The Netherlands and Bruges for Christmas

Having already taken two trips this fall—to England and Botswana—I wasn’t expecting to take another one. But Glenna wanted to go somewhere for Christmas, so we picked the Netherlands and Bruges for the Christmas markets. Of course, they were so much more than that. In fact, the markets were a bit of a disappointment because they had been so built up in my mind, I suppose, but the decorations, the installations and the generally festive mood made the trip memorable—as well, of course, the usual reasons to visit those two places in any season. 

Tuesday and Wednesday. I left midday for Columbia where I picked up Glenna who had worked a half day. We spent about an hour with her cat Asha and then set off for CLT. Advice to anyone leaving from there: reserve a garage space ahead of time. We’ve done that twice now after experiencing the nightmare that parking there can be, and it is definitely easier on the nerves to know that you have a space.

The charge to check our bags was $75, so we decided not to do that, hoping that we could gate check them for nothing or, failing that, just keep them with us. We got them checked through to Amsterdam. I don’t know why the airlines do that; it doesn’t seem fair to the passengers who paid, but I’ll take it if offered.  

I had been having some difficulties breathing when rushing or when carrying something at all heavy or going up an incline, and I experienced that at Charlotte and again at Philadelphia, so much so that Glenna hailed a people mover for me in Philly for the VERY long walk to the gate, something I had never taken before. 

On the overseas flight Glenna fell asleep right away; I slept fitfully as I usually do. The flight wasn’t full so we each got a three-person row where we could lie down which is better than sitting up but not completely comfortable because of the seat belt anchors. Someday I am going to get one of those seats that recline all the way and put you in a little cocoon! 

At Schiphol the walk was long, but we found the train to Centraal easily enough. We decided to have a lunch before getting on another train to Bruges (Brugge in Flemish). It wasn’t great (croque monsieur and Irish stew). We found our track only to discover that our train wasn’t going because of an accident on the line to Antwerp. A very nice man used his phone to find an alternate route for us that first took us to Rotterdam and then Antwerp. Antwerp’s train station is renowned for its old world beauty. We took our time and looked around and took some pictures.

The really long and partly flat escalator 
at the Antwerp train station

Ceiling of the train station

The very beautiful train station

Another view of the station

Then we looked at the departures board. Beside the listing for our train to Bruges there were two words we didn’t know (in Flemish). It turns out those words meant that that train was cancelled. The reservation clerk found another train for us that was leaving in three minutes. When we got downstairs again to the track (see the escalator picture), none of the train doors would open. They were locked because it was so close to leaving time. As we were trying doors, we saw a conductor through the window. We shouted that we needed to get on and he continually said that we couldn’t. I was reduced to begging because that was the only train left to Bruges that day. The train was a bit delayed, so he finally relented. We had to get off at the little town of Gent St Pieter and get another train to Bruges with a very quick transfer but at least we got on this one without incident. 

In Bruges it was misting. We took a taxi to the very nice hotel that Glenna had booked. We were only there a few minutes and then went out to dinner because it was already getting late and, of course, we hadn't had a proper night’s sleep. Some people say they sleep right away after a flight to Europe; we always just plow through the day and sleep when it is night time.

Lobby of Jan Brito Hotel

Nice mural in public room at hotel

Our room at Jan Brito

Festive hallway at hotel

The lights along our taxi ride and on the walk to the restaurant were very pretty—our introduction to Christmastime in Bruges. 

View of the church steeple

Light display on our walk

Decorations along Bruges street

We had a wonderful meal at a brown pub with great atmosphere—baked spaghetti with lots of Gruyere cheese on top and tiramisu with speculoos crumbs, Baileys and raspberry syrup. Wow.

L'Estaminet pub interior

Delicious baked spaghetti and...

...out-of-this-world tiramisu

We walked down toward the canal near our hotel to see the second of many light installations in the city. Then it was definitely time for bed.

Light installation along the canal

Lights on a house

The changing colors...

...of lights...

...on the canal wall

Thursday. We slept until 8:40, long for us, and then set off for town. We chose not to get the expensive breakfast at the hotel and figured we could find something along the way to city center. We were in a residential district at first and saw many nicely decorated doors. 

