Day 4: Our Belated Post on the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum

Friday - May 15, 2009

Hello all. It is Tuesday and we are in St. Emilion in southern France. We need to catch you up on our trip.

Friday was our last day in Amsterdam. We must have been exhausted – we slept until 10:30 in the morning. We hurried to the train for Amsterdam Centraal and Tram #2 for the museums. The Rijksmuseum was hung with banners announcing the visit of the Vermeer Woman with a Balance from Washington DC that I had seen last summer. The Rijksmuseum normally has four Vermeers. The Love Letter is on loan, so we would still get to see four Vermeers.

We grabbed a light lunch across from the museum so we could spend the afternoon inside. The Rijksmuseum has been under renovation since 2005 and will open fully in 2012/13. The Phillips wing is open and houses the Dutch masters from the Golden Age (1600s). The Rembrandts are extraordinary. I had not seen my favorite, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem in 40 years. I managed to capture a picture of this small painting before the guard told me that cameras were not allowed (Our Rick Steves’ guide book had indicated that non-flash photography was permitted, but not true). Of course Night Watch is the largest and most famous Rembrandt to see. There were many other extremely beautiful ones.

The four Vermeers were stunning: The Little Street is a unique street scene with incredible detail. We almost didn’t see it since it was separate from the others; the Women with a Balance is graceful and beautiful; Woman in Blue with a Letter is classic Vermeer: the window, the woman, and the map on the back wall; the Milkmaid brought tears – the colors are vivid and beautiful.

The Van Gogh museum is showing a special evening and night themed collection of Van Gogh paintings and his inspirations from all over the world. Starry Starry Night is the highlight and was so much more beautiful in this setting than in the MoMA in March. So interesting to see how Millet, Rembrandt and Delacroix all influenced Van Gogh's work. You are so aware of the tragedy of his suicide after struggling with epilepsy became impossible for him.

We finished the exhibition, exhausted and starving, looked outside the museum and it was pouring. We knew there was the whole permanent exhibition to go, so had a GREAT dinner in the museum coffee shop. There was a cool camera setup where you could appear to stand in the middle of a Van Gogh painting projected up on a wall. Janet and I played with that and finished the museum in time for the rain to stop, a Friday night band to start playing and throngs of young people to pack the entrance.

We rode the train back to Schiphol and made a final look at the shops. The trains were clean and comfortable. Some looked brand new.

This was the end of our transition phase. Tomorrow we are set to leave on an early train to Paris and Bayeux to begin our two-week dream vacation in France. We would be staying with our friends John and Gigi Bromage, owners of FranceCustomTours.com for two nights in one of their gites before heading out for a trip to Brittany, the Dordogne, Albi, Carcassonne, Toulouse, St. Emilion and Bordeaux with John.

We kept passing a great flower stand at the airport – and even though we were lugging hundreds of pounds of luggage (see first post), it seemed wrong to come for a visit from Amsterdam and not bring flowers. We bought a beautiful yellow lily bouquet for Gigi and figured that we would find a way to get it to Bayeux (begging a water carafe from the CitizenM front desk for the night for starters). We stayed up packing (Did I mention there was absolutely no room in this chic Hotel room?) and set early alarms, crashing to bed for a restless short night – eager to begin.

Stay tuned for more,
Love from Janet and Rozanne

Day 3: The Fantastic Hague and Delft

Thursday - May 14, 2009


Watch out for the bikes! Bikes are everywhere. Rush hour in Amsterdam is a bike rush hour and crowded trains and buses.

Our biggest challenge has been our "rainshower" in our room. You can not turn on the water until you are inside the shower. When you do turn on the water, it rains cold water on your head until the water heats up to the temperature you have set. Of course the temperature is in Centigrade and you need glasses to read the fine print on the control. At least the hotel put a cotton bathmat in the shower because it is too slippery without it. We are ready for a bathtub.
We took a train to the Hague. There was a transfer involved, however the level of detail in our Rick Steves books and our willingness to ask questions got us to the right place.

