Amsterdam

The Royal Palace in Amsterdam is, as you'd expect, a very impressive building. What struck us was the difference in visual security between this and Buckingham Palace. Here there were no fences or visible guards and this palace was not surrounded by ornate statues and monuments. This photo was taken around 8:30am and the square was nearly deserted. When we returned around 3:00pm you could hardly move!

The focus of our visit to Amsterdam was to go to the Rijksmuseum - the Dutch national museum - and wasn't it amazing! Altogether they have over 1million items for display.
This tin glazed earthenware Delft (c1705) was considered to be the masterpiece of earthenware when purchased for 1500 guilders in 1876. That's a lot to pay for an ornamental violin which cannot be played! One only wonders about its current value.

The most popular display, as expected, was Rembrandt's 'The Night Watch' which was painted in 1642.
John was surprised at the size of the painting (3.63 m × 4.37 m), which is even more amazing when you read that it was originally bigger, but had a section of all four sides removed so that it would fit into the hanging space at the Amsterdam Town Hall in 1715. These pieces were not kept - apparently a common practice in those days.




 As also expected, other popular exhibits were the three Van Gough paintings. Although always acknowledged as one of the Masters, he seems to have become the 'world's coolest Dutchie'. 
Some of his paintings have been 3-D scanned and 3-D printed to create near-perfect replicas which sell for $25,000. Some people consider these a bargain when compared to the $20m+ price of an original.

This is one of our favourites, by Paul Joseph Constantin Gabriel, painted in 1889. Called 'A Windmill on a Polder Waterway', it really captures the essence of a summer's day in Holland.

 This is the largest painting in the museum. It was painted in 1824 and is titled 'The Battle of Waterloo'. You can get an idea of the size by the person standing on the right of the painting.

Originally the painting was intended for the Duke of Wellington himself, but was bought by William I of the Netherlands for his son and so remained here.

 This strange looking disc is the original Dirk Hartog pewter dish, nailed to a pole in Western Australia. The message says 'Arrived here 25 October 1616' (that's 402 years ago!) and remained there for a further 80 years until another Dutch captain found it and brought it back to Holland.

We saw a replica at the Maritime Museum in Freemantle and now we've seen the original. Wow!



The museum itself is a beautiful building.

 Amsterdam is famous for its canals and different styles of architecture. On a day like today it was a pleasure walking through the city and along the canals.

Isn't this 'Holland in a photo'?

A Friesian in a cheese shop!

Seen today: Cannabis lollypops and starter packs for your own plants; buskers at the entrance to the Rijksmuseum, playing Vivaldi; lines of canal boats ready for the tourist rush; trams in Amsterdam - another thing to watch out for when crossing the road!




As we fly home shortly, this will be our last post. Hope you've enjoyed sharing our European adventures.
Cheers,
Chris and John

Utrecht

The Dom Tower - the brochure says "Enjoy your climb". 465 steps later we were at the top of the highest church tower in The Netherlands, 112m high. The guide was very informative although he didn't understand some of John's jokes!
Strangely enough, we all (Emily, John and myself) did enjoy the climb, especially the descent.

Construction of the tower began in 1321 and was completed in 1382. It took until 1520 to finish the cathedral complex. In 1674 a storm caused the collapse of the cathedral's nave and in 1826 the last remnants were cleared and the Dom square was created. The bells in the tower were cast in 1505 and their total mass is over 31 tonnes. There are also 50 bells in the carillon, which play a tune every 15 mins, through a mechanism dating back to 1669. Aren't tourist brochures wonderful sources of information?



The view from the top.










Unless you've seen it first hand you cannot comprehend the number of push-bikes in Holland. Most have black tyres but we've seen some with bright colours. this was a selection outside a bike repair shop we passed.

We found this building fascinating. Many Dutch buildings have different features and this one seemed to combine them all - narrow with an ornamented facades, stepped gable, shutters, tiles, fancy ironwork to support the bricks and small gargoyles. It's difficult walking around Utrecht safely as you have to walk a fine line between looking at the facades and not stepping in something you shouldn't.

 Across the canal from us are a series of shops which you get to from the next street. This one has a set of outdoor furniture on the roof, but there's no barrier/railing. No parties up there as it's a bit of a fall to the canal below!

 Now, this is the way to deliver your produce. This is actually crates of beer to the restaurant. Later on our walk we saw the same boat delivering elsewhere up the canal. Narrow staircases and roads make it easier to do it through the basements which just happen to have doorways at canal level. We waited to see if they would be dropping off our supplies, but...
The brown brick building with the white sign is the one with the rooftop chairs.

Such lovely gardens - originally part of a nunnery but now easily accessed by the public.

Seen today: Another oddities shop with the strangest assortment of animal skulls, skins, taxidermied animal parts and unusual nick-knacks; remnants of a bastion (just a piece of stone frieze) built by order of Charles V in 1558, on the side of a house; sculpture and canals.

London

 Chris on the famous zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios.
We expected a few people to be there but during the 1/2 hour or so we were there (wallowing in the atmosphere) the crowd ebbed and flowed.

The iconic Abbey Road Studio where the Beatles recorded much of their later work. The whole front fence is covered in signatures - not ours - of Beatles fans from around the world.

 This is it! The centre of the Beatles universe. (No idea whose signature that is).