A nice door even without decorations

Architecturally-interesting house

Gazebo in Honingin Astridpark along the way

One of many nice window decorations we saw

Heilige Magdalenakerk

Devotional on a house

17th-century Godshuis St Jozef

Nice wreath on a nice door

And another nice wreath on a nice door

At one point we stopped at a bakery and got a pastry which turned out to be coconut which neither of us like at all. We pitched it after one bite. 

Our coconut pastry

In city center we stopped at a waffle shop and got the Bruges-type waffle (in Belgium you have to have waffles!). Mine was oat with chocolate and caramel drizzled into the holes which we ate standing on the bridge over one of the canals. Glenna’s sister Joce called these walking waffles.

Serena Souvenir Shop on the canal

My Otto waffle

Maison Bon Bon shop window

Nearby we went through Eglise Notre Dame (actually Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in the almost unintelligible to us Flemish), a cathedral that was originally Romanesque though little of that is left and which is now Gothic with later Baroque decorations.

View of the nave of Eglise Notre Dame

Nativity scene inside the church

I'm always impressed by the elaborate pulpits

North side of the cathedral

East end of the cathedral

Interesting trained trees near cathedral

Pedestrian bridge over the canal 

The cathedral steeple which we saw the
night before from near our hotel

Near the church was the Groeningemuseum which displays a chronological view of Flemish painting—Van Eyks, Bosch, Bruegel, Memling and many others. I liked the museum very much (as well as the art!). The path through the interior was a circle (former church) so it was easy to follow. There were some interactive boards and comfy seats in several rooms (both of which I appreciate).

The very pretty door of the museum

Virgin and Child with Canon Joris van der Paele by Jan van Eyck 

Detail of the Virgin's robe

Detail of St Donation's robe

Detail of St George's costume

Central portion of Hieronymus Bosch's 
triptych The Last Judgment

The rather chaotic Last Supper by Pieter Pourbus

The very comfortable benches

Interactive display of Van Eyk's painting

After that we walked and walked all over the town. Many buildings and streets had lights, and the day was gloomy enough with many periods of rain (it was miserable and I was pretty soaked) that the lights were visible.

Carriage near Grand-Place (main square)

Decorations above street leading off Grand-Place

Nice buildings at Grand-Place

Along the way we shared a lunch at a cute little café—soup with shredded cheese and tiny croutons to add, good crusty bread with butter and cheese, tomato and ham panini with orange drink.

Yummy and welcome lunch

Once we popped into a bookstore. It was fun to see familiar books with Flemish text on the covers. And, of course, we went to a chocolate shop-- Neuhaus, one of the big ones. It was fun deciding what to buy—and sampling.

All the Light You Cannot See in Flemish

Row of chocolates

In part to get out of the rain, we popped into the Basilica of the Holy Blood, every inch of which was decorated. It was oddly set in a corner of a set of buildings in an L shape; from outside it didn't look like a church.

istorium Bruges next door to the church

Entrance to Church of the Holy Blood

Really nice window in the church

Holy Blood altar

Beautiful ceiling

Highly decorated arches...

...and pillars

Stained glass windows

Lady putting wreath on the candlesticks

Lamb fresco above the window

We went through a nice little Christmas market and later the main one which was a little disappointing. There weren’t very many stalls selling other than food. We did have a gluhwein though, especially nice on this miserable weather day.

Grote markt in Grand Place

Another view of the market and square

Glenna holding her cup of gluhwein

There was a man in that oriel window

The highlight of the afternoon was the Old Chocolate Shop for which I waited a half hour outside in the rain while Glenna explored the streets nearby. Glenna was fearful of losing the little bit of blue sky we had (for photos of course), but that soon dissipated when we got to go in. It was quite an experience. You get a huge cup of hot milk into which you stir the bits of whatever chocolate you ordered along with whipped cream and more speculoos crumbles. That was indeed fun.

Our hot chocolate feast

Pouring the chocolate bits into the hot milk

Putting in the whipped cream

The two of us enjoying our hot chocolate in the cute chocolate shop

The rest of the afternoon we spent going around to the various special seasonal light displays which were all over the city center. Collectively this was called Winter Gloed. Blue shades over the street lamps guided us from one to another. Along the way Glenna had another waffle, this time Liege style with strawberries which at the end of the trip she declared to be her favorite street food.

