Back to the Capital- (13/04)

It was only fair to give Amsterdam another whirl for my last weekend in NL. I and my 2 closest friends here even booked a hostel for Saturday night to make sure we didn’t miss out on anything in order to get back for the last train! We spent the Saturday walking around in the lovely weather (just as I did on my first visit to Amsterdam!), having a look at the street performers of Dam Square and relaxing. We’d also booked ourselves an hour long canal boat tour of Amsterdam which was awesome. Unlike last time I wasn’t in control of steering the thing so I could really soak up the canal atmosphere from the outside seating area. We even managed to catch an odd word or two from the boat’s automated guide which was unfortunately only playing inside!

The evening was spent at a number of clubs and bars in Amsterdam’s Leidesplein (a square I’d already been to before and loved!) because it was where our hostel was located. Very convenient! It seemed like so long ago that I was chilling in Amsterdam with my sister and friend. Back then I was thinking about coming to Ypenburg to start with the host family I’d just been invited to join. 7 months later and there I was again but this time thinking about coming home to start afresh in the UK...

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. 

A Dusseldorf Daytrip- (15/12)

At 6.40am I was waiting with 2 good friends at Centraal Station for a coach to Dusseldorf still not 100% sure where it was on the map let alone what to expect from  the place.

However the journey of 3.5hrs placed us a mere 10 minutes from the thick of the Christmas Market (or should I say markets) so it wasn’t long before I found out. There were 6 strategically placed markets each with a particular attraction for instance Marktplatz had a 100 year old merry go round, Heinrich-Heine Platz a music pavilion and Gustaf-Grundgens Platz an ice rink. The latter was a lot of fun.

All the little wooden huts, nostalgic of times gone by, were surrounded by Christmas lights and decorations from giant baubles in a giant Christmas tree to life size craved nativity scenes to motion window displays.

Dusseldorf itself stood beautifully under a clear sky and later under a spectacular sunset. Under the wooden roofs were stalls stuffed full of pancakes and honey pots, handmade pottery and jewellery, chocolates and candles, huge cookies and roasting chestnuts, tree decorations and trinkets, sweeties and scarves, mulled wine and meats. Something for everyone. It was comforting to hear so much Dutch being spoken and we even stumbled upon a British singer songwriter performing on the corner of one of the markets. He was truly amazing, well worth the large crowd that formed around him. Rupert Blackman. We had to tear ourselves away from the guy in order to catch the coach back at 5pm. Great way to round off a pretty successful little daytrip. Hopefully the first of many!