 On our walk back to the hotel we passed many a street that seemed to be so typical of many we see on TV. Not sure of the architectural period but it's fairly popular throughout the area.

A walk through Hyde Park and Kensington gardens took us past Kensington Palace (home to the Young Royals as they are referred to), and around to the Albert memorial and Royal Albert Hall. We wondered why the reporters were outside Kensington Palace when Harry and Megan were in Australia? Cue the evening news and the story of Megan's pregnancy.
Our hotel was on the other side of Hyde Park off Bayswater Rd. so we had a decent walk that afternoon.

 Taking a "Walk on the Wild Side" at the Apollo in Bayswater, literally! The whole experience was a comedy of errors which would have done justice to a Monty Python skit - "Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more!"

 

A walk around London isn't complete without a walk past Buckingham Palace.

 Here are some more iconic London landmarks.




The London Eye.


Below left - John on the Millenium Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral in the background.


Below right - The working replica of Shakespeare's Globe theatre.

Left - The Grapes pub - a downstairs bar with small Thames-side terrace and upstairs restaurant dating from 1583.

Right - Sir Christopher Wren's monument to the Great Fire of London. It represents a candle which was supposed to have started the fire, in a bakery in the area. It's commonly called The Monument and     is near the northern end of the London Bridge.

The Tower Bridge and The Girl With the Dolphin Fountain.

 Below right - The Tower of London with the Traitor's Gate at low tide.

Below left - The Shard, The Tower Bridge and The Gherkin.






















Greenwich is the home of 0 Degrees Longitude and the National Maritime Museum which houses a superb Captain Cook exhibition. He actually departed from nearby at Deptford, but nothing remains of the docks in that area, not even a plaque or monument. How disappointing is that?!


The Cutty Sark (below) is the last surviving British Tea Clipper.
The Museum has a collection of intricate figureheads from a number of ships (right).

 Worlds apart! Chris is in the Western hemisphere and I'm in the Eastern hemisphere. The Prime Meridian passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich leading to the term Greenwich Mean Time.


 Seen around London: Seals in the Thames; lots of familiar names from the Monopoly board; Downing Street (now barricaded off and guarded by police with machine guns).

Sissinghurst garden and castle

 To get an English garden fix, our friend took us for a drive to Kent to Sissinghurst garden. This was the home of Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicholson, who created the heritage listed garden in the 1930s. He designed the garden 'rooms' and she did the planting. The 
tower has been used as a prison for French sailors in the 1700s and a home to the women’s land army in WWII. The buildings in the background with the white pointy tops are old oast houses used for drying hops.

Views of the house and grounds. The tower rooms were where Vita used to write, and the story is that no-one went in there except her - even her family weren't allowed. She was an interesting character.









Left - The 'viewers' as seen from the top of the tower.

Right & below -  The view from the top of the tower of the garden 'rooms'. We had a glorious day for strolling around, collecting ideas for our own gardens, then lunch in the pub.

Seen today:
Narrow country lanes; Wooden pillars holding up a pergola; espaliered trees, like figs and apple trees; old fashioned fruit - quince and pears.
John's favourite were the 570mm wide oak floorboards.

Oxford

 And so to Lewis country - both CS the writer and Robert the detective. There are stationery and book shops everywhere along with Alice memorabilia, guided tour operators, tourists and students on bicycles (they have just started back at uni). The train trip is only about an hour from where we are staying so it was a pleasant journey. This sign tickled John's fancy, as the main street is Broad Street.
Our first stop was to book a walking tour, which took us to and through Balliol College, one of Oxford's 38 colleges, working with nearly 24,000 students from around the world. 
The dining room  (below)will be recognisable to Harry Potter fans, but the students eat 3 meals a day in this room. The difference in noise levels within the quadrangle and then when you walk back out to the street, is incredible. The Virginia creeper is changing colour all over the place and the gardens are still lovely.

This is Oxford's version of The Bridge of Sighs. The walkway makes it easier for students to get from one side of Hertford College to the other. When they graduate they apparently have their photos taken under the bridge, throwing their mortar boards into the air. It is supposed to be a closer copy of the Rialto bridge in Venice, not the actual Bridge of Sighs.






Broard Street, Oxford, and like The Netherlands, watch out for cyclists!



The Bodleian Libraries is a collection of 28 libraries, of whichthe Bodleian Library, right, and together they hold more than 12 million print copies. The first 3 editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland are held here.

This map is on display in the foyer of the Bodleian. It's the Sheldon Tapestry Map of Worcestershire - one of 4 commissioned in the late 1500's, and is about 20feet (6m) across.The Bodleian owns the Oxfordshire (on display in the Ashmolean Museum) and Glouscestershire tapestries as well. The info says the scale is 1:25,000 and towns and villages can be traced on modern day maps of the area and took 4 men a year to create each tapestry. The four originally hung in the home of Ralph Sheldon, so the rooms must have been huge.

A visit to the Ashmolean took up the rest of our visit. What an amazing place. The collection of fob watches would delight the White Rabbit and a few people we know who collect watches and clocks.






These nautilus shells are so intricately carved!


Seen today: No-one walking on the grass at any of the quadrangles; Settings from Lewis that we recognised; pubs called The Old Book Binder, the Rusty Bicycle and the Turf tavern which boasts you'll get  'an education in intoxication'.