks made their deliveries. There are many shops and places to eat. We walked the several blocks to see what Leiden had to offer: shoe shops, phone shops, electronic shops, bakery shops, cheese shops, eye-glass shops, and lots of shops selling casual clothes. Since it was still very chilly in Holland, I marveled that they could sell the shorts and tiny tops at all; when would they be able to wear such summer clothing?



We hoped that we didn't have to walk down this area again; we thought we didn't need any of the things they were selling. However, Jack later realized that he had left his battery charger somewhere, so we had to find a photo shop.



He was ready to photograph Leiden; it seemed to be much more photogenic that Haarlem; it had prettier canals, real windmills, and parks that were beautiful. We were on our way around the town to learn about its history and to take photographs of its interesting profile.

Haarlem, June 2010

On Tuesday, June 1, we walked up to our favorite breakfast restaurant, had our usual coffee, eggs and bacon and then walked back to the hotel, loaded up our luggage and took the taxi to Centraal Station. It was warm and cloudy, and I was sweating under my jacket, but it was easier to wear it rather than pack it. Jack had already told me my luggage was way too heavy, and I knew that but I had decided that I needed all of that stuff. Now I wasn't sure what was even in my luggage!

We bought the train tickets- I think they were 4 euros apiece, found our train track to Haarlem, piled our luggage on the train and sat down. These inter-city trains are usually second class seats, so people just sit anywhere. Right on time the train pulled out of the station and we were on our way to our next adventure. The problem is that all of these towns are very close together so in about ten minutes the engineer was announcing Haarlem. We couldn't believe it, so we asked another passenger, and he said, yes, this is Haarlem.

We jumped up, gathered our luggage - we each have a big suitcase, and then I have a cosmetic case, a backpack and a small container for our computer. Jack has his camera case. From past experience, we know these trains do not stop long so you have to be ready to hop off as soon as the doors open. We passed our luggage to each other out the door, gathered them up, got our bearings for filing out of the station to find the taxi line. We hardly had time to look around at our new town.

Before we knew it the taxi had delivered us to our hotel, the Carleton Square Hotel, a nice-looking hotel in a very green area of town - parks going every which way. We soon discovered that we were on the edge of the green part of town. As we discovered in our exploration of the town, we only had to take a right and we would find the shopping part of the town.

The town of Haarlem is very old, with canals and narrow passageways and apartments close together. I think that it is unfortunate that the city situated itself to the west of its river Spaarne, instead of having the river run through the middle of the town. Now the Spaarne is an afterthought and not taken care of at all.

The center of town is the GroteMarkt, the Large Market, with the St. Bavo church dominating it now, as it has for over 500 years. The church itself is beautiful, and I found out that this church is the location for the International Organ Competition to be held in a couple of months. When we visited it, someone happened to be practicing, so we heard its magnificent organ. Its picture is above.

They have a real market in the space every other day, and the one we found most interesting or weird was the comic book market. Evidently people come from all over Holland to visit this market. There are bars and cafes ringing the market space and it is a great place to get a beer and people watch on a sunny day.

We were always on the look out for good restaurants, and they were tucked in small places all over the town. There are some great chefs in Holland, and Haarlem was no exception. These restaurants are tiny, maybe ten tables at the most. The people in Holland eat early; six o'clock or little later.

One of Haarlem's claim to fame is the artist Frans Hals, born 1582. Besides many of portraits, his museum had a very good history of Haarlem. Visiting his museum was part of the walking tour of the city, which we found very interesting. Holland is very proud of its almshouses, which were set up in the 18th century for unmarried women who were faithful Calvinists. They usually have a small courtyard with little one-story apartments ringing the courtyard. Now they can be rented, usually only for women.

Our next place to visit is Leiden. I will have some photos of that lovely town in my next posting. Stay tuned! Any comments? Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

More of Amsterdam

The Van Gogh Museum

Our visit to the Van Gogh Museum was really a great experience. Of course there were lines, but somehow the Dutch have figured out how to handle crowds and moved us through quicky. There were also tour groups, but Jack is always encouraged if these groups are teen agers; their attention span is nonexistent, so they move quickly through the exhibits.

The museum itself is beautiful; huge and very modern. It can handle exhibits very nicely. We saw a temporary exhibit on Gaugain and it was very well done. Unfortunately, there are so many Van Gogh's spread around the world that if one came to this museum to see some of the favorites, one would be disappointed. I over heard one man mention that he wanted to see "Starry Night" but it is in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Ann Frank's House

Everyone has heard her story or read her diary, and yet looking at the house gives you a very sad and eerie feeling. All of these houses facing the canal are tall and narrow; of course they have renovated the original house, but the tour through the house is similar to what was there in the 1940's. It is dark and gloomy to represent how they spent most of their time there. I did not know that the Dutch government, who had fled to London when the Germans first occupied the Netherlands, encouraged the people left there to keep diaries of their experiences. So Ann had worked very seriously on her diary, hoping that someday she could publish it.

