Apologies in advance…the last couple of weeks were kinda epic!
After getting dropped at the train station in Sarlat, Jessica and I had a long trip up to Amsterdam. Not only did we have three trains, but we had to take the Metro across Paris to change from one station to another. Regardless, we arrived to three interesting things in Amsterdam’s Centraal Station.
First of all, as we got off the train, there were several people with hand held signs in the colors of the Ukranian flag with a message in some Slavic language (I’m assuming you think it’s the same one I do). I’m not 100% sure, but I’m guessing they were a welcoming committee for refugees–a nice thing to see. (I saw someone with the same sign yesterday in Geneva as well, so glad to see this is widespread. Of course, it would be great if migrants from other places were greeted as kindly…)
Secondly, upon arriving in the Netherlands, I was actually glad Jess and I had recently had COVID; no one there wears masks. In France, they were at least required on public transport, but not in the Netherlands. Just one big COVID bomb waiting to happen. I was happy to be feeling confident in my temporary immunity.
The third thing we saw as we walked to the bus terminal was a whole bunch of drunk people. You see, we arrived around 9pm on one of the biggest national holidays, King’s Day, which hadn’t been celebrated for the last two years. It’s actually held on the King’s birthday, so about 10 years ago, when his mom was the monarch, Queen’s Day was on a totally different date. Fascinating. Anyhow, there were a couple of major effects of King’s Day that we experienced over the next few days: lots of orange bits of paper, feathers, etc. strewn about the city, and…well…a scary and surreal moment:
The photo above shows Sam, our tour guide, attempting to continue his group walk after one of the strangest events any of us had experienced on a walking tour. About halfway through the tour, when we were in the courtyard of the building shown, one of the other tourists (an American, of course) closed his eyes, passed out, and fell hitting his head on the wall and the bricks of the courtyard. His two friends admitted that he (maybe all three of them) had used a bunch of mushrooms and that he probably had a bad reaction. (Aren’t you glad so many people come here to get trashed on King’s Day? Ugh.) Luckily, the woman pictured next to Sam used to be a nurse and helped get our troubled tourist back on his feet. An ambulance (see it?) arrived shortly and we continued on with a few pauses for group check-ins as we went. I need to add that Sam was great–both in handling this crisis and in his tour guiding. Really, one of the best we’ve seen. He is a grad student studying diasporas and his tour focused heavily on the Dutch history of colonialism and profits from the slave trade that helped bring about the “Golden Age” in the 17th and 18th centuries. In fact, the courtyard we were standing in was the former headquarters for the Dutch East India Company.
In general, Amsterdam was an attractive town, much as I remembered it from visiting 23 years ago…
One part that Sam showed us that doesn’t look like this anymore is the old Jewish Quarter. It was, of course, largely depopulated during World War II. Then, the winter of 1944-45 was incredibly cold, leading to huge numbers of deaths throughout the city, so the Dutch people ransacked the Jewish quarter, tearing down buildings to use as firewood. Now it looks like this:
Of course, the prettiest part, and the thing everyone remembers is the canals. They really are incredibly attractive and make it worth putting up with the hoards of other tourists to walk around near the center of town.
As you may know, the whole city is built on land reclaimed from the ocean and the canals were first built to help transport goods from the port. As such, you’ll notice some interesting things about the buildings. First of all, most of them have hooks hanging out over the roads or canals. They used to be for moving goods into merchants’ attics. As Sam showed us on a video, they’re still used, but mostly for getting large furniture items to upper stories. Secondly, the houses were originally built on giant stilts sticking way down into the water. Many of these rotted over time, so a lot of the older buildings have some disinctly odd leans. But, many buildings also lean forward over the streets and canals on purpose–precisely so those hooks are more useful.
Of course, some of these old places get a bit comical. If you look closely at the photo below, you’ll see some pretty uneven buildings. On the left, look at the little door to the alley between two leaning buildings. What you can’t see from here is that the buildings nearly touch further back. Lucky they don’t have big earthquakes here…
And, since so much of the city is built right on the water, lots of the building happens right on the water:
I mean, some people really live on the water; there were quite a number of houseboats in certain areas.