The nice overhead decorations repeated down the street

Lots of lights on the building

Lights in the tree along the canal

Glenna's Liege waffle with strawberries and cream

Light installation with bands of changing-color lights

Walking through the bands

Lights on a nice building

These blue lights led us around to the installations

The changing colors..

...on this...

...municipal building

And on this...

...tall tower

But this was absolutely the best installation.
We watched it over and over.

A bird emerging from the water...

...turned into two swans swooning...

...and then one flapping his wings.

Lots of trees turned colors

Eventually we had to stop walking and have dinner because Glenna had an 8:00 sauna time at our hotel. I had cheese croquettes and salad and wine—perfect. That day I had 14,753 steps. I was amazed at how well I did with the breathing and the back aches (consciously kept my shoulders back which seemed to help).

My croquettes and salad and
Glenna's soup and potato chunks (I think)

Friday. We were up at 5:15 to get our train to The Hague (Den Haag). After getting a hot chocolate and a croissant, we got onboard and soon left. When the ticket taker came around, he asked us if we were on the right train. We were not! The train had come a few minutes early. Unfortunately we were supposed to be on the next train. In Europe, in general, the trains are so punctional that you have to pay attention to minutes. We went up two stations in order to transfer to a later train to Antwerp. Then we had to figure out how to get to Den Haag. We transferred at Breda with a two-minute switch but made it okay. 

At Den Haag we put our luggage in lockers and set off for town. It was already lunch time, so we stopped at a Surinamese place where there was too much food and it was really just okay though the bata was pretty good.

Our next stop was the wonderful Mauritshuis Museum—all Dutch paintings in an old mansion. There were lots of names I knew from having once read an art history textbook from cover to cover (and taken an art history course at Johns Hopkins and visited loads of art museums in subsequent years) and a few I didn't know. The house was almost as impressive as the art.

Front of Maruithuis Museum

Lovely setting of rear of museum

One of the luxurious rooms of the house

A modern painting on the ceiling
in one of the rooms

Upper floor hallway

We first went through an exhibition called Loot featuring various objects stolen by Nazis and others and the curators' attempts at identifying them. Stolen loot is very much in the news these days as the voices in home countries of precious stolen works of art are getting louder and louder in insisting that the works should be returned by very famous museums all over the world. Part of the exhibition was 3-D recreations of events surrounding stolen items; for that we put on headsets and could see 360 degrees around us. Quite creative. I am always interested in how art museums display items because of Glenna.

3-D headsets that showed us events
pertaining to a stolen piece of art

One of the stolen items was one of the
horses atop Berlin's Brandenburg Gate

We went through the entire museum just full of wonderful art. Here I highlight just a few.

Old Woman and Boy with Candles by Peter Paul Reubens

Garden of Eden by Jan Brueghel and Peter Paul Rubens

The iconic Portrait of Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn

The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius

In the foyer they had a special exhibition of an examination of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, the incredibly famous painting which was on exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta a few years ago. The dot in her right eye was painted with lead white, a dangerous pigment no longer used. The pearl earring is an illusion—it has no contour line around it and no hook to hang it from her ear. The headscarf contains ultramarine, a pigment made from the very expensive lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. The red paint on her lips contains cochineal, a red dye made from insects that live on cactus plants in the western hemisphere. A digital study was made of what the painting would have looked like when Vermeer painted it as opposed to now. The background is now darker; in fact it was originally green. The yellow and blue pigments have faded in the light so that the color and folds in the fabric are now not visible.

The actual painting of Girl with a Pearl Earring as it hangs in the museum

Exhibition showing the dot in the eye,
the pearl earring, the blue headscarf,and the red lips

The background and garment as 
they appear now

Lighter original background and
the visible folds in the garment

We then walked through the Christmas market—much better than the one in Bruges. It was very festive. We got gluhwein again but didn’t buy much. After walking to and around an area of old houses, I was tiring and my back was hurting. I sat on a bench while Glenna sought the sunset. Then we returned to the station to retrieve our luggage and get our tickets for Centraal Station in Amsterdam. 