The sad part is that her family was there for so long before someone informed on them. They do not know who, of course, but they are convinced that that someone went to the Germans and told them. The interesting thing was, as we toured the house, it was almost like visiting a church. Everyone was very quiet and reflective.

The Resistance Museum

That afternoon it only seemed fitting that we visit the Resistance museum, to see how the Dutch handled occupation. For awhile, it seemed that the Dutch could live with occupation. Things seemed to get back to normal after the Germans strode into the city. But little by little the began to realize that things would never be the same when the restrictions on the Jews got tighter and tighter. The museum had some good artifacts and photographs. We were a little spent that day, after these two tours.

The Concert

We were in walking distance of their concert house, so we bought tickets to a Sunday matinee. We were on the 9th row so we could see the musicians breathing and bowing. It was a visiting group; the Brussels orchestra. They played the Debussy Afternoon of a Faun and Ravel's Valse. The concerto was a Schumman concerto for cello and orchestra. The soloist was a young woman from Germany, I think. She was wonderful. We could see her perfectly; she was so into the piece that she almost led the orchestra. The acoustics in here were really unbelievable. Jack said that the researchers for the Myerson came here to visit this house for its configuration and its acoustics.

Visits to Edam, Voldenham and Maarken

A couple of mornings we took the bus to small towns north of the city. They were very old towns which were typical of the old Dutch towns of the 15th, 16th centuries. Edam was a few miles north, and the bus trip was very interesting. Once outside Amsterdam, the suburbs are beautiful; huge trees and greenery everywhere, nice wide bike paths, and the cows munching the grass or just enjoying the nice weather. I just couldn't get over how flat this county is, but I kept reminding myself that this land is mostly reclaimed from the sea so of course it would be flat.

The two little towns are very quaint, a little too quaint for us, but they had nice town squares and charming little souvenir places. Maarken had been an island but the sea kept flooding it, so they finally filled up the area and it became part of the larger countryside. Voldenham is really touristy, but they did have good places for lunch. We took the bus back to the city after a couple of very restful days in the countryside.

I am going to add photos next time. We are just out of time for Amsterdam, so our next stop in Haarlem, just a few miles west of the city.

Amsterdam, June, 2010

Jack and I have been in the Netherlands for about a month now.
Our first job was to wander around our own neigborhood and find the usual things we needed; a little neigborhood fruit store to buy water, fruit, and various snacks. These stores are usually run by Middle Eastern or other foreigners. We found one a couple of blocks away, run by Turkish guys that were very nice and friendly and helpful. We also found lots of restaurants in walking distance that we would try later. We needed an ATM machine; we found a couple immediately. We were set.

Jack studies the guide books and maps and figures out what to explore on which day. We make a practice run of the city, figuring out the bus and tram/subway system to find out how to get around in the city. In Amsterdam the trams run north and south, north to the train station, the Centraal Station, and the Museum section, where we were staying. The public transportation in
these cities is so wonderful; they have them, first of all. Then each stop indicates which trams or busses stop there and where they go. They have a bus/tram schedule at the stop and in the big cities they have an electronic sign that gives the estimated time for the next tram.

By learning the bus/tram system we get the feel of the city geographically, so after a few days we know where we are going without having to read a map. Amsterdam is a little bit more confusing, because the major canals ring the city. So they change directions and it is harder to figure out north and south. But Jack caught on immediately and knew where we were most of the time.

We had several places of importance to see in the city: the Rijk and the Van Gogh museums, the churches, Anne Frank's house, and the tulips.

As I mentioned before, we did get to see the tulips and they were magnificent. We took the bus to Schipohl, the big airport, and then a bus to Keunkenhof, near the North Sea. It was very crowded because it was the last weekend of the presentation. This place is like the Arboretum in Dallas, only about 10 times bigger.

The Rijk Museum - in Dutch the "j" following the "i" makes the vowel long, as in "I" or "mine". Rijk is similar to the German Reich. So the Rijk museum is the State museum. Anyway, this museum is being renovated so about a third of it is in use for visitors. They have taken the best of the best, mostly the Rembrandt's and the Vermeer's and the Ruisdaal's and presented them for the public.

Jack and I did not get the opportunity to take a Northern Renaissance Art History class at SMU back a few years ago, but we did take the survey of Art History, so we studied several of the Dutch artists. We were thrilled to see the originals, especially the "Night Watch" by Rembrandt.

The lesser known Dutch painters are represented here of course, so it was interesting to see their work and figure out their style, etc.

Stay tuned for my next installment of our exploration of Amsterdam. We have yet to see the
Van Gogh, Anne Frank's house, and a walking tour of the city. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you like, don't like about my narratives. Jole