Month: June 2022

It has taken a while to get to this. Jet lag has been a killer this time, plus not feeling 100% well on our return has really hammered me. Or maybe I am just getting old.

We had an “interesting” final week, some of which shall remain untold. But the highlight, maybe of the whole trip, was a day to what were a couple tourist traps, one of which was a fabulous look at working windmills.

First to an old fishing village that apparently was kind of locked in time until about 30 years ago. They had very strict rules about what people could wear and who they could associate with. Unfortunately the place is also remembered for a fatal fire in 2000

You get a hint of the fishing wharf in the picture above, but it does get a lot better.

I think those are the real thing, the one below is cool, but a reproduction

A different boat

Then it was off to one of those historical village type places. It is pretty extensive with a not so good “cheese experience” where there were loads of different cheeses to taste, but they didn’t actually make any cheese there. In fact, that might be my only disappointment, I didn’t get to see a working cheese factory. There were also lolly makers, bakers and all the traditional stuff being made by people wearing traditional clothing. It was also cold and wet 😛

But the windmills were fantastic. Being a tight arse I was reluctant to pay to go into any of them but eventually, since it was actually working, we went into a saw mill, which I think is the left hand one in the picture above.

These aren’t original mills. They are faithful reproductions from the originals. But they were built pretty much exactly as the originals were and I have to say it was incredible. We spent about an hour in the saw mill. Although it is a working business, it is mostly run by volunteers who speak good English and are as enthusiastic as you would expect. I applied for a volunteer job ;o)

The saw miller – he owns the business – actually wore clogs. I am not sure they are comfortable, but they likely would be classed as safety footwear.

This is a winch that is driven by the windmill and when it is engaged it hauls a log up from the canal. It was all very impressive

I just can’t get around my brain fog to edit a bunch of videos into something coherent, so here are some to give an idea of the day.

Next time Aussies whinge about the price of petrol, this is what it was like in The Netherlands

“Oh, it is only $2.36” I hear you say. Let me remind you that 1 Euro (I wish I had a Euro symbol on my keyboard) = $1.50 Australian. So fuel is about $AUD3.50 per litre. People don’t seem to care much.

And then we headed home, but that wasn’t without its trials. Firstly, the Australian Government makes you fill out of Digital Passenger Declaration that you are Covid vaccinated and where have you been and so on. But it has to be about the most painful online experience I have ever gone through. It is as though the app was created by a work experience teen with a grudge.

Then to the airport, always so much fun, especially on a weekend, especially when there is a public transport strike.

In case you are curious, this is more or less the layout to get into security (on the left)

And if you wondered whether some people were making a lot of money out of Covid, this was a big ad in Singapore airport

But at least this time the butterflies were awake, though it was a little dark to get good shots

Thanks to all our Dutch friends and family for making the trip fantastic.

After two and a half weeks in the Netherlands we have reached the point where I am saying “we leave next weekend, there’s still so much to do!”.

I was keen to head back to Amsterdam, but we couldn’t see how it could fit into other things. Then, out of the blue, Angela and Martin to the unintended rescue (again) when they called on Saturday morning and said “We are heading to Amsterdam tonight for beer tasting, want a ride?”.

Their event was a private thing, but that was perfect as it meant we had a few hours to just wander, which we certainly did.

Amsterdam really is a beautiful city. Nothing needs to be added to create a great vibe.

This wall, outside a museum, had panels from 17th century buildings embedded. See if you can figure out the occupation of the residents.

If you guessed that the CCTV camera represented a spy, you may be right.

Jump back to the map and at the bottom you will see an area called Spui, which is a sort of square surrounded by restaurants and bars. With the backdrop of the old buildings and it being a beautiful evening, it was just delightful sitting having a beer and people watching.

No matter where you walk, there is another gorgeous view.

They weren’t dummies in the 17th century. If you had a 3 story building with a hoist at the top and front it made sense to not have your goods banging into the wall. So as well as the beam hanging out, buildings also leaned forward. It all looks a bit wonky, but adds to the charm.

The buildings, and therefore the bars, are narrow and cool…

with a huge range of beers.

Let’s move on from Amsterdam.

I know I rattle on about bikes, but this is the sort of bike parking that is provided.

Time to catch up with Jeroen and Margot – I won’t explain the pronounciation, suffice to say it isn’t how you read it in English. They are some more old friends of the Tall One, so we ride (of course) to den Haag (The Hague) and start with the Kuntsmuseum (with a K!) that houses some wonderful surprises.

For a start, there is a large collection of Mondrian works and other artists exploring the new De Stijl movement.

But what really grabbed me was a huge collection of Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests I suggest exploring the link, but to see them in real life was a treat indeed.

They even had some that you can play with.

The only thing that would be better would be to see Theo trialling one in the wild at the local beach. Jeroen has…lucky bugger.

Oh, and there were also works by van Gogh, Picasso, Rodin, Monet..you know, all the European favourites.

But it gets better. We head back to Margot and Jeroen’s house and it is in a 100 year old block designed by Jan Wils during the De Stijl era. This is a notable historic building and has several books written about it. Apparently Mondrian designed the fireplace and some internal doors, and it looks like it.

Of course we then settled down to a typical afternoon “snack”.

There was also plenty of discussion about music, and of course, art.

Later we ride back to Wassener, which should be fun, it is raining.

Celebrating a brthday in a different time zone is a little weird.