The entrance to the Christmas market in Den Haag

Mingling at the Christmas market 

Glenna getting a picture of her gluhwein 
with the fire in the backgound (and my finger)

Lights in the market as it got darker

Lights along Lange Voorhout

A lovely example of Dutch architecture

We got our bus/tram/metro/boat 3-day pass and took the tram to our stop Museumplein. It’s a very easy system to navigate. It was sprinkling as we made our way to our nearby hotel in the museum district and our pretty tiny room. 

Interior of a tram car in Amsterdam

The crazy steep and narrow stairs
at the Max Brown Hotel

By then it was pouring, so we waited awhile to go out for dinner which was really good—split tomato soup with bread and olives, fried calamari with sauce, and a plate of lamb, roast potatoes and ham. Good wine too. While I went back to the hotel, Glenna walked down to the canal. Today it was 13,352 steps.

Dinner at Pompa

Saturday. After a scone and hot chocolate, we took the tram to Paleisplein and walked the rest of the way to Rembrandthuis where Rembrandt lived for 19 years until he was forced to sell to pay his debts. He was very prosperous when he bought it but probably didn’t manage money well and spent lots on his many collections.

Some of his possessions were in the house, and the walls were hung with some of his paintings but also those of students and mentors and others. It was so nice to be in the place where he worked—much nicer really than seeing his works just in a museum.

Rembrandt's large house

Kitchen of Rembrandthuis

Rembrandt's bedroom

Rembrandt's bed--claustrophobic but warm, I suppose

The main room of the house

Some of his many collections

In his personal life he lost two wives and a son. When he died he left a 14-year old daughter. And a lot of his works. He painted all but the very large Nightwatch in the front room on his upper floor studio which had four large north-facing windows. 

View of his studio on the upper floor

He could have three students at once

In his studio was an exhibit of paints and how they are made. The original materials, the ground form, and the media such as oil used to make the liquid paint were all there.

Rembrandt's pigments--original form, ground and liquefied

There was also a demonstration of how to make a print—etching a copper plate with various instruments for more or less depth, rubbing it with ink, smoothing more or less of it off, putting it on a press with the paper on top of it and rolling the press over it so that the ink is transferred to the paper. Most people who make prints intend that the same one will be produced over and over. Rembrandt thought that was boring so he liked to make each one different by varying the amount of ink he smoothed off.

The copper plate

Placing the paper over the plate

The result after pressing the roller over
the inked copper plate and paper

Examples of how Rembrandt varied the print depending on
changes to the deepness of the etching and/or the ink

A real highlight of our trip was the fact that Glenna’s good friend Jan from the UK whom she met during her year in Lyon came for parts of two days. They attended each other’s weddings (as did I) and have remained close over the years. It was so good to see her. Her plane was late, so Glenna and I went on to lunch at a Dutch restaurant serving traditional food. We had bitter ballen (fried gravy-like balls), shrimp croquettes and Erwtensoep (thick pea soup), all of which were okay but which I didn’t figure I needed to eat again.

 

Traditional lunch at De Blauwe Hollander

Our next stop, and where we met Jan, was the Willet-Holthuysen House, the home of a wealthy couple, the wife of which willed the house to the nation as a museum when she died. The first curator sold off many of the couple’s furnishings, and later curators made a lot of changes to the rooms that really changed their character. I did not approve. But enough was left or had been restored so that we could see how they lived.

The hallway of the Willet-Holthuysen house

The dining room

The carpeted stairs

The sunroom

The window in the sunroom

After a pub stop for a beer and some catch-up talk, we walked on to the Hortus Botanicus which was opened in 1638! There were loads of tropical plants but not much color at this time of year.

Jan and Glenna at the pub

One of the tropical plants at Hortus Botanicus

Interesting tropical plant

One of those with some color

Now this one really is interesting

This one is just pretty

Beautiful green leaves and stems

A light installation on the grounds

Glenna and Jan on a bridge over the canal

Glenna and me with the canal lights behind

Night street view

We were very early for our dinner reservation, but we decided to see if they would let us in—and they did. This was the famous traditional rijsttafel, the Indonesian rice table, which I had first had way back in 1970. We had the small one—two kinds of rice to accompany 12 dishes which were helpfully arranged from mild to hot. We couldn't eat it all, but it was good and very interesting. We had a fun time reminiscing and hearing about her life now with her husband, 2 1/2-year-old boy and 6-month-old girl.

