Day 18 – July 14: A Similar (NOT Shared) Itinerary

LIZ:

When I turned the girls over to my mom on Monday, I knew there was one place we all wanted to go.  Years ago, Julia and I found a list of the 10 most famous paintings in the world and thought it would be fun to try to see them all.  Girl with a Pearl Earring is on that list--and lives only about 30 minutes outside of Amsterdam, in Mauritshuis Royal Gallery in The Hague.  I claimed Thursday as the day I was going to go because Delft has a big market on Thursdays.  So, it isn’t my fault my mom and girls chose the same day.  I got a later start that I intended this morning, catching up with Karine about herwalk from last night and meeting new people in the hostel.  Today’s new friends are a mom and daughter traveling together.  She’s 28, pregnant with her first (that’s how old I was), and a Brown alum!  And, when she went off to college (from California), her mom actually bought a house in Providence a few blocks from campus!  (What do you think of that idea, Julia??) The mom still owns the house and rents it out to groups of 8 seniors each year…waiting list starts when they are sophomores.  Belinda (the daughter) is just finishing up an MBA program outside of Paris and moving back to Santa Monica.

By the time I got on the train and arrived at the Hague it was noon – I thought for sure my mom and the girls would have come and gone by then, but as I entered the first room I ran smack into my mom walking out!  She was none too excited to see me.  They were meeting in the lobby 12:15 to leave so she let me say hello to the girls briefly and then they were off. 

JULIA:

We started our morning very early by our standards (awake at 7) so that we could get to the train station and figure out how to get to the Hague for the opening of the museum.  Of all the museums we have seen during our time in Amsterdam, this one was by far my favorite.  Not only did it have an impressive collection, it was much more intimate and smaller than the others we’ve been to.  Since it was a little out of the way from Amsterdam city center, there were far fewer people there so I was able to get a very close up look at the Girl with a Pearl Earring, something I was not able to do with Van Gogh’s even lesser-known works. Shockingly enough we ran into someone we knew in the museum: my mom!  We all said hi and talked for a little bit, but my grandma was not about to prolong this breach of our rules.

LIZ:

I agree that there was something special about the setting of this museum.  It houses largely Dutch work from the Golden 17^th century, Rembrandts, Jan Steen, and a few Vermeers.  The rooms are small enough that you can sit in the middle of the room and see all the works.  The audio guide was excellent. I probably don’t understand art enough to know why out of all the great things we saw The Girl with a Pearl Earring is the most famous – but it is eerie how no matter where you stand, she is looking at you.  She is not a portrait but an imaginative painting.  I also really enjoyed seeing The Goldfinch, having read the book it inspired.  I think my mom’s favorite were the Holbein portraits.  And, my favorite may have been this one of a young boy lighting his candle from the that of an old woman, after listening to the description of it being symbolic of him being ready to start off on his own adventures as her adventures are coming to an end. 

I like the story behind this one - teach your children well 

The queen symbolically
given parliament
permission to rule

After the museum, I took a brief detour into the Parliament Complex to see where Dutch politics take place.  Funny that Amsterdam is the capital, but the political center is here in The Hague.  I didn’t go into any of the buildings but did walk through the courtyard and see the statue of the current Queen Beatrix who gives her symbolic approval of the governing of her country.

JULIA:

We decided to wait for lunch until we got to Delft, the next town on our trip around the outskirts of Amsterdam, but as we walked back to the train station, we found a place selling a Dutch specialty we’ve been dying to try: French fries wrapped in a cone and drizzled with sauces of one’s choosing.  While most of the ones we’ve seen have looked more like street food, the one we ended up with was from a more upscale shop that specialized in this treat; besides bottled water, it was the only product they sold!

We got to Delft, grabbed a map at tourist information, and went to lunch at a restaurant in the town’s main square, where I couldn’t help but try another Dutch specialty: crepe-like pancakes coated with strawberries, whipped cream, and powdered sugar. While probably not the healthiest lunch, it might have been one of my favorites!

Delft!

LIZ:

I too waited to eat lunch in Delft.  It was nearing 3 by the time I arrived and I was super hungry.  I wandered through the big Thursday market and to an award-winning sandwich shop that Rick recommended (and the TI lady concurred).  I first chose a table on the barge-like boat on the canal, buoyed by my successful boating adventure yesterday, but surprisingly even in the totally calm canal, just having people come on and off the boat moved it enough that I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit there without getting sick.  So, I moved to an also cute dry land table for an enjoyable lunch.

The big news right now in Delft (the town that Vermeer lived and worked in his whole life) is that they think they have identified the exact spot depicted in one of Vermeer’s famous paintings.  The original is being exhibited in a museum in town, so I headed there next but opted to skip that museum in favor of the Vermeer Museum.  It was nearing 4 and I only had time for one of them….and when I walked in I was again greeted by my none-too-pleased mother.  The girls were just finishing up upstairs so instead of going to the start of the museum I went up to find them. I put my head on Rachel’s shoulder from behind…I don’t know who she thought it was because she didn’t react at all, until she slowly turned around and realized it was me and jumped.  That made me laugh out loud…

JULIA:

Next we moved on to the Vermeer Museum, which featured information about his life and work (he was born and raised in Delft) as well as some fascinating exhibits on how the different colors were created, how he used light sources in different ways and the complex imagery in his works.  On the last floor I was standing around the corner from Rachel when I heard the signature, inappropriately loud (for a museum) laugh of my mom – she had found us again!

We left the museum to visit a beautiful church next to the square, the final resting place of many Dutch nobilities since the mid-17^th century.  Grandma graciously agreed to sit in the church while Rachel and I climbed up the 300 stairs of the church tower.  Although we both suffered at least one bump on the head on the narrow, winding staircase, the views were well worth it!

LIZ:

I too enjoyed the Vermeer exhibits.  They don’t actually have any of his original works but have reproductions of them all and spend a lot of time explaining him and his process.  He is famous mostly for interior shots of people doing real things.  I liked seeing the part about drawing perspectives with ropes on a large scale.  From the museum I walked down the street to see the spot depicted in his famous exterior street scene.  I was worried I wouldn’t be able to identify it, but they took care of that for me!

I walked back through the big Thursday market that was closing up stalls for the day, just in time to buy this fresh stroopwafle straight off the griddle!

JULIA:

We returned to Amsterdam around 6, and decided to look for a “brown café” (an Amsterdam term for a small restaurant put into a former row house) that Grandma remembered loving the last time she was here.  We thought we had found it, but the place we ended up at did not serve food, only alcohol, so we decided to keep walking.  We found the adorable Café George right next door, and had a wonderful dinner.  Afterwards, we opted for the walk home, and played three rounds of cards (Rachel won), before going to sleep.

LIZ:

I had more plans for today – mostly I really wanted to get to Gouda so I could buy some gouda in Gouda…but by that time it didn’t make a lot of sense. All of the shops would be closed by the time I would arrive. So, I decided to get myself back to the hostel for an early evening.  I had to wander back to town for dinner in an Italian restaurant made by a real Italian woman and after that spent most of the evening chatting with my new friends – the Dutch girls who have been here with me the whole time (Marieke and Diedre) sat with me for a while with their books.  They are very sweet, both studying to be graphic artists.  I reconnected with the Belinda (from Brown) and her mom, and gave my contact info to one of the three recent Barnard grads who is moving to SF when she gets back to the states to go to pharmacy school.  Can anyone else see me running a hostel in my future as clearly as I can??