25th Nov - Driving Through Western France

On Tuesday we started driving out of Amsterdam towards the Normandy coast of France which has a major link to the UK through many ocean crossing points as well as the site of much fighting in WW2 and particularly for the D Day landings which signalled the start of the end for Hitler.

We were planning to spend the night in Dunkerque but decided, instead to continue to Rouen. Rouen, about 500kms south of Amsterdam is a lovely city with lots of medieval churchs, old properties and cul de sacs. We spent the night walking in fairly brisk weather (4 degrees) and found a lovely restaurant to eat at, just behind the College des Beaux Arts (Fine Art School). It was an authentic Couscous restaurant, in the style I recall going to 10 yrs ago with my great uncle in Paris. We had a tajine with prunes, almonds and tender lamb pieces as well as a Couscous Royale with chicken, lamb and merguez sausage. Both were divine.

Tam and her entree!

The next morning we toured Rouen for an hour and then headed to Mont. St. Michel, which Mark was particularly keen to visit. We got very lucky, arriving around 3pm to a glorious blue sky and cool day (about 6 degrees) as the photos show. The tide was way out, but spectacular anyway. Other than the 4 Euro carpark entry, the only other thing that costs is the Abbey of St Michel itself (8E). We saved that and simply toured this wonderous island village which is purely for tourists now, French and foreign, as well as the Benedictine monks who lived, worshipped and studied there for 4 centuries in virtual isolation, before being kicked out at the French revolution. There is a small community of monks now; although we did not see any.

Mark took about 100 photos from every angle (lucky we have a digital camera).




Mont St Michel at low tide


The following morning we returned to tour Le Merveille (the Miracle), the abbey itself. We realised just how lucky we were with Wednesdays weather as it was completely overcast today. The tour guide (free with our entry at 11am or 3pm each day), was very informative, although I think her mind was elsewhere. The abbey is on 3 levels, although construction commenced in 790AD, most of it was built between the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, as different benefactors came along. There are vastly different architectural styles (specifically Romanesque 11th or 12thC and Gothic 13thC) within the abbey, church and monks buildings, which seems confusing as you go through.

When its cold its crepe time!

20th Nov - Sint Nicolaas arrives!!!!!

After much standing around in the cold in Leidseplein, Sint Nicolaas arrived today and we are looking forward to receiving our presents on December 5th. Not sure what the black characters are but we think they were either chimney sweeps or slaves (Holland was influential in the slave trade through the Dutch East India Company after all).

Windmills

For those who have been asking, here are some windmills.

19th Nov - Belgium, Grand Squares and Canals, Superb Chocolate

We've just come back from a 3-day side trip to Belgium, just south of Netherlands. On Wednesday, we picked up the car again and managed to navigate ourselves to Brussels about 2.5 hrs away. After driving through some very serious rain showers, we arrived in Brussels' Grand Place, a truly amazing market square which has been voted one of the the Best, if not actually The Best Square in the world for architecture, grandure and opulence of the 15th C buildings (guild halls), still intact.

Mark took this amazing panoramic photo but it's hard to do justice to it. We photographed it in the afternoon and again that night and you can see different details coming to the fore.






Too many pictures of the Grand Place (I have many more)

After standing in the Grand Place for quite a while, we simply wandered around the alleyways, small streets and boulevards of Brussels. It has a faster pace and a lot more tourists than some of the other places we've visited, given it's off-season. After a late lunch in Rue de Bouchers (3pm), we marvelled at all the Chocolate, Confectionery and Laceware stores. It was extremely hard to avoid entering the chocolate shops.

We discovered some beautiful palaces which are not on the main tourist path - such as Charles de Lorraine, and also discovered that there was a Faberge Russian Egg exhibition on in town. We just found the building and entered before another really bad rain front came through. Except we managed to get there about 10 mins after a huge group of elderly tourists arrived and they took an inordinately long time to look at each item, which meant there were about 40 people waiting at every viewing case (a bit like a premium jewellers window on a High Street). For some strange reason the lighting was down extremely low, so there was also confusion about direction of the exhibition etc.

Charles de Lorraine Palace

By the time we left, we were ready for a drink and the rain had eased so we found what seemed like a really cool bar (from the street) and entered the warmth, grabbing a 2.50 Euro wine/ beer each (very cheap). What we didn't realise till we'd been there for a few mins was that it was a Gay bar (bot that there's anything wrong with that as Sienfeld would say). Very understated though and we stayed there about 45 mins, before strolling out again. That night we found a great Thai place (Reves d'Asie) and had a lovely meal.

The following morning was just beautiful (full blue sky, scudding white cumulus clouds) and we set off for Bruges (Brugge), only an hour away. Luckily the rains held out for most of the day, so we got to explore more than expected.