Our rijstaffel at Tujuh Maret

I went back to the hotel and they went out until very late to some brown bars, so called apparently because the walls are stained brown from tobacco residue. They are very picturesque.

One of the brown bars they visited

Jan and Glenna in front of a Christmas tree

Chocolate waffle breakfast

Sunday, Christmas Eve. This morning after a bakery stop the three of us went to the Anne Frank House, a very different place from the times I went many years ago. Then you walked directly into the house; now there is a whole museum built around it. It was actually quite good. There were lots of pictures from the time and lots of story boards about the war and their time in the attic and lots of quotes from her diary.

The Anne Frank house in the middle--
not their home but where they were hidden

The famous bookcase hooked onto the door to the attic

The family and a few others lived in the attic for two years before being discovered and put on the last train leaving the Netherlands for the camps. Anne and her sister Margot were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau and died there of typhoid so near the end of the war.

Photographs of Anne

Photograph of her father Otto Frank

Excerpt from Anne's diary

A quote from Otto Frank about moving on

The only one in the attic who survived was her father who published her diary after being given it by Miep Gies, the woman who with her husband hid the attic residents. Glenna was reading the diary on the trip, and we both had recently seen the wonderful miniseries A Small Light which featured Miep. 

I was more than once near tears as I was at Auschwitz-Birkenau just the year before. Man’s inhumanity to man. It happens on a small scale every day, but this time it was on a grand scale. 

To add to the connections for me, there was a picture of Anne’s school class from before they were forced into hiding. One of the girls in the picture was a dead ringer for me at that age.

Anne's class. The one who looks so much like me grade 3
is the one in the back with her hands on her cheeks.

After leaving the house Glenna found a little café nearby where we had Dutch pancakes and a toastie. Once again okay but I wouldn’t order it again. We then had to say goodbye to Jan who had to get back to her family and Christmas.

A look along one of the canals

A street of canal houses

Close enough that you can see the hooks at the tops of the houses
that were used to hoist heavy furniture up to the upper floors
because the stairs were too narrow for large pieces

A particularly nice canal house

Glenna and I went on to other fun little places that she always finds for us. First was a tile shop. She bought two to add to her collection of tiles from around the world. Then we went to a famous cookie shop which literally only makes one cookie—a filled chocolate one—and has lines running all the way down the street. Ours had just come out of the oven.

Now hear is a crazy store front

The Story Tiles where Glenna had fun
choosing two files

The wonderful Van Stapelo Kockmakerij cookie shop

And the delicious cookie

Then it was time for our appointment at the Van Gogh Museum though we had a little time to go to the Christmas market near the museum in the pouring rain. It wasn’t clear where we were to meet our guide. As Glenna went off to look for her, I stood in the large lobby to avoid the rain. I was asked two times what I was doing there, once by someone looking very official. Despite that introduction I really liked the museum, in part, I‘m sure, because our guide was so good.

Glenna knows lots about Van Gogh because her museum had an exhibition of his works in 2020. She writes all the tour scripts and other materials for all the exhibitions which involves a ton of research. So she didn’t always stick with the tour but explored nearby on her own. I stuck with the tour.

The 3-D Sunflowers for the sight impaired

One of his Sunflowers paintings

The museum has mostly paintings that he made for himself—many self-portraits (because he couldn’t afford models) but also studies and experiments since he was self-taught. We saw one from early on where the shadows were wrong. You could see the progress.

Self Portrait with Straw Hat

Self Portrait

Poplar Avenue in Autumn, the one where some of the
shadows are going in the wrong direction

One of his most famous ones is The Potato Eaters where the faces are just not good; later he got better at faces. His first ones were quite dark until his brother Theo, who was his agent, told him that dark doesn’t sell. (And, in fact, only one painting ever sold during his lifetime. Theo supported him throughout his time as a painter.)

The Potato Eaters--now these are really ugly unrealistic faces

Photograph of Theo van Gogh,
Vincent's lifelong benefactor

He gradually adopted his ‘striped’ style with its thick paint patches and sometimes painted in the Japanese style.