Speaking of being on the water, our hotel was on one of a series of newer islands east of the center of Amsterdam. From our room we had a nice view of a harbor. More interestingly, one evening we took a free ferry from Centraal across to Noord (the largely residential part of the city on land across a large channel from the downtown). We walked through this much calmer area and then took another ferry back to where our hotel was. I really appreciated that these absolutely necessary forms of transit were totally free. Nice move Amsterdam. Also, it was fun to see all the different ways the water is used there, from cruises to containers, yachting to fishing.
We came to Amsterdam primarily for Jessica to do an interview, but stayed a couple more days just for fun (killing time before her next major scheduled work stop). We didn’t do too much over those days, but we did hit two major museums. First, we went to the Van Gogh Museum. We visited here in 1999. Back then it was just in a large house, but now it’s a shiny new monumental kinda museum. Regardless, it was great. Van Gogh’s style generally works for me, and it was fun to immerse ourselves in this one artist and watch as his methods changed over time.
We learned some about his life history, particularly his unusual path to becoming an artist. My favorite part was how one timeline in the museum explained his life in 1881: “Lives with his parents. Mostly draws.”
One cool part of the museum allowed you to examine some of his paintings under a microscope, which looked a bit like this. I really do appreciate the thickness and boldness of his brushstrokes.
The museum also discussed his relationship to other artists quite a bit. He was very close with Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard, for instance, though he railed at them for painting from their mind rather than from reality. I enjoyed the paintings the two of them sent Van Gogh as a gift: self portraits they made with portraits of each other included.
Speaking of self portraits, the museum opened with a whole room of self-portraits Van Gogh did. I loved these, as each had their own character. Oddly, I didn’t really like any of the other portraits Van Gogh made of other people. Not sure why…
There was also a great series of Van Gogh’s paintings of olive groves that the museum had collected. These were made largely towards the end of his life when he was in the asylum in Saint-Remy.
There were about a hundred other great works. Here’s just three of my favorites:
Overall, a great museum and probably my favorite I’ve seen of the “single artist” type.
The next day we went to the museum next door, the Stedelijk Museum which focuses on modern and contemporary art. This museum did some really interesting things with how they displayed art. The main collection was divided into three general time periods, pre-1950, 1950-1980, and 1980-present, in addition to some special exhibitions.
The area for the oldest works was being redone, so what was on display was kinda crowded together without the care the rest of the museum displays. I did, however, like the contrast of these two paintings next to each other. Both are from the late 1920s and display people organizing: one a set of striking workers, the other a Nazi “rabble rouser.”
But, elsewhere, there were some really thoughtfully arranged rooms, like one displaying 1960s space-age-inspired art objects, and another room that was almost entirely white dedicated to minimalism. I generally think giant white canvases are pretty dull, but by grouping them, there was definitely more impact and caused me to look at them and think about them differently.
Around the corner there was also one giant fabulous Matisse paper cut-out piece. We were lucky to see it as they only display it every few years because it’s on very light-sensitive material.
Probably the most interesting part in terms of display-arrangement was a huge exhibition of work by Hito Steyerl. She makes fascinating political and social commentary videos. We saw more than a dozen of them. They were shown in purpose-built spaces that she designed to go with each video, so the rooms were as much part of the exhibition as the videos were.
Of course, the most immersive space was designed by Barbara Krueger, whose style I think a lot of you will recognize. (If not, look her up. I think her work has had a lot of cultural influence over the past few decades.)
There was also a playful make-your-own art space that included a slide into a pit of plastic bottles. Guess who slid down: was it Gabe or Jessica?
And another exhibit (of weaving done by rural children in Egypt) invited visitors to actually feel one of the works.
Overall, a very cool, thoughtfully-organized museum. Highly recommended.
Now, before we move on from Amsterdam, you may have noticed that I haven’t covered the most important thing about the city:
- Do I mean the sex industry? No. Though Sam did a good job explaining the historical origins of that (a way to keep rowdy sailors away from the more pure people in the city) and the modern transformations (real improvements in conditions after explicit legalization 20 years ago).
- Oh, the drugs, right? Nope. Though it is important to know that anything in the Netherlands that is labeled a “coffeeshop” is actually a pot store. If you want coffee, look for a cafe.
