Museum Rembrandthuis.

We are most impressed by the cleanness of Amsterdam – no peeling paint and the canals neither look nor smell as though they are a dumping ground. We spent this afternoon wandering around on trams, getting off and walking through a lovely park with daffodils everywhere, but nothing else yet. We both expected Amsterdam to be colder than Venice but it is considerably warmer. Some hardy people are going around jerseyless!

The Palace, Amsterdam.

Canal.

Oosterpark.

The narrowest house in Amsterdam.

We will post this tomorrow. We had decided not to post in Venice because the Italian postal system is not to be trusted. The soup is just

15th April, 8.40 a.m.
We really are having the most beautiful weather, with not one cloudy day yet! It's so warm in Amsterdam that I went around without a jacket or jersey yesterday, and the sleeves to my shirt rolled up.  Ann has a rather nasty cold, so she kept her jersey on, but went without her anorak.

We had a real feast of culture yesterday, starting in the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art where most of the exhibits were VERY modern, but also very interesting.  We enjoyed the small collection of impressionist and other works less on the fringe, but some of the contemporary stuff was a bit bizarre.  Things like a whole room with a rough picture of a branch in the middle of the ceiling with a few real leaves scattered underneath it on the floor; and then another room filled with TV sets each with its own video tape doing its own thing; or a mirror with fishing net around it, on the floor, with a carved foot hanging above it.

A class in the Stedelijk Museum.

Cezanne: The Mount of St Victoire.

Monet: La Corniche di Monaco.

After that we went on to the Van Gough Museum, which was really more our cup of tea.

Workshop in the Van Gough Museum.

Self Portrait by Van Gough.

It really was a lovely museum - big, modern, airy, spacious.  We greatly enjoyed the paintings which included about half of Van Gough's artistic output.  On our way back to the hotel by tram we stopped at a supermarket to get some food and after lunch we set off for the Rijksmuseum.  This is not as vast as the Louvre but is still pretty huge.  We decided to confine ourselves to Rembrandt and Vermeer to begin with.  The highlight, of course, is Rembrandt's Night Watch which was not as dark as I had expected, but recently they have removed all the layers of varnish and one can now see what Rembrandt actually painted.  It really is very striking.

Rijksmuseum.

Rembrandt: The Jewish Bride.

Detail of a painting by Rembrandt.

We then wandered through the silver, gold, glass and applied arts sections and were disappointed in seeing only two pieces of Delft.  But for me the highlight of the day was our outing to the Concertgebouw.  The performances were really outstanding.  The String Serenade by Suk was a lovely work, very sensitively played, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1 and Mozart's Jupiter symphony both got standing ovations, the first time I've ever been to a concert where this has happened.  Such was the enthusiasm that they played us a short string piece by Suk (I think) as an encore.

The Concertgebouw.

Daffodils opposite the Concertgebouw.

A canal bridge near our hotel.

15th April, 2.00 p.m.
We took a tram ride out to the Skinny Bridge this morning, but it was nothing spectacular.   After that it was Anne Frank's house, which was very well presented.  In the first part of the house there was a history of the Second World War, paying particular attention to Holland.  The annexe was preserved largely as it was when the family was there.  It was very moving looking at all the magazine and newspaper cuttings she had stuck on the walls.  The visit ended rather less well than it began: the Anne Frank Foundation is now used to combat racism, which is all very well, but it was obvious from the propaganda against South Africa and Rhodesia that it was not the sort of organisation I would care to support, probably as a result of our being so closely involved on the other side of our won all to recent war.

Evening
We spent most of the afternoon on trams.  We decided to have a look at western Amsterdam where the affluent live.  On our way out we saw a spectacular roundabout which was covered in daffodils.  The flowers everywhere have been lovely, with some blossom trees and the odd tulip here and there, and all sorts of things in window boxes.  We visited a supermarket and then had tea sitting on a park bench.

After that it was back to the centre of town to see St Nicholas Church which turned out to be closed on weekdays!  The Dutch are rather mean with their churches, as that was the third we have unsuccessfully tried to see.  So we took another tram out to see more suburban Amsterdam and finally home again.  We really have had our money's worth from our tickets.  The weather has been very kind, and neither of us wore jerseys this afternoon, and Ray didn't this morning either.  Of course all sorts of Amsterdammers are in bikinis!

The main post office, Amsterdam.

Suriname Plein.

Boats at Sloterplas.

16th April, 6.00 p.m.
What a beautiful day!  We set off quite early for Keukenhof to see the tulips and found the tickets were very cheap.  It's quite a long way there from Amsterdam and we decided on the tram to Haarlem and then bus to Keukenhof, and the whole outing cost us only $4.00 each!

Keukenhof.

'Red Emperor' tulips.

The magic of Keukenhof.

The gardens and the hothouses were quite the most beautiful we've ever seen.  Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths - 50 acres of them - in every colour and variety imaginable.  The beds were beautifully laid out along the pathways and in the lawns, with little ponds and fountains.  Although it's hard to describe exactly why, the effect of so much beauty with such exquisite perfumes worked quite a spell on us and we were both very moved by it all.  An experience we won't forget in a hurry.

Ann amongst the tulips, hyacinths and blossom trees, with her feet on the correct side of the bench!

Above and below: in the greenhouses.

Wandering through Keukenhof.

Cultivating bulbs in the fields at Keukenhof.

After that we took another very cheap ride out to Volendam, a village on the Zuiderzee.  It was very picturesque, but definitely a tourist trap with all the shops done out for the tourists, and one café even advertising a 'tourist menu'.

At Volendam, with a smokehouse on the left.

Boats at Volendam on the Zuiderzee.

A street in Volendam.

17th April, 4.15 p.m.
At the airport.
After getting back to Amsterdam from Volendam we wandered around Kalverstraat, the main shopping street, and then went to have a look at the Begijnhof, which is a sort of large courtyard with houses all around it, all very pretty.  And so home to supper.

Kalverstraat.

Begijnhof.

Bloemgracht from Hotel Van Onna.

Hotel Van Onna (next to the church).

Later in the evening we took a nostalgic tram ride to see the last of the canals by night, and very pretty they are too. 

Canals in Amsterdam by night.

This morning we set off after breakfast to the Waag which houses both the Jewish Museum and the Apothecary Museum.  I found the former more interesting, but Ray preferred the latter. 

The Waag.

Apothecary's bottles in the Waag.

We then went to see The Church of Our Lord in the Attic, a catholic church which was used clandestinely after the Reformation, but is now a museum. It's in the middle of the red light district, and so I was fascinated to see the various ladies setting up shop!

Seventeenth century Church of Our Lord in the Attic.

From there to the Amsterdam Historical Museum which had an exhibition on the history of Dutch music, very interesting, but many of the sound "exhibits" overlapped, so that you could hear the harpsichord on your left and the organ on your right while you were trying to listen to something between the two.  Very distracting.

We then caught trams to Vondelpark and had a very pleasant lunch among the bicycles, joggers, school kids and daffodils.  Lastly it was back to Hotel Van Onna to collect our luggage and then off to the airport.  We booked in three hours early, but as I write there's only one hour left and we've only just sat down!  We've been busy doing some shopping, as Schipol has the largest duty free in the world.  Mostly we were window shopping, however, as we didn't have quite enough money to buy a car! I did, however, manage to buy some bulbs: it was too late for tulips, unfortunately, so I had to settle for freesias. We also bought some wine to drink tonight at Frances and Alan's to toast our new country, Zimbabwe.  While waiting at Schipol saw the front page of today's Times and it has a photograph of Prince Charles in Salisbury prominently displayed.

On to London, Suffolk, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

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