Self Portrait with Gray Felt Hat 
in the stripy style

Garden in Montmartre with Lovers

Another version of Sunflowers

Undergrowth

Closeup of Undergrowth which shows you
can't look at these close up and know what is being depicted

Daubigny's Garden--just one I think is pretty

His life was a very sad one. He was beset by demons which manifested itself sometimes more, sometimes less over his lifetime. He cut off part of his ear after a dispute with his friend Paul Gauguin. The next year he committed himself to an asylum in Arles where he actually was very prolific, painting among other great works The Starry Night (which to the chagrin of the Dutch is not in The Netherlands but instead at MMA in NYC). When he got out, he quickly went down hill and one day shot himself.

Garden of the Asylum painted while he was there

Wheatfield with Mower

The Sheep Shearer, The Peasant Woman Bruising Flax and 
The Reaper--van Gogh always returned to his rural roots

We were there a long time but eventually had to get to our river cruise. Glenna had to go back to the hotel to get her camera, so I waited for her at the tram stop. Unfortunately it was the wrong one which I finally figured out. We actually wouldn’t have had enough time to get there even without that mishap, but it didn’t matter. We got another boat, and it was fine. 

It was quite windy and cold. I wasn’t blown away by the light installations along the way, but there were a few that were interesting. The theme, Artificial Intelligence, was a good one and the interpretations of it were sometimes clever, but the actual light displays were prettier in Bruges.

On the canal cruise

Lighted bridges and a ghostly figure

Model of a building on a pole which we had
seen earlier but which was now lighted up

Lights with a meaning that I don't now remember

Young people looking at their phones instead of talking to the people around them

Nice but I have forgotten its meaning also

Crafted with the assistance of AI

Street decorations along our route

Then we had to hurry to make our dinner reservation at a seafood restaurant where the food was delicious—tuna ceviche, cod with foam, daikon and something green and absolutely the best fries I have ever had.

Our dinner at Sjefietfhe

Monday, Christmas Day. It was great having our hotel so close to the outstanding museums of Amsterdam. Today was the day for the huge and wonderful Rijksmuseum. The beginning is the highlight—The Gallery of Honor filled with their most famous pieces. You’re just blown away by seeing in person all the incredible art that you’ve seen in pictures within steps of one another.

The very nice Rijksmuseum entrance hall

The best part, in my estimation and I think in that of most people, is 1600-1650—the age of Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Gerard ter Borch, Jacob van Ruisdael, Judith Leyster, Jan Steen, and Franz Hals. 

The Merry Family by Jan Steen--typical of his often raucous scenes of ordinary life

The Serenade by Judith Leyster,
a rediscovered female painter of this age

Woman Reading a Letter by Johannes Vermeer. one of my favorite painters

The Windmill at Wijk Bij Duurstede by Jacob van Ruisdael,
the preeminent landscape painter of the age

The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt van Rijn

Detail of The Jewish Bride

The most famous painting is probably Rembrandt’s The Nightwatch which has been under evaluation since 2019. Over the centuries it is inevitable that the paintings get discolored, dirty, perhaps damaged. So now it is the turn of the giant The Night Watch. At least we could still see it even though there are glass plates in front of it, so the photographs are rather odd. I did see it back in 1970 in its place of honor, and I remember being impressed though I didn’t know too much about art then.

Rembrandt's The Night Watch behind glass

The cage that the painting was in

Detail of The Night Watch

A label in one of the rooms said that during the Golden Age of Dutch Painting (1588-1672) the well-to-do and the less affluent could afford to buy paintings for their homes, even for the kitchen. It also mentioned that most painters really specialized, e.g. winter scenes landscapes. That is at least part of the reason that some painters are very recognizable.

Hendrik Averkamp was known for winter scenes such as this one: Enjoying the Ice Near a Town 

Franz Hals was known for his portraits such as this one:
Portrait of a Man

We did the entire museum over the course of almost 7 hours even though we went rather quickly through some parts. We downloaded their app which gave us access to the very good audioguide.

Child's cot and wainscoting chimney piece

A Young Woman Warming her Hands over a Brazier
by Caesar van Everdingen

Dolls' House of Petronella Oortman--I've always been fascinated with dolls' houses. Long ago I made one for my niece.

July (Summer Luxuriance) by Jacobus van Looy--just one I liked,
no doubt because of the blue

Cat at Play by Jenrietta Ronner-Knip--
and I'm partial to cats

Another highlight is The Battle of Waterloo by Jan Willem Pieneman

Piano Practice Interrupted by Willem van der Kool--cute slice of life

Portrait of Marie Janette de Lange by Jan Toorop 

They don’t let you leave and come back, so we had lunch there which was pretty good—pork, potato, cabbage and hot chocolate.