Bruges was certainly stunningly preserved (12th to 15th C architecture) and amazing grand canals. It's called the Venice of the North and you can understand why. It had apparently been blocked off for nearly 200 years before being re-born in the late 1700's which accounts for it's beautifully maintained condition now.


Bruge buildings



Bruge building (second picture was atken at sunset when the building was lit up by the sun)

We found the 'vibe' really wonderful and welcoming. Less frenetic than Brussels and very serene. During the day, we wandered into the Chocolate Museum (a must for me) and discovered the history of the Aztecs, Mayans, cocoa plantations, slavery and the development of Bakelite (by a Belgian). The Bakelite was important as the moulds for chocolate shapes were prepared in Bakelite pans. It was quite well put together but we only got one tiny piece of chocolate each.


Tam and a big chocolate egg.

Afterwards we went to a traditional Belgian 'salon' and premium chocolate producer. I had a fantastic hot chocolate, receiving a cup of hot milk and a small bowl of premium chocolate shavings to blend in myself to my taste. They also provided the cutest little whisk. Mark ordered a chocolate milkshake and it was one of the best he's had.

It started raining heavily towards the end of the day, so we headed back to the hotel and had a bath to warm ourselves through, my first for ages. That night we went to a Bruges institution - Curiosa which is a restaurant situated downstairs in the cellar of a 16th C monastry. It had a beautiful atmosphere and ceilings, although could have been a little warmer! We both had Flemish/Belgian specialties - Mark had a scampi dish and I had a beef stew which was very nice.

The final day of our travels, we changed our minds from visiting Antwerp and instead travelled up the fishing coast from Bruges, through Knock Heiste, Breskens and into the Frisian Islands of Netherlands and finally Gouda. We then cut inland to head back for 'home' (Amsterdam).


Gouda Town Hall and Knock Heiste beach Belgium

12th Nov - Chinese Food and Chinese Dance

For our Michelin-starred restaurant in Amsterdam, we visited Sichuan Food, specialising in Chinese food, surprise, surprise.

In an area of Amsterdam, just off the Koningsplein, it's a fairly unassuming place from the street, but well presented inside and with excellent service. We chose a 4-course Royal Menu (30Euro/pp) and had a series of very delicate flavours. Commencing with mixed steamed dumplings, followed by the most devine grilled sole (fish) with very fine egg noodles, then a combined main of beef in a bird's nest and chicken gang pow (which certainly had some punch!), then we had fresh fruit to finish it off. There was a lovely atmosphere and it was obviously well recommended on UK websites as we could hear a lot of English spoken. Although the food was great, the Flower Drum would easily be rated three michelin stars.

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For those into wine we had a bottle of Saint-Veran Prestige. The Saint-Veran appellation was created in 1971 for white wines made from the Chardonnay grape in south Burgundy, between the Maconnaise and Beaujolais, to include much of the wine that was once sold as Beaujolais Blanc.

Wrapping up our Chinese theme, we saw some experimental dance acts at OT301 again (5 Euro) including a very good tap dancer (Chinese origin) who did improvisation to an electric guitar playing accompaniest.
http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/home.html

Then on Friday we saw Shen Wei Dance company at the Music/Concert Hall (20 Euro/pp) which is also Chinese and also quite experimental. The company of about 12 dancers, who dance for an hour on an enormous white canvas on the floor and periodically dance with some paint on their hands, making a completely unique piece of art with each performance.
http://www.shenweidancearts.org/

13th Nov - Travels further afield

Over the last few days, we've done some travels outside of Amsterdam. Using the trams and trains has been very easy. Luckily we're in the first zone for trams to Centraal Station, although you still need to use 2 vouchers on the Strippenkarte (which seems strange).

On Wednesday, we travelled to Haarlem. It's only 15 mins away on an express train. We noticed that the people seemed more dressed up than those in Amsterdam. The main square, Grote Market is very impressive and had some interesting buildings including the stunning St. Bavo's Cathedral. The weird thing is that around the bottom of the church, built right into the walls of the church are many shopfronts. These date back to the 1500's/ 1600's. It seems that the original church burnt down in 1395 and due to waxing and waning community wealth it took nearly 150yrs to replace the current St. Bavo's church to its former glory. The shops around the base helped raise funds for the Church through rents. It has a very opulent Organ as well.


Town hall and Fish Market (turned into modern art gallery)


St. Doms cathedral and small shops


The very large organ at St Bavo Cathedral

From there, we explored the local streets and also saw De Hallen (modern art gallery photo exhibition) as well as Franz Hals Museum, named after one of the most important artists in Haarlem's history. Between 1600 and 1635 there were 140 painters working regularly in Haarlem and they produced over 100,000 paintings - quite phenomenal.

