Way back in February Vicki had scored tickets to the impending Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam--critics had described it as a "never before" and "never again" assemblage of the Delft master's works--and we shaved a few days off our spring Paris rental in order to make the pilgrimage. There was a second attraction, of course, Keukenhof, the annual Dutch floral extravaganza 10 miles from the city, which we'd seen and loved in 2016. A third was Amsterdam itself, a city we have visited and enjoyed many times since 1979. [Just search "Amsterdam" in the search box; or click on it in the label cloud]. And a fourth, although we did not know it at the time, was an opportunity to witness King's Day, sort of the Dutch version of Mardi Gras. Quite a spectacle. And then there were the Flemish fries, the stroopwafel, the genever, and other goodies, but we'll get to them en passant.
The trip from Barcelona to Amsterdam was interesting: we had to vacate our Barcelona apartment by 11AM, but our flight did not depart for Amsterdam until nearly 8PM. Accordingly, we were forced to spend 6 hours in the Priority lounge at the airport. Happily, this afforded me the opportunity to sample any Spanish wines/beers/liquors I had somehow missed in the previous three weeks. Also some tapas.
We eventually got to our hotel at Schiphol, about midway between Amsterdam and Keukenhof, and crashed. But the next day we took the Sprinter train into the city to walk around, mostly from the Rijksmuseum to the Central Station, enough to rekindle many fond memories.
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| The Rijksmuseum |
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| Canal scene |
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| Tiny house; subsiding |
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| At a contemporary art gallery |
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| De gustibus... |
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| Diminished flower market; note barges of bicycles... |
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The queue for our (still) favorite friteshuis, Vleminckx; we sampled
two others on this visit, neither nearly as good as Vleminckx... |
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| It's a small place... |
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| Next up, stroopwafel |
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Thus; not your airline stroopwafels; there were many
toppings available |
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| And some shopping |
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| And looking at the old architecture |
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Like the caganers in Spain, the rubber duckies in the Netherlands
have grown from being a thing to being an industry |
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| More architecture |
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Important government building/palace/museum/whatever we may have
once visited |
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| Commercial passage more to our liking |
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| Central Station |
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| Good to be back in Amsterdam |
1 comment:
Ahhhhh, Amsterdam!
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