After that immersive experience, we went again to the nearby Christmas market and got one of their Christmas specialties, poffertjes which are delicious mini-pancakes made in front of you on which you put butter and powdered sugar. I wanted another plateful but resisted.

Glenna holding our poffertjes (little pancakes)

Lots of people at the market on Christmas Day!

After a short time back in our room, we set off on a walk to get a better look at the canals and houses of traditional Amsterdam. I figured Glenna had to go to Dam Square though it didn’t seem as important as it had in previous visits.

View of Dam Square. the center of the city

Nieuw Wendyk leading off the square

Kalverstraat, another street off the square

Glenna found a pretty little courtyard not far away with two churches (one of which we went in though the parishioners were not happy with tourists being there—can’t really blame them) and the only wooden house remaining in central Amsterdam. We walked along several canals; it was getting pretty dark by then but we got to see the lights which was nice.

Some of the houses in Begijnhof medieval square

English Reformed Church on the square--
the Protestant churches are much simpler than the Catholic ones,
both outside and inside

Interior of Begijnhofkapel

The only wooden house left in Amsterdam central

Singel Canal houses after dark

A decorated bike on a bridge--Glenna loves
 bikes and biking and always takes lots of 
pictures of bikes--so I often do too

And here are more bikes on Singel Canal

We stopped at a supermarket which is always fun. Glenna couldn’t resist getting cheese and bread though I knew I wouldn’t want it after dinner. Christmas dinner wasn’t too far away—the famous Moeder’s (which means mother). The place was plastered with pictures of mothers. Their signature dish is stamppot which I had; Glenna had lobster soup and bread and some of mine—mashed potatoes with carrots and onions mixed in and gravy in a hole in the middle served with sausages. It was better than most of the other traditional Dutch dishes we tried.

Glenna writing postcards at Moeder's with the mother pictures behind her

Here I am in red waiting for my stamppot 

And here is the stamppot and the lobster soup

On the way back to the hotel, we had to get another specialty only served from Christmas to New Year’s—oliebollen, a cross between donuts and beignets, I thought. We had cinnamon; they were good. The night before we watched Forrest Gump on TV, and this night we watched Shawshank Redemption.

Delicious oliebollen, only served between
Christmas and New Year's

Tuesday. Up early to walk to the Budget outlet to pick up our rental—a Toyota CHR, essentially a Prius. Instead of visiting another city Glenna suggested that we spend a day in the country, and I said it was fine if we took buses or she drove. She said she would drive. Google Maps got us everywhere we wanted to go, including back into the city later in the day when there was more traffic.

We drove north into North Holland. Our first stop was in Monnickendam which was a pretty sleepy sailing town—probably commercial boats though nothing was happening the day after Christmas. Stores weren’t open either though a Catholic Church was. A service was in progress with six parishioners so we didn’t stay long.

 Monnickendam harbor full of boats

Bridge in Monnickendam harbor

Nativity scene in Monnickendam

And a little nativity in a window

Monnickendam church steeple

Interior of Nicolaes en Anthonius kerk

The next stop was Volendam, my favorite of the towns that day. After driving around a bit to find a good parking space, we stopped in to another Catholic Church, Sint Vincentius kerk. It was very festive. Families were taking pictures of their kids by the manger scene. And the choir, dressed wonderfully in their traditional costumes, was rehearsing for the upcoming service. It felt more like Christmas there than anywhere we had been.

Interior of Sint Vincentius kerk

Christmas decorations in the church

The nativity where kids' photographs were being taken

Some of the choir members in their traditional costumes

Another view of the choir

The pulpit of Sint Vincentius

The very orderly graveyard

We wandered through some charming neighborhoods where I could see myself living. The houses were all very close together, and it felt like a community. There were lots of decorations on the wide window sills.

I just liked the feel of this courtyard; 
I could see myself living there

Little red houses in a window

Another window with lots of decoration--
the picture distorted by my reflection

We saw these huge bags of construction materials all over

A very pretty mailbox on the side of a house

Finally we got to the touristy part along the lake Markermeer which I also very much liked. We stopped in several shops and bought numerous things for ourselves and others. The cheese shop was great fun; we had lots of samples and had fun choosing what to buy.