- If not those, what? The lizards? Nope. Not them either, though they did overrun one plaza…
- Hmm? Was it the food? Sorry–wrong again. But we did have several delicious potato-based foods, and more importantly some great colonial imports. Surinamese food turns out to be a great cultural fusion cuisine–check it out. And the Indonesian rijstaffel (rice table) comes with a dozen little bowls of deliciousness and is not to be missed…
- Give up? The most important thing to know about Amsterdam is the enormous number of bikes. The strongest memory I have from visiting in 1999 was of stepping out of Centraal Station and almost immediately being nearly run over by a biker who dinged their bell and yelled at us. Things haven’t changed a bit. Jessica and I just spent days walking around saying, “So. Many. Bikes.” Repeatedly. Bike lanes are everywhere. (Great!) But bikers also use the streets and sidewalks too. (Less great.) Bike parking is everywhere. Every corner has piles of bikes leaning on one another. Every bridge over a canal is lined with bikes locked to the railing. By major transit centers, there are multi-tier bike parking lots. It makes sense in such a flat city. It’s incredible and fun and…just a little crazy.
From Amsterdam, we scooted 40 minutes down the road to the university town of Leiden. We had no idea what to expect here. We were just using it as a base to visit the tulip gardens at the Kukenhof (more on that below), but it turned out to be an incredibly pleasant little town. Like Amsterdam, a series of canals run through the center, but here they are wider, the streets are quieter, and, lucky for us, the sun was shining (after some pretty dreary days in Amsterdam). We spent a lovely day wandering the town and chilling at one of the many bars that float along the edges of the canals.
We did indulge in one brief bit of tourism in Leiden, visiting the Molenmuseum De Valk–a windmill museum. We learned all about the history of windmills (not originally from the Netherlands, but “perfected” there), and their uses (grinding grain and draining water out of low-lying areas). The guy who runs the place was there showing off how to run the whole thing, moving the blades around the tower and covering and uncovering them (which is important to be able to do quickly when the wind gets too strong). It was actually pretty cool.
The craziest part was leaving the museum, which involved descending several stories of staircases that are basically ladders. Of course, these weren’t the only crazy stairs we encountered. They were nearly as steep in the apartment we rented in Leiden and we saw a ton of houses in Amsterdam with insane front steps.
Of course, the real reason we visited Leiden was because it is close to the Kukenhof, the famous tulip garden. I likened our visit there to when we went to the Giant Panda Research Center in China 5 years ago. I thought it was the kinda thing that would get dull after an hour or two and we’d leave. Instead, it’s just an endless series of pleasant experiences surrounded by tons of other people having a great time. We scoured every inch of the gardens, seeing pretty much every flower there. It didn’t hurt that the weather continued to be picture-perfect.
In some places, the tulips were arranged in a wild mix of colors…
In other places, they were organized in lovely stripes and chunks of uniform types…
In the picnic area we encountered some frighteningly large and popular Dutch cartoon characters…
But, that was OK–just kind of amusing–and as soon as lunch was done we moved on to find some very unusually shaped and colored tulips…
Some parts were lovely…
And then, around the corner, was this:
That kinda threw off the peaceful mood. But no worries. Keep walking. There are more flowers:
And, to top it off, some adorable goslings…
(And trust me…I have more flower photos. Those were jus my favorites. And I didn’ even show you the cool orchid exhibit in one of the greenhouses…)
After thoroughly enjoying Leiden and the Kukenhof, we moved on to our last stop in the Netherlands, Den Haag. We went there because Jessica was going on trial at The Hague, a.k.a. the International Criminal Court as a result of her participation in the genocide in…oh, wait, nevermind…
I’m just kidding. In reality, we went to The Hague for Jessica to give a talk at the university. A bit more mundane, but also more plausible.
Overall, the town was pleasant, but nothing terribly special.
The second best thing there was the poffertjes, mini doughy Dutch pancakes. Yum.
The best thing was the M.C. Escher museum. I’ve loved M.C. Escher since I was a kid, and still find I can stare at his prints endlessly. The museum showcased a huge number of his works, many of which I’ve seen in books and on posters before, but never up close in a format that poses them as art rather than technical achievements. The displays followed various themes, discussing how Escher was considered to be a “natural mathematician,” someone with a deep understanding of mathematical concepts without any formal training. It emphasized his interest in concepts of eternity and infinity.
