Netherlands Trip
I’ve decided not to ruin our trip post about the reasons why the trip was necessary, but it will be coming. I’m sure of it. For now, I just want to focus on the trip itself, which was a rather pleasant experience even if we went there on business. But hey, a trip to a new city (indeed, a new country) can’t be all business so let’s get started.
As anyone who has ever read Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates (or seen the Disney movie) knows, The Netherlands (often called Holland, but Holland really refers to two provinces of The Netherlands - Noord- and Zuid-Holland), is full of canals, particularly Amsterdam. Ann and I can confirm that is true. It’s hard to walk very far in Amsterdam without running into a canal (particularly downtown) or to drive through the country and not come across one or more as well.
If you dig just a tiny a bit deeper (like keep your eyes open for about . . . 30 seconds), you’ll see that there are also a lot of bikes in The Netherlands. A LOT OF BIKES. We can confirm that to be true as well. So much so that Ann and I have discussed the fact that we will likely be getting bikes of our own there. Not only do bikes pretty much have priority over everything else (particularly in the cities), there are bike paths that criss-cross the country even in the remotest areas. Ann and I stopped by an outdoors store (to buy a vehicle map of the country) and there were more map books on bike paths throughout The Netherlands than there were automobile maps (there were also detailed train maps too). This is the bike parking at the main train station in Den Haag (The Hague).
We stayed at an AirBNB in a residential neighborhood in south Amsterdam (near the Rai Exposition Center). It was a nice change from the packed and chaotic central downtown Amsterdam. Even better, the food was amazing. Middle Eastern, Japanese, Italian . . . souname it, msterdam is a real food city. True, it’s not cheap, but your tastebuds will not leave disappointed.
One final fact worth noting that folks might not be familiar with. Maybe it’s the food, or something in the water, but I felt very, very small there. Really. I would have to say that at 5’-11” (ok, 5’-10 3/4”) I was shorter than at least half of the Dutch women we saw. And the men . . . well, they are giants! Ann and I are going to have to get used to feeling like we’re hobbits.
We don’t have a lot of (read: any) images from our first couple of days there. It was a business trip and on the first day we traveled down to Den Haag (via train) to basically complete business registration documents (now officially registered - DTAT Consulting, B.V.), and to pick up some apostille documents from the law firm helping us with our immigration application. Unfortunately, the day we arrived our attorney notified us that he and his family had all tested positive for Covid, so our meeting with him was scrapped. But we got our documents.
Likewise, our meeting with our accountant was also scrapped due to Covid (or Corona as its generally referred to over on this side of the pond), but we knew that even before we left. It’s getting to be that time of year again so time to start being more careful folks.
Tuesday was spent with us making our way, again via train and foot, to Hoofdorp (yes, we’re getting used to Dutch city names too), just south of Amsterdam. There we met with the person (Sanne) helping us find a place and getting set up - still a few steps down the road, but a good opportunity to put a name to a face.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Sanne suggested that since we had some unexpected free time that we rent a car and check out a part of the country that she thought would be a good fit for us based on our expressed desires for what we need and want in a location. Whether we wind up finding a place in that area (it’s a very competitive market), we can say she was right. Best of all (and one of the things we’d mentioned) was that it was near one of the country’s national parks. So after we drove (and walked) in and around several small towns (Barneveld-Luntern-Ede) and back country roads, we headed over to Het Nationale Park de Hoge Veluwe.
It’s a lovely park with a few roads, several bike paths and several hiking trails that run through it. It’s a mix of open land and forested areas, with clumps of trees in transition. BTW - you get to have a mix of Ann’s photos and my photos this time around. I’m not going to identify hers and mine, but here’s one of Ann’s images from the park.
What you realize after exploring the park a bit is that, despite the fact it is in the center of the country, the park is basically a series of vegetated sand dunes. Then again, for all we know, it could be below or at sea level. That’s why it looks like you’re at the beach - of course without the waves crashing on dry sand beach.
And while we did little more than drive along the main roads in the park, with an occasional stop, there were images to be had.
And we decided that the park was well worth returning to, particularly if we hike down some paths or bring bikes along to get further into the trees. Sadly, there isn’t the open wandering you get with many locations in the US, but we’ll just have to live with it. Nevertheless, there are photographic opportunities.
Our last couple of days were a mix of following up on minor business matters, and filling in the time that would have otherwise gone into canceled meetings. Given that feeling I needed to be around to follow-up on any questions or requests, we decided not to try and rent a car again to explore another part of the country (despite a recommendation from the service person at Sixt), and instead decided to check out central Amsterdam. Given that there was so much to do, we decided to pick just one thing and go for it. And since all the tickets to the Van Gogh museum for the next week had already been booked, we settled on the Rijksmuseum.
We took the subway down to the right stop and paused to get a photograph of Amsterdam’s rush hour traffic. Yeah, in early mornings and late afternoons, you really have to watch the bike lanes as you cross them on your way to cross the street!
It didn’t take long to get to the Rijksmuseum. Think of it as the National Gallery of Art with a bit of the Smithsonian Museum combined into one large building.
Of course you go to the Rijksmuseum to see the great Dutch masters and their amazing handling of light and brushwork. Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals and others. The paintings are amazing in person, so long as you get there before the crowds really get there.