On Thursday, we travelled to The Hague. It drizzled most of the day unfortunately but we still managed to see the famous Van Meiris paintings at Marithuis. He is really spectacular. Van Meiris' expertise is in painting the very finest detail of fabrics and expressions. This was in the 17th C when the queens, kings and courtiers wore very elaborate outfits. After seeing incalculable number of museums of supreme Masters of the art, I have to say Van Meiris is definitely a cut above. We had lunch in a trendy cafe, Deli Deluca and enjoyed a beautiful chicken salad and chorizo panini, before heading back on the express train (1hr, 19Euro return) to Amsterdam.






On Saturday, we travelled to Utrecht, only 30mins by fast train south of Amsterdam. We got lucky with the weather and whilst it was a cool 12 degrees, it didn't rain. We explored the town on foot using a Walking tour recommended by the Visitor Centre which took us through the beautiful Dom (Cathedral) but also through some intriguing backstreets and into secluded (but open to the public) gardens like Mariaplaats. The town had a party feel as they were celebrating pre-Christmas (which happens on December 5 as well as another festival on December 25). The canals are also really beautiful and interestingly, when the town first tried to 'keep back the water' by developing a lock and later a dam, it raised the ground level in a strange way and so they now have 2 levels of shops along the canal. The very bottom level and the 'regular' street level.





Mark having lunch &

We also tried some traditional Dutch oliebollen which are like donuts only not quite as sweet. We had a plain one and an apple filled one, but they offer rum & raisin, raisin and banana ones as well!

8th Nov - Amsterdam

Over the last few days, we've explored several major museums by buying the Museum Card (30Euro each) which has been great value. It's valid for a year in all National or State run museums in Holland, so we can use it in Amsterdam as well as the regional towns we're travelling to.

Typical Amsterdam canal


Amsterdam canal bridge

We've already seen the Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt's House, Willet-Holhuysten House including 18th & 19thC dress collection, the Dutch Historical and Jewish Historical museums.

Delft china violin at Historic museum


Rembrandt house


Tam at Rembrandt's easel


Willem Holthuysen Museum (1650 canal house)

We explored several flea markets as well, picking up a great new necklace for me in the shape of a tulip. Tulips are one of my top five flowers as my friends know. I even had a birthday at the Tesslaar's Tulip Farm in the Dandenongs in Victoria several years back.

Tams new necklace

We've also stopped in many art galleries and Mark has made his 'major' purchase of the trip. It's a collage by Chris Burns. For those of you following the blog regularly, you'll know that Mark is planning to pick up a small art piece in every city as a reminder and one major piece.

We've also explored the food - cooking at home several times using organic meat from our local butcher as well as trying Indonesian rijstoffel (a Dutch Indes speciality), gorgeous chocolates from Puccini called 'bomboni' and local beers.

We also had a lovely lunch today with Jenny. We had been trying to coordinate our houseswap with Jenny originally but it didn't work out at the time. She recommended a lovely place, Cafe de Jaren which was overlooking one of the canals and we had a traditional Broodje. I chose a cornbread roll with warm goats chesse, honey and thyme. It was divine.

Tomorrow night we go for our regular 'special meal' at a Michelin-starred restuarant called simply Sichuan Food and the speciality, not surprisingly is Chinese.

Throughout the whole week so far, we've walked for absolutely hours and hours each day (we even hired a canal bike for an hour). We're about 35 mins walk from the centre although there are trams, we wont be checking them out until tomorrow.


Mark on the canal bike

Entertainment wise, we've been to Winston's International to see 3 singer songwriters - one from Russia, one from Australia and one from America. The Russian was simply awful, the Australian quite strong and the American was fabulous. It was a great night overall for only 5 Euro each, although there was some funny business going on downstairs. It costs me 50 cents every time I used the toilet, however I could have bought a toilet membership for the night for only 1.50 Euro (unlimited use). Whilst it is common to have to pay for toilets in public around Europe, you never have to pay when you have already entered a restaurant or place that you are going to spend money at, so I was quite affronted. I underfortunately had to 'donate' 1 Euro. (I tried not to, believe me).

We also live near a place called OT301 which is a semi-famous squat that is also an art project. There we saw a Circus extravaganza on Sunday afternoon which included a violinist, clowns, gymnasts, breakdancers, traditional dancers from the Carribean, a girl doing poses on a long ribbon from the ceiling, Tomorrow we're back there for an alternative dance show and there are a few other events happening there which we may also attend whilst in Amsterdam, Most of the events only cost 4-5 Euro so it's very reasonable entertainment.

Tomorrow we head out on our first side trip from Amsterdam, more in a few days time.