The art work at the Mauritshuis was amazing. The three Vermeers were the highlight. Girl with a Pearl Earring is so much more vibrant when you see the painting. Prints can not capture the luminosity. The View of Delft is a very famous Vermeer. The works by Rembrandt, Steen and others were wonderful. This is a museum well worth the trip.





We had wonderful brie and goat cheese salads at Cafe Lunden in the Hague. Rozanne had mint tea. They made it by putting fresh mint leaves in a tea cup and pouring in hot water.

We traveled to Delft by Tram.
The Royal Delft shop was great - we spent a lot of time looking at all the collections and bought many gifts here.

Delft is a cozy town to explore. We followed streets along the many canals.

Dinner was Dutch Pancakes (Pannenkoeken)served on a canal boat by our restaurant. I had a farm special with cooked vegetables and cheese - delicious. We tasted Dutch gin and drank more cassis.

Delft would be a nice town to spend a night. People are friendly and helpful. It is smaller and less traveled than Amsterdam.

The Netherlands have been a restful treat. Everyone can speak English. We have asked directions many times and have been answered with friendly smiles.

Goodnight again. Tomorrow we see the great art museums in Amsterdam and a concert at the Van Gogh Museum.

Rozanne and Janet

Days 1 & 2: We made it to Amsterdam!

Tuesday & Wednesday - May 12-13, 2009

After frantic calls to our airport limousine Tuesday morning, we found out the driver had been in a crash and another driver would be an hour late to pick us up. Fortunately Janet called Brigitte Westphal and she jumped in her car and got us to the airport on time. Janet was able to check in. My reservation was lost. However, it eventually became found and we checked our free bags and dragged hundreds of pounds of luggage through the carry on process and got everything stored in overhead bins - first to Atlanta and ultimately to Amsterdam.

We had a peaceful night, but unfortunately were not able to sleep a wink. We were warned about rain and wind in Amsterdam. We planned to hunker down and complete our destinations in spite of weather and eventually go to sleep. (Today's post will be brief because it is already 9pm and we are TIRED!!!!!)

We arrived to balmy weather and sun! We found out there is a mini-Rijksmuseum at the airport with a collection of Dutch masters behind airport security. We saw them - beautiful. We collected our luggage and pulled our caravan of bags out the door of the Schiphol airport directly to the CitizenM - our hotel.

They found us a room even though it was 8:30am. We put on new clothes and headed for Amsterdam and the Anne Frank house.

The lovely people there took pity on the two tired Americans and let us in immediately with our internet tickets, even though we were almost three hours early. The house is unbelievable. Steep flights of tiny stairs go up to the secret rooms where a total of 8 people including the 4 Franks hid for four years. It is unbelievable, their life. It is tragic that all were captured and deported to death camps. Seven died within months of liberation at the end of the war. Only Anne's father survived to publish his daughter's diary and create the museum.


We spent the afternoon walking the beautiful Jordaan neighborhood and viewing the buildings at the Dam. We finished our day with an early dinner at the "Kantjil de Tigre" (Rabbit & Tiger) an Indonesian restaurant with mini-Rijsttafel dinners and an easy train ride back to CitizenM.

We have had a wonderful first day and are going to sleep now. We wish you well. Good night, Janet and Rozanne

Tomorrow we leave

Monday - May 11, 2009

Well, this is just a test to make sure I know how to publish our journal. Janet and Rozanne leave for the Netherlands and France tomorrow morning. We are leaving behind four of our wonderful group who went to France with us in September, 2008. It feels like we are leaving behind part of ourselves (indeed we are).

Right now, we are trying to stuff the last of the necessities into our suitcases. I have unzipped the suitcase expander on the checked bag and pushed more things in. Still looking at vitamins and makeup sitting on the bed next to the already full carry-ons. It was a good time to take a break and learn to blog.

Our next update will probably be on Wednesday evening from Amsterdam. We will send out the link to our blog to family and our trip friends from September so you can follow our adventures. We miss you and "wish you were here too".

Love to you all,
Janet and Rozanne