In February I received a call from Pat asking if I liked Vermeer. Well after a couple of moments of hesitation, I remembered “The Milkmaid”, and that was about all. Pat proceeded to tell me of a show at in Amsterdam (now she had my attention). It was the largest collection of his work, and she simply had to go.
After looking at what else was going on in Amsterdam, there was large van Gogh exhibit going on as well, we decided we should go.
How the museums exhibits were high on Pat and Hugh’s list. All I could think about was let the weather stay cool, so I can see the tulip fields!
We had one problem…the Vermeer exhibit was sold out. There was a hint that maybe more tickets would become available.
So periodically I checked the Rijksmuseum website to see if anything was available. One morning in mid-March, I woke up about 3am and decided to check, and new tickets had just been released! I decided against waking up my two potential travel companions and bought three tickets!
Everyone got very excited as we planned the trip. I was in charge of the travel plans. I booked tickets to fly into London. From there I wasn’t certain what I was going to do, but international tickets, reasonably priced, are sometimes difficult to come by. Pat made her ticket purchase and I set about figuring out next steps.
Much later did I realize we were flying into London the day before Charles was crowned King. Well we would just have to deal!
As Pat was so excited about Vermeer, I decided I needed to know something other than the one painting. Hugh was interested in the van Gogh exhibit also occurring at the same time in Amsterdam. Well my knowledge of artists is rather limited. I could probably pick out a Monet, and maybe a van Gogh and few others. So I needed to get up to scratch, if I was planning the trip.
So I set about what we would see what the Rijksmuseum was offering on Vermeer and the van Gogh Museum was showing and what else might be available close to Amsterdam.
What resulted was a trip to Delft to see the Vermeer center there. This was probably my favorite of everything we did. There was so much to explain the lighting that Vermeer used and the symbolism in his paintings. And Delft is itself a wonderful place to visit! While there we travel to den Hague to see the Girl with the Pearl Earring.
As the Kroller Muller Museum had a large collection of van Gogh’s works, we decided to venture there. Hugh had visited the museum before on an earlier trip. From the museum we would travel to take in a wonderful ice cream shop and them on to Maastricht.
Although Hugh and I have spent other vacations in the Netherlands, we had never been to Maastricht. I found a lovely Airbnb outside the city on a small farm. Oh my, that place was amazing! Our breakfasts were five star every morning. The eggs came from the hens frequenting the yard outside our rooms.
Pat had never been to Brugge so after a couple of days seeing Maastricht, doing some shopping and finding the best bakery we headed to Belgium. We stayed right off the main square but finding the hotel was difficult. Hugh caught the attention of a two police-persons as he tried to drive though the square to get to our hotel. We finally decided to just park the car and walk to the hotel. That proved much easier. After we settled in, we moved the car to a closer location. Bruce is fun to walk and explore and it was easy to do from the location of our hotel. We happened to be there over a major holiday, so the streets were abnormally busy. But we found an antique shop to explore, and had a Belgium waffle. The abundance of chocolate shops close to our hotel were fun to explore. They had chocolate shaped into tools, I think Pat took some home to her handy husband, Lyle.
I found a chocolate class which was another highlight of the trip. I also booked a photography tour with a local guide. The photographer gave us lots of tips on things to see and restaurants to visit, as well as great places to photograph.
Pat left from Brugge to return home. Hugh and I left Brugge for Haarlem to see the famous windmill. I’m not certain but I think our hotel was in the red light district and maybe it rented rooms by the hour. We had great fun exploring on foot to find the windmill, I also came across a museum for Corrie ten Boom. I had read her books years ago, and had the museum not been closed, I would have visited.
After Haarlem we drove onto Texel, an island in the North Sea. Mary and I had biked around the island the summer of 1970. I had very fond memories of it. We took a ferry over and arrived too early to check into our Airbnb so found a local place for lunch. Our credit cards were not being accepted, so we found an ATM. At first attempts to use the card failed which had us rather panicked as we were mostly our of Euros. But the third time was the charm. We found our room and met the host. He was a retired sailor, so he had some interesting stories to share. We asked for a recommendation for dinner, and ended up making the reservation for us. We set out to explore the island. There was an old church I really wanted to photograph. But after arriving it was obvious a better morning shoot. So we headed on to the restaurant.
The meal was the best of our 46 years of marriage. Oh my it was such a delight. The restaurant was located outside a forest so there was no noise from anywhere. Everything we had was delicious. Too full for dessert….Our host was so excited when we raved about the meal!
The next morning we set off for Groningen. It wasn’t a long drive so we arrived mid-afternoon. The hotel, again, was too close to the center square and again we seemed to drive right through it! Google maps doesn’t seem to take into account pedestrian only areas. We decide to valet the car as it was just too much trouble to deal with. Our hotel room spanned two floors. It wasn’t large but it was lovely. The shower and bathtub were on the second floor at the top of a small circular staircase.
We were hungry from our drive so we decided to have an early dinner in the hotel. Groningen is the home of mustard soup. Well I had to try it. After earning we walked around the small city. There wasn’t as many tourists in Groningen as we had seen in other towns and the center still felt like it hadn’t been as influenced by tourism. We found a couple of local cheese shops and a wonderful city center office. It was fun exploring.
In the morning we headed to the Groningen Museum. It was the architecture that was draw. They had some nice pieces but I still came away most excited about the museum itself.
After Groningen it was back to Amsterdam to catch a flight to Heathrow and the trip home. After three weeks on the road, it was time. We missed the comforts of home and of course the cats, and Tim.
I thought when we planned the trip it would be our last one to Holland and Belgium but in talking with Pat since our return, it is clear she plans to go back. Could I possibly let her go alone? She might get lost, I probably need to go with her.