It started at 4PM Netherlands time which is midnight in Eastern Australia. We were hanging out, ready for an evening at home when the Tall One announced that we had been invited to Martin and Angela’s place for an hour. It registered as a little odd, but I left it at that.

A 10 minute bike ride and as we walk in I notice smiles on faces and pathetic attempts to conceal them. I figured something was up but, unlike me, I decided not to spoil anything.

Soon I was ordered to close my eyes and voila, a cheese cake (literally) with candles. Surprise! 🎉🌟🤡🎉😀

I haven’t asked if this was a gag or just to hold it together.

Cheese and beer transformed into cheese and tasting several 26 year old whiskeys, yummm. Tha Tall One had a sip, spluttered and very generously left the rest for me.

When we left at 10:30PM Wassener was still struggling to get dark, fortunately, because it was a bit of a wobbly ride home.

Thanks for all the beautiful birthday wishes. If you really loved me you would have remembered that 8AM in Eastern Australia is midnight in the Netherlands. A bit of a disturbed sleep as birthday pings happened through the night.

Aside: Tall One’s father needed something looked at in the hospital this morning. There on the shelf is the hospital magazine with CliniClowns on the cover. Nice!

If asked what is my favourite thing about the Netherlands, so far it is definitely (still?) the bicycle culture. We go riding every day, ranging from the shops 2 minutes away, to relatives and friends 10 minutes away and a 30km round trip to The Hague yesterday. Today we are heading to the beach.

Den Haag is another city where the centre is full of beautiful old buildings. Here’s the parliament house from the outside

and here it is from a courtyard, which is as far in as we could get.

There are plenty of museums if you are so inclined. From a website of The Hague attractions…

• Kunstmuseum Den Haag is a museum for modern art and crafts. The museum is best known for its collection of works by painters of the Hague School, Mondrian, Picasso, Van Doesburg, Monet and Toorop. The current building, designed by the Dutch architect Berlage, was opened in 1935. – we are going here on the weekend.
• The Mauritshuis has been a museum since 1822, with mainly paintings from the Golden Age. The permanent collection includes Girl with a Pearl Earring and View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer, ‘Soo fed sung, soo na pept’ by Jan Steen, The bull by Paulus Potter and The anatomy lesson by Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn – closed for new exhibition.
• The Louwman Museum is a museum for automobiles. The museum aims to provide a picture of what the automotive industry has produced since 1887.
• Panorama Mesdag is a cylindrical panorama painting about 14 meters high and with a circumference of 120 meters. The painting, which is one of the oldest surviving panoramas in the world, is a view of the North Sea, the dunes, The Hague and Scheveningen.
• Museum Voorlinden is a private museum for modern and contemporary art on the Estate Voorlinden in Wassenaar. It houses the art collection of Joop van Caldenborgh, the largest private art collection in the Netherlands – on the edge of Wassener and a good place for a couple of new props.
• Escher in the Palace is an art museum on Lange Voorhout. It is housed in the Palace Lange Voorhout, dating from 1764, and since 2002 has housed a permanent exhibition devoted entirely to the work of the Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher.
• The Hague Historical Museum is a museum on the Korte Vijverberg about the history of The Hague.
• Phototomuseum The Hague is a museum in the field of photography. The museum was founded in 2002 as part of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. It organizes approximately six exhibitions per year on the most diverse periods, disciplines and genres of photo history, often focusing on people.
• Prison Gate Museum is a medieval prison. A museum has been located in the building since 1882.
• The Museon is a popular science museum with collections on diverse subjects such as geology, biology, history and much more.
• The Mesdag Collection is the former home of Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), painter of seascapes, among other things. Besides being a painter, Mesdag was a great art collector. He had a museum built for his exceptional collection. He built this museum right next to his home and opened it to art lovers in 1887.
• And more…

This is the obligatory “we visited the cafe where you used to work” photo for someone Tall One knows. I could get into a rant about lousy customer service where a “coffee and apple cake” special can’t be modified to a “hot chocolate and apple cake” order because “the till isn’t set up for that”, but I won’t.

The ride to den Haag took us through a lush green forest and past the residence of the Netherlands king. I made a polite request that we come in and have some tea with the king. The guard struggled for an answer, I am not sure if it was a language issue, but eventually the only response was a disappointing “no”.

When I started to take this photo, the guard became camera shy, I almost got him after shouting “hey!” and he stuck his head out, but I wasn’t quick enough. Though I did avoid getting shot or arrested.

It would be an oversight if I didn’t give an update on the Bremen greenhouse. A puzzle indeed, with almost every stage being done at least once incorrectly before being figured out.

Just before we left to return to Wassener it was like this. I take full credit for the 4 opening windows, including the challenge of installing an automatic opener on one.

A few hours later and we received a message that the job was done. One might be tempted to suggest that things moved quicker after we left, but that would be unkind.

Back to bicycles, you can imagine if there are more bikes than people they need to be managed in public areas, and they are. There are plenty of shopping streets that are pedestrian only or no bike parking. But leave a bike that looks derelict and it is removed to the bike pound where it costs €22 ($30AUD) to get it back. These ones have been tagged for removal in 7 days.

In Amsterdam, thousands of bikes are stolen every year. This seems odd as most people seem to already have a bike. Maybe they belonged to someone else originally. If your bike is impounded you can look for it here https://www.verlorenofgevonden.nl/overzicht?search=fietsendepot+amsterdama

Pinch and a punch for the first of the month.