I had an amazing time visiting Mike in The Netherlands for the past ten days.  We spent the first few days in Amsterdam and then traveled to Delft where we took a few day trips to The Hague, Utrecht and Scheveningen.  There is so much to see and do in Amsterdam, we barely scratched the surface of this beautiful city.  We stayed in a lovely Air B&B apartment in the Jordaan neighborhood.

Art:
There is so much art in The Netherlands!  The Art Museums in the Netherlands easily summed up four years of Art History classes.  I found myself constantly wishing my art history professors were with me and then wishing I could bring all of the students I work with at New Urban Arts to the museums.  Ten days was not enough for all you could learn and see and do at these museums. And of course the art isn’t just kept to museums, you will find it in restaurants which draw on their walls, lining front doors with beautiful ceramic tiles, sculptures which decorate beaches and parks, and beautiful street art on buildings and side walks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing that struck me about The Netherlands was their skill of combining the old and new in a seamless way.  This was most obvious at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht which expertly combined old works with new works – in rotating exhibits but also in their permanent collection, such as a 1,000 year old wooden boat on display in their dark basement with a modern light show projection illuminating various parts of the boat.  Or the exhibit that highlighted their fashion collection that combined 17th & 18th century pieces with pieces from the 20th century and by designers such as Viktor and Rolf.  When we visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam they had alongside their great masters these large post-it style wall text as part of a modern exhibition called Art Is Therapy that encouraged the viewer to look at the work not from an art historical point of view but rather from a therapeutic perspective and ask the questions – what does art do for you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food!
The Dutch are not known for their cuisine – their art far outshines their restaurants.  However there are a few stand outs – Cheese! Herring! and Indonesian restaurants.

When we were in Amsterdam we had dinner at a lovely Indonesian restaurant.  The place looked good and had a nice group of folks around it.  When we went in, the head waiter asked if we had a reservation and we said no.  He looked at his watch and said he could seat us as long as we were done by 8pm when he had two reservations made and needed the tables that were available.  It was around 6:30 and we felt confident that we could be done by then.  We then asked if we could complete a vegetarian Rijsttafel in the amount of time we had. He said yes, and we were off to try one of the more popular dishes in The Netherlands. This is basically an Asian Tapas.  They serve an assortment of small dishes with a big bowl of rice.  Its meant to be shared.  We had a variety of satay style dishes, sauted vegetables and some spicy, some sweet.  It was a great experience and we finished just in time to clear out by 8pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Dutch favorite is herring.  Unlike the strongly pickled herring that we Ustach’s eat at Christmas, sledzie, the maatjes or soused herring is just lightly brined and served raw with onions.  The traditional Dutch style of serving it is whole, and it is eaten by holding the tail above ones mouth and slowing eating it (as demonstrated in the sculpture pictured above at the Beelden Aan Zee Sculpture museum.) I had herring twice, once in Amsterdam on a plate at a restaurant with onions on the side, and another time in Delft at a fish market, fried with tartar sauce (sorry no picture).  Mom & Dad you both would have liked these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Nature:
The Dutch like to spend time outside – I will let Mike continue to talk about the bikes.  While we were there, we spent time exploring the places we visited both by foot, bike and boat.  We took Canal Boat Tours in both Amsterdam and in Delft.  So many of the cities were built along the canals so you see so much more of them from the canal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Delft, Mike really wanted to go to a petting zoo, and really wanted me to go with him – he thought it would be weird going by himself.  He was probably right, the only folks there were parents or grandparents with their kids.  We were the only ones there without preschoolers.  But Mike got his fill of goats, there were beautiful peacocks that roamed around, sheep, miniature horses, donkeys, rabbits, pigs, and lots of different varieties of chickens, hens, roosters, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also visited the aquarium outside Den Hague in Scheveningen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful trip and we saw a lot in ten days. I left Mike with a list of things to do that I didn’t get to do, and I’m excited to hear about his future adventures.  I will now end with a massive picture dump.  Enjoy!