A Day of Discovery (23/03/13)

It’s fair to say that I have learnt a lot about myself over the past few months but last Saturday I actually learnt a lot about my self ; my body. Appropriately by one of the University of Leiden’s faculties the CORPUS is certainly an eye-catcher. 
A humongous copper-coloured human figure sits within the CORPUS’s modern framework of glass and grey. We truly unveiled the extent of the building’s size and indeed the extensive intricacy of our human body in the arranged audio tour. Starting at the entrance you can amazingly go step by step (physically) through each major part of the body with the occasional stop to watch a 3D video. The trip of the sperm to the egg was certainly a 3D experience I won’t forget any time soon. My favourite part was jumping on the springy nature of the tongue! We even journeyed with the red blood cells on a sort stationary roller-coaster experience to the heart! 

The tour was expertly organised and all the information was simply explained. Within an hour we were finished and free to wonder the interactive section of the museum where the focus was on diet, exercise and general health. Exercise bikes, optical illusions, quiz shows all stood side by side in each room until we had travelled all the way back down to the ground floor. Apparently the average person will spend 12 years of their life talking! 

Definitely a day of discovery!   

Royal Delft (16/03)

Now it’s safe to stay that Delft is a place I have been to before: one of the first places I really fell in love with (click here) and one that I loved sharing with my sister when she came to stay (more on her visit here) and just recently, the lovely IKEA Delft with Ma! However one thing I hadn’t yet seen was one of the Delft Blue pottery factories. A short walk from the centre The Royal Dutch Delftware Manufactory seemed the perfect choice...

Included in the price of admission was an audio guide and mini tour to get us started. An initial introductory video taught my 2 friends and I of the Chinese origins in the pottery design and of its rise and then decline in popularity. Indeed at one point the Royal Delft in which we sat was Delft’s sole producer of the now world renowned pottery. The next room took us through the making process, in which automated machinery followed the guide’s voice and video screens seamlessly. It was fascinating to hear that some pottery was still produced using the traditional methods and indeed all pieces are signed using the original trademark signature. We were even able to observe up close one of Delft’s master painters at work!

Following the audio guide round the museum, its beautiful courtyard, working industrial factory and shop (where the prices were astoundingly high, a mark of how highly it is held in esteem!) was truly an experience. Thankfully photos were allowed! There's even a Miffy in the Delft Blue style...

   

A Mum for Mother’s Day (09/03)

Why are the previous blog posts only coming now and not after they happened? Well that is because I have been without a laptop for 5 weeks. A laptop brought by my parents and delivered by my Mum just last week (5-10th) has meant that I can blog once more and also regain a couple of shreds of my sanity! We spent 3 evenings together in IKEA Delft sipping on free tea and coffee and munching on their lovely food selection and the other available 2 and Sunday with our Dutch family. Saturday, however, was a day for my Ma to meet my friends! Dropping by Wassenaar we picked the best of the bunch for a day sightseeing!

Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is a village just outside of Rotterdam and is home to a stunning 19 windmills set against a beautifully water-ridden landscape, now a National World Heritage Site. The wind blew ridiculously hard and the rain fell ridiculously hard the whole day long but it didn’t stop us having a walk around what has become an epitome of the Netherland’s battle but also affinity with water. The well- known saying here that ‘God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands’ sprang to mind as we learnt of its long history. Of course all the windmills were once homes so it was interesting to go inside the Museum Windmill and discover how the mill itself worked and how the miller and their family lived in such a tight space. An electric pumping station on site was also interesting. It has an astounding capacity of 1500 m3 of water per minute, surprisingly quiet for such a tremendous workload!      