One aspect of this is his series of tessellations. Not only did they have some of his woodcuts and prints of tessellations, but also a 3D tessellated ball he carved, and various other ways he applied these concepts in the real world.
They, of course, featured several of his images of impossible architecture and geometry (the inspiration for the climax of the movie Labyrinth, for those who are new to Escher).
But, the museum also featured a bunch of his earlier works which focused on landscapes. These were incredibly gorgeous, and I appreciated how the exhibit traced the connections between the “realistic” images (which were really fantastic versions of real places, based on his sketches out in the world) and the more imaginative ones.
On the top floor, the museum got playful, letting visitors mess with Escher’s tools and vision. There was even a cool room with “Escher for the blind” models. And, in the next room, a photo both that messed with perspective in some fun ways (see the TV screen).
That place was seriously fun. If you ever find yourself on trial for war crimes, make sure to visit!
On with the whirlwind…
Our next stop was Bruges, in Belgium. Before heading there, we decided to watch the movie In Bruges again. It was funny, like I remembered, but also way darker and more grim. (Also, way too much homophobic banter.) But, we couldn’t help calling it a “fairy tale fucking town” for most of the 24 hours we were there wandering around. (That’s the phrase the gangster Harry uses to describe it.)
Bruges is the most touristy trappy tourist trap I’ve been to recently (I mean, Amsterdam has a bazillion tourists, but is also a real city, with a lot more going on), but it really is worth the visit. It’s ridiculous cute, and the cuteness extends out quite a ways from the most touristed central area. But, when we first arrived, we were greeted by this outside the train station:
Not exactly what we thought we’d see in this little preserved medieval town. But, no worries…we got to the cute bit in a few minutes of walking and were immersed there until we left the next day. Wandering the town looked a bit like this:
We visited three interesting and different churches in Bruges. The first was the Sint-Salvatorskathedral. We learned about the taller, older nearby church that was not made into a Cathedral, with Rome demanding this be constructed. It didn’t feel like anything terribly special, but it had some very beautiful stained glass and other interior flourishes. Also, there was a crazy painting of angels hauling off someone’s house. God’s just a landlord, repossessing what’s his.
More historically significant was the Basilica of the Holy Blood, right next to the old Stadhuis. On the outside of the Stadhuis is an image of a count (I think?) who lost an arm in the crusades, but brought back some of Jesus’s blood. That blood is now in the church. Evidently it magically gets less dry from time to time. Seems unlikely, but it was a pretty space…
The last church was just plain weird. Most of the church interior was dedicated to various contemporary art projects and “You’ve got a friend in me” was playing on the speakers. It was odd…
(For some reason, I can’t get this video embedded. Here’s the URL: https://youtube.com/shorts/zBdhbtFGJ_A)
After two half-days in Bruges, including an amusing two hour walking tour with a very opinionated local, we hopped a train to our last destination in the region, Brussels. Brussels was hard to pin down. It’s a big city with a lot going on, and it has a bustling and tourist-filled core, but a lot of it felt a little crumbly, dirty, and haphazardly built. There were some really fun moments and things we saw, and we generally enjoyed the city, but it definitely lacked a unified “feel” like some other places we’ve visited have.
In some places, Jessica described Brussels as “a poor man’s Paris,” which feels about right. I’ll spare you the uglier bits, because there really are more outliers than buildings that feel, for instance, Parisian, but trust me when I say these photos show the best of Brussels, not the average. (But, for just one example, look at the majestic Palais de Justice, which has a back side all overgrown with weeds.)
Actually, the prettiest part was the Grand Place, a giant central square surrounded by a great medieval city hall, amazing guildhalls from the late 1600s, and one neo-gothic building from the 1800s. Bu, as you look at these photos, note how the city hall has some funky architecture: the two sides are different, the tower is off center, the door on the tower isn’t centered, and the right end has one-third of an arch leading into the corner–so weird!
In the neo-gothic building, we visited the unimpressive Brussels City Museum. It was fine, but the audio guide was long winded and there was a very amateurish and long video presentation. The museum had some interesting bits, but I’ll focus on the questionable ones:
- A history of the development of the pottery industry in the city with some truly hideous-looking items (along with some lovely ones and some just in questionable taste).