No matter how good the reproduction, there is something about being able to closely examine a painting, and then stepping back to get an overall impression. These paintings were lovely.
The Rijksmuseum isn’t just about art though and we headed up to the top floor to see some of the country’s industrial design. They even had a WW1 airplane there!
And some modern art.
After the Rijksmuseum, Ann and I did what we love to do, wander around with no particular destination. There were of course canals . . .
. . . and more than a few bikes to be seen.
Our wanderings took us a bit away from the tourist-oriented downtown, which is full of residences and of course, . . .
. . . more canals.
What I found interesting was that the canals are full of a variety of boats. There are plenty of tourist boats cruising the canals, but plenty of house boats, sail boats and small boats cruising around as well. Who needs a taxi when you can ferry yourself around town?
And everywhere in the city it seems as many bikes as cars passing you by.
After completing one final business trip (to check my mail forwarding address and, surprisingly, pick up mail that had already arrived to it) our last full day in Amsterdam consisted of visiting the less-busy Rembrandt house. It’s where he lived for many years and was the place where he did many of his most famous paintings.
It’s an amazingly narrow and small, multi-story house that was very interesting to go through. They’ve renovated it based upon his drawings of various rooms and you can imagine someone living here and trying to earn a living.
Some rooms are shockingly small, like his office.
Others, less so (think painting studios).
Perhaps the part I liked best was his printing room, where there were many of his original etchings on display as well as a then-contemporary printing press.
It was a surpassingly small, multi-story house. It was hard to imagine that he had work spaces for students, himself (for painting), and etching, as well as an office and rooms where he could show paintings for sale (like the room below). It seems like every room was utilized to make a living.
After the visit to the Rembrandt House, we’d had our fill of crowded places and started wandering the streets again. Which led of course to more canals.
To be honest, I think Ann’s photographs from the canals (like the one below) are better than mine. I really enjoy the composition of the image below and it really gives a feel of what it’s like wandering the streets of Amsterdam (away from the crowded central shopping areas). Though even in the residential areas, you’re never far from a cafe or shop selling things.
The architecture is starkly different than in Portugal, but as Ann noted, it doesn’t seem as harsh in person as it can come across in photographs.
As I mentioned in a previous post, we had a half-day on our final day there. We had to vacate our AirBNB before eleven, but our flight didn’t leave until 8:30 pm, so we dropped our bags off and headed towards the botanical gardens. We’d had enough of crowds and wanted some time around nature - well, as much as you can get in the middle of the city.
On the way we passed a memorial dedicated to the Jewish Deaf who lost their lives to the Nazis. I had to honor their memories in the only way I know how, in thought and imagery. Strangely enough, it was the etched sign-language images that initially caught my eye.
We made our way over to the gardens and for a few hours spent time wandering along paths and through buildings admiring a range of plants. And while we could occasionally hear street sounds and periodically ran into other people, it was a refreshing break from the previous couple of days.
So Ann and I took our time wandering, and photographing as best we could without our tripods.
I’ve occasionally posted examples of images the two of us have made when standing side by side to show how different they are. In this case, well, Ann’s photograph . . .
. . and mine aren’t all that different. I do think that the color from her image reveals the pollen specs in a way that’s absent in mine.
While fall had truly hit The Netherlands and many of the trees had dropped their leaves, there was still a wealth of photographic opportunities in the gardens.
And as I explained in the Abstract Amsterdam post, both Ann and I spent quite some time trying to find the right composition of Ginko Tree leaves on the ground.
One of the most amusing locations was the butterfly house, where Ann did a much better job than I chasing (and photographing) the butterflies.
I managed one, and only one, image of a butterfly, taken with the Q2MR held at arms length over a resting butterfly. The other dozen or so shots either missed entirely, or caught the edge of a butterfly flying off on the edge of the frame. I guess I’m not a wildlife photographer.
Ann, however, tracked them around and managed to capture much more interesting images than I did.
As mentioned, the variety of plants in the garden was refreshing. Around every turn there seemed to be something just a bit different than what you’d seen before.
I wonder what the garden is like in the Spring when everything is in bloom.
It was nice to just take one’s time to visually explore the plants and to relax in nature.
We finally decided it was time to grab lunch and head to the airport. On our way to the metro I caught the reflective tips of something I’d seen online when I was researching places to visit on our half-day excursion. Despite our stomachs growling, we walked over a couple of blocks to visit the Holocaust Memorial.
We didn’t spend time reading the placards at the entrance, so I can’t really say much about it regarding the symbolism of the upper reflective surfaces.
However the names, birth dates and ages on each and every brick didn’t need any explanation.
As with the monument to the Jewish Deaf victims we stopped at earlier in the day, it is a heavy reminder that we should never forget.
That was pretty much it. We made our way to the metro, had lunch then headed to the airport for our evening flight back. And other than me getting a nasty cut on my finger going through security (try holding your arms over your head as the blood starts welling up into a drop), everything went smoothly (after we found a shop that had band-aids). Face it, it was only a flesh wound - I ain’t dead yet!
Like many trips, we got done what we made the trip for, did a bit more but not all of the additional business we wanted, and we explored the area a bit. Not bad for a business trip.
We feel comfortable with everything we’ve seen in The Netherlands, so hopefully it all works out smoothly and quickly so we can get back to our main adventures.