Noah’s Ark

Kinderdijk rests between Rotterdam and Dordrecht, the later plays host to perhaps one of the stranger things that I can now say I have visited in this wonderful land. Noah’s Ark. Not the real one but a replica. Made using original materials and measurements by Johan Huibers. It is approximately 30m wide, 23m high and 135m long and with a size of 20,000m2 it truly is mind blowing. The life sized polyester animals that stood alongside many real ones demonstrated this effortlessly. Ma and I happily re-read the story of Noah, that of creation, the little facts about all the different animals mentioned in the Bible and particularly the details of how the Ark was perfectly possible to build in the time of Noah and how it could easily facilitate all the different ‘kinds’ of animal of the world as outlined by God. In fact 36.5% of the Ark was more than necessary to accommodate the animals, the rest was used for food storage, Noah and his family.

It was amazing to discover that the building of the Ark was inspired by a dream in 1992. Johan Huibers dreamt that waves from the ocean washed over the Netherlands during a storm. The dream was followed by even more signs, meaning he had to rebuild the Ark. This Ark is not meant to save people from a global flood as Noah did 4,000 years ago, but to tell people that there is a God who loves us, and that He has a plan for our lives. A fact that I’d somewhat forgotten over the past testing weeks.      

Rotterdam, not just anywhere (09/02)

Rotterdam is around 26km south-east of The Hague, that’s merely 30 minutes on the train, and is the 2^nd most populated city in the Netherlands (only Amsterdam sits above it) so a visit there was well overdue. The dawning of the Chinese New Year and the annual China Light Festival in Rotterdam’s biggest park, the Euromast Park, which proceeds it provided the perfect push. A very busy city by Dutch standards there were endless amounts of things to see. We took some time to simply soak it all up with a walk through its many high-streets, side streets (bursting with creativity!) and last but not least its harbour.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen:

Along the way we simply had to stop by one of the most well-known art museums in Rotterdam. You can travel from the Middle Ages to the 21^st century passing masterpieces by none other than Van Eyck, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Magritte and Dalí. Their special exhibition on Van Eyck, The Road to Van Eyck, was of particular interest to me as, to this day, he is seen as the progenitor of realism in painting. The exhibition is literally centred on 7 pieces known to be by Van Eyck and the surrounding works are those of his predecessors. A delightfully simple way to outline his revolutionary development.  

Seeing the development of Impressionism, Modernism and Surrealism in the main section of the museum was also interesting. My favourite find was Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas as I’d studied the piece at school. I was fascinated by the use of mixed media, a wax figure with real clothing, but also by the tragic story behind such girls at the Paris Opera of the time. The sculpture was smaller than I’d imagined but her primitive features and dutiful poise had as bigger effect as any in real life! Another section of the museum explored the way that everyday objects have changed over the last 800 years, quite the undertaking and one of the reasons why the museum itself is so huge!

China Light Festival:

With the onset of snow we made our way to the Euromast Park to walk around over 35 wonderfully colourful light sculptures depicting a variety of subject matter. From flowers to temples to gods to animals to a 100 metre long dragon floating on water…they really had everything required to make you feel like a part of the festivities. Traditional Chinese dancing and cuisine were also on show! The view from the top of the Euromast Tower, some 185 metres tall, although slightly weather impaired, showed off the lights with great drama especially as night began to close in on us. Looking out across the skyline of Rotterdam, and indeed further, I promised myself a return visit. 

Dutch Doctors- (01/02)

It was a typically cold Thursday morning on the way to the gym. Little did I know that the nibbling cold wasn’t going to be the only thing to cause me discomfort... During my gym class I and many others were, under the relentless encouragement of our instructor, attempting set after set of tricep dips. Into the 3^rd set, having only just struggled through the sit-ups, I was wavering and as I tried to haul myself out of a dip I heard a clunk across my chest. It was an unattractive drop to the floor. The shooting pain made cycling home difficult, daily peck-horsing, clambering children, cleaning and just sitting and standing as much so.

The kids were off school the following Friday but I was in too much pain to wait until Monday so a trip to the Dutch Doctors with kids as very reluctant moral support was in order. Passport, travel insurance documents and EHIC all proved invaluable but didn’t stop it costing me €25+. In true Dutch fashion the consultation was very to the point. A small rupture in the muscles across my chest was diagnosed and strong painkillers prescribed. It should heal itself but since this happened in January and gyming is still off the cards I am getting slightly impatient.