- Some portable altars from the 1500s with scenes of Jesus getting circumcised. An odd choice for public representation and for prayer focus, I’d say. Also, a terrible representation of a baby.
- And, a “cartoon” from the 1500s made of 60 sheets of paper stitched together.
Speaking of “cartoons,” Belgium evidently is the home of comics and is something of a national obsession, as the number of comic book stores and the tons of comic-based street art will attest.
Other national obsessions included chocolate and beer. We saw a giant chocolate lego Easter Bunny and a chocolate bust of one of the people who helped really develop chocolate in Belgium. And we learned about all sorts of beers in both Bruges and Brussels, including the Trappist beers made by monks and sold only in small batches with all proceeds going to charity. Evidently, they are quite strong.
A very cool place we visited was the Museum of Musical Instruments. This place was in a cool old art deco building.
The main selling point was that everyone gets their own set of headphones on which you can here samples of hundreds of the different instruments displayed (of which there are thousands). However, when we entered the main exhibition room, all we could hear was this crazy loud thing playing. See the video from the Kukenhof, above, but imagine it way louder. We were confused as to how the museum would work as we could barely hear ourselves think over the racket. But, eventually, it stopped and thankfully never started again.
The museum was largely an audio experience, and one that was tons of fun, but I’ll just post pictures of some of my favorite instruments. Some were pretty, others wacky, and a few imaginative and weird. I particularly liked the fanfrnoch, from Czechia, played by pulling on the hair to make a warbling-thumping kinda sound. Also the glass harmonica, which spins while the player uses their wetted fingers to extract sound. There were lots more, but this gives you an idea of the range…
Speaking of music, we encountered some in our favorite spot near our hotel. The Parvis de Saint-Gilles is a pedestrian area lined with bars. One day we went by and there were food trucks. Another day, a farmer’s market. And when we sat down to drinks there, we got rocked by a mini-brass band that came out of the Maison du Peuple (an old union meeting hall)…and eventually led a giant crowd they’d gathered back in there, like a foursome of pied pipers.
You have to watch this video. Not only is the band great–playing Depeche Mode, no less–but the dancing kids brought Jessica to tears (from laughter…she cries when she laughs…a lot).
And speaking of hilarious children, somehow the city mascot of Brussels for the past half a millenium-or-so has been Mannekin Pis, a tiny fountain of a little boy peeing. We learned all about his adventures throughout history: stolen, broken, used to mock Louis XIV, and more. Now he spends about half of his time naked, and half dressed in one costume or another. We went to a whole museum of the costumes, which range from pertinent to ridiculous. Many are donated by visiting dignitaries, others are from NGOs, and some are just local creations. Without further ado…Mannekin Pis:
Last, and definitely least, we went to the movies. We saw the new Dr. Strange in English with subtitles, but here the subtitles are simultaneously in French and Dutch. Confusing! Here’s a picture of what that looks like from the previews.
When I finished writing all that bit above, I told Jess, “Wow! We did a lot in the Netherlands and Belgium!” And she said, “Yeah. I know. That’s why I didn’t get much work done.” So, after all the cool stuffs we saw in our busy week-and-a-half swing through the flatlands of the north, now we’re off to Geneva, where Jess has work things to do every day. Whoa. That’ll be different.
Also, just for those who are interested, my job search continues. As I seek to transition to Math, I’ve received two job offers. Meanwhile, I’m trying to stick at my old school while moving to Math, but they are being exceedingly slow. Grrr. I should have a definite answer about my future by this time next week, just in time for my birthday, so yay for that. This process has caused a few sleepless nights already.
More fun, but also causing one sleepless night (on purpose in this case) is Space Station Phoenix. 4000 copies or so made it to the warehouse in the US and are heading to stores and distributors soon. If you want to learn more about it, there are two play-through videos now up on youtube:
- Heavy Cardboard does a full teach and has a full 3 player game (which I stayed up and commented on throughout from 1am to 4am): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO1p6u30A0M
- Jon Gets Games explains the game and shows a bit of play. He has better visuals, but less depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO1p6u30A0M
More on SSP later. But tell your gaming friends to look it up! In the meantime, remember…
What energy !