Cheeses on the Cheese Factory shelf

 

Volendam harbor view--with more bikes

Volendam harbor street

Volendam canal houses

Duck in the canal

Three-dimensional mural

It was lunch time, and we wanted a kibbelung, a Dutch snack of battered chunks of fish served with a sauce. So good. I could have had more.

Our scrumptious kibbeling and fries lunch

Then it was off to Edam, a little farther up the coast. Not much was open there either though we walked through several streets. But the cheese shop was, so we spent a good bit of time in this one also, choosing what we wanted to buy and sampling.

Another bike in front of a house in Edam

Edam canal houses

Canal house

Another Edam canal

Edam cheese market

Large Edam house

I liked this colorful pavement

Weird trained trees

So typical--Glenna taking a photograph
but this time also with a cat in the picture

Our last area was Zaanse Schans after a bit of a detour because I got us onto the wrong road and we went north instead of south for awhile. The area has some of the few remaining working windmills though we saw modern ones elsewhere. We didn’t get to go in one, but they were very picturesque as we viewed them from the town (again nothing open in the town) and from the Museum of Windmills.

Glenna in Oud Zaandjik

Windmills of Oud Zaandjik

Pretty house in Oud Zaandjik

Cute lending library

Windmills at Zaans Museum

Birds at Zaans Museum

Windmills in the dark

Our goal was to get some good hot chocolate which we found on the grounds of the museum. There were loads of people there. We browsed around the outdoor stalls and then went into the café for delicious hot chocolate and another Dutch specialty, apple pie. It was so good with plenty of cinnamon topping. We stayed quite awhile; it was so pleasant.

Our truly delicious slice of apple pie

Then back to the city in the already dark. We stopped to top up our petrol on the way and were soon back to the Budget place. They had closed at noon and had told us that we should park on the street somewhere and pay for the parking (until midnight!) and they would find the car. But at least we got a night rate.

We went back to the hotel for a bit before going out to dinner for an amazingly good meal. It was Chinese—dim sum of good dumplings, a chicken and shrimp soup, half a Peking duck with pancakes and tea. Yum. We did our usual last night ritual of bests and worsts as we ate. The internet at the restaurant was spotty as we paid. They weren’t sure if the credit card transaction had gone through, so they asked if it was okay if they tried again. We agreed and left. We were pretty far along when one of the wait staff came running up to us; both transactions had gone through and they wanted to give us our money back. We had turned in going back toward the hotel, so they must have sent out more than one person to find us. That was going above and beyond, indicative of the kind of service we experienced on this trip.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed by the
Alexander McQueen shop on Pieter Cornelisz Hoofstraat, 
a really swanky street just one block from our hotel.
Glenna's museum had just had a wonderful exhibit on him.

Our fabulous dinner at Taste of Culture

Glenna directed me back to the hotel, and she went off for last night exploring. It took us a long time to pack, but we had more oliebollen and tea as we worked. This day was 16,530 steps!

Canal view Glenna saw on her walk

And a pub she visited

Wednesday. Going home day. We didn’t have to hurry as we so often have to because our flight wasn't until 1pm. It was raining a little as we got the tram to Centraal Station and then a train to Schiphol. Security and passport control were quick. I got some things at one of the shops. We were soon on board. I actually got some decent sleep--though not the direction on which you need to sleep! 

At Philadelphia I used my global entry. Glenna had filled out the Passport Control online form and actually got through faster than I did. We checked our bags to Charlotte for free again. At CLT we got some dinner, caught the shuttle to the Express Parking deck and were soon on our way to Columbia. I was worried about Glenna driving because in Amsterdam time it was 4am, but she did fine. At her apartment we had our Christmas. I think her favorite gift was the subscription I gave her to the New York Times with all its wonderful games along with everything else. 

In the morning Glenna went to work and I returned to Greenville. Despite my physical challenges it was a great trip. We saw fabulous art, experienced some of the countryside, saw beautiful Christmas decorations and experienced their customs, and had some good food and shopping. Now on to Uzbekistan finally, maybe.

My meager purchases compared to other trips

Me with my favorite travel companion