Europe Travels – 23 July - 3 Aug, 2007
On Monday, 23 July, we drove to Haarlem, Netherlands, the home of the painter Franz Halls about a half hour drive from Amsterdam. It’s a very cute little town with canals, narrow winding streets and a large square with a market selling all kinds of thing from buttons to cheeses. There were a number of little side streets with cute houses with flower boxes everywhere. The museum was sadly closed. The next day we explored more of Amsterdam walking through the central Dam Square and the quaint Jordaan neighborhood.
Wednesday, 25 July we drove 1.5 hrs to Arnhem, to a Dutch National Park. The park had the wonderful Kroller-Muller Modern Art Museum with a collection of Van Goghs rivaling that of the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and many other wonderful 18-19 century paintings and outdoor sculptures. Nearby we visited the historical outdoor museum displaying a complete old Dutch village with thatched roofed houses, barns and windmills that had been collected and moved here, it was a sort of Dutch Williamsburg. Meg and Amanda particularly liked the gnomes.
Thursday the girl’s final day here, they were getting a little saturated with sightseeing and museums but did get a glimpse at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to see the Rembrandt and Vermeer paintings. From here we continued to the Amsterdam Historical Museum while the girls went home to pack and get ready for their flight home. The museum put many of the sights we had seen in Amsterdam into perspective and gave us a greater appreciation of the development and past glories of Amsterdam and Holland.
On Friday we drove took a short train ride to the airport, and sat in a six passenger compartment which reminded the girls of Harry Potter movies. We left the girls in the airport security line and kept in touch with them by text messaging until their flight took off. We took advantage of the nice day and drove to Volendam, a cute little historic seaport and hopped on a boat bound for the island of Marken, an old fishing village, but now a tourist destination. Very cute!! Complete with canals, old buildings, flowers etc.
The next day we drove 2.5 hrs south to Brugge in Belgium, where we spent most of 3 days. Brugge is a wonderfully photogenic old medieval town with canals, old churches, defensive towers, gates with draw bridges ,windmills, flowers and lots of tourists on the weekend. We had a great time waking around, taking a canal boat ride, taking lots of pictures and eating “mouls” and frits (Muscles and French fries) Belgeian chocolates and waffles. Wonderful!
Tuesday and Wednesday, our last two days in Amsterdam we visited some of the sights we had missed including the temporary Stedelijk Modern Art Museum (too bad the main one was closed for renovation- we didn’t really enjoy the temporary exhibit much), the NEMO science and old ship museum, the Jewish museum in the old Synagogue, red light district, the Resistance Museum (very interesting) and Rembrandt’s House (also very interesting).
On Thursday, 2 Aug, we picked up a Hertz rental car, packed up our luggage and headed south toward Germany, 3 hours to the historic town of Aachen where we met Peter Zimmerman, an old friend and colleague from JPL. Peter was born in Aachen and gave us a delightful brief tour of this ancient city where we saw Roman ruins, in the square, the Coronation hall in the ancient town hall building, and the beautiful cathedral where Charlemagne was buried in 814. Can you imagine growing up in a town with 1300 years of historic remnants!! We sampled the local “Printen” cookies had lunch and then followed Peter to his home about an hour away in Meckenheim, Germany, a small town near Bonn in the midst of fields and orchards. Peter and his wife Irene have a wonderful house and treated us royally. Peter showed us his lily ponds, Golden Pheasants, bees and honey extraction and his incredible workshop with all his projects including glass sculpting, firing kiln, and biology lab. Irene prepared wonderful meals, despite her injured shoulder. The next day we had a difficult time leaving Irene and Peter and their wonderful Hospitality. It was a lovely way to start our short visit to Germany and colored the rest of our stay there with a warm feeling. From here we continued the next leg of our trip driving down to Rhine River.
Wednesday, 25 July we drove 1.5 hrs to Arnhem, to a Dutch National Park. The park had the wonderful Kroller-Muller Modern Art Museum with a collection of Van Goghs rivaling that of the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam and many other wonderful 18-19 century paintings and outdoor sculptures. Nearby we visited the historical outdoor museum displaying a complete old Dutch village with thatched roofed houses, barns and windmills that had been collected and moved here, it was a sort of Dutch Williamsburg. Meg and Amanda particularly liked the gnomes.
Thursday the girl’s final day here, they were getting a little saturated with sightseeing and museums but did get a glimpse at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam to see the Rembrandt and Vermeer paintings. From here we continued to the Amsterdam Historical Museum while the girls went home to pack and get ready for their flight home. The museum put many of the sights we had seen in Amsterdam into perspective and gave us a greater appreciation of the development and past glories of Amsterdam and Holland.
On Friday we drove took a short train ride to the airport, and sat in a six passenger compartment which reminded the girls of Harry Potter movies. We left the girls in the airport security line and kept in touch with them by text messaging until their flight took off. We took advantage of the nice day and drove to Volendam, a cute little historic seaport and hopped on a boat bound for the island of Marken, an old fishing village, but now a tourist destination. Very cute!! Complete with canals, old buildings, flowers etc.
The next day we drove 2.5 hrs south to Brugge in Belgium, where we spent most of 3 days. Brugge is a wonderfully photogenic old medieval town with canals, old churches, defensive towers, gates with draw bridges ,windmills, flowers and lots of tourists on the weekend. We had a great time waking around, taking a canal boat ride, taking lots of pictures and eating “mouls” and frits (Muscles and French fries) Belgeian chocolates and waffles. Wonderful!
Tuesday and Wednesday, our last two days in Amsterdam we visited some of the sights we had missed including the temporary Stedelijk Modern Art Museum (too bad the main one was closed for renovation- we didn’t really enjoy the temporary exhibit much), the NEMO science and old ship museum, the Jewish museum in the old Synagogue, red light district, the Resistance Museum (very interesting) and Rembrandt’s House (also very interesting).
On Thursday, 2 Aug, we picked up a Hertz rental car, packed up our luggage and headed south toward Germany, 3 hours to the historic town of Aachen where we met Peter Zimmerman, an old friend and colleague from JPL. Peter was born in Aachen and gave us a delightful brief tour of this ancient city where we saw Roman ruins, in the square, the Coronation hall in the ancient town hall building, and the beautiful cathedral where Charlemagne was buried in 814. Can you imagine growing up in a town with 1300 years of historic remnants!! We sampled the local “Printen” cookies had lunch and then followed Peter to his home about an hour away in Meckenheim, Germany, a small town near Bonn in the midst of fields and orchards. Peter and his wife Irene have a wonderful house and treated us royally. Peter showed us his lily ponds, Golden Pheasants, bees and honey extraction and his incredible workshop with all his projects including glass sculpting, firing kiln, and biology lab. Irene prepared wonderful meals, despite her injured shoulder. The next day we had a difficult time leaving Irene and Peter and their wonderful Hospitality. It was a lovely way to start our short visit to Germany and colored the rest of our stay there with a warm feeling. From here we continued the next leg of our trip driving down to Rhine River.
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 2:54 AM
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