More of Amsterdam

Sunday 15 July

We woke in good time, and headed to find the nearest “Politie” (seems polite) station. Julia and Sophie came with us and we waited while Sophie lodged her police report and rang her Bank to report her missing Debit card as well. Everything takes longer than you’d expect, but I can report, that our experience with police in Amsterdam has been a polite one.

We chose the Hermitage as our Museum of choice today to see the Russian collection of the Impressionists. The Hermitage specialises in sharing art from the museum of the same name, at St Petersburg. We weren’t disappointed. There were some gorgeous Monets, portraits by Renior, sculptures by Rodin and I loved Cezanne; however, my choice today was Charles Hoffbauer for his play with light and colour and very art nouveaux style. I could almost hear the music.

After, we found a sunny bar near the Opera House and another canal.

This evening we booked into a private hotel a day early. Sophie and Tim came around and we had a light meal together before retiring to bed.

Monday 16 July

We arranged that Sophie would come around 8am so that we’d be on our way early to Den Haag (The Hague). After a tram to the Central Station, a fifty minute train ride, another 15 minute tram ride and a ten minute walk, we were standing beneath the impressive No.77 Eisenhauerstrass pressing the buzzer and asking to be beamed up to the NZ Embassy. A further 15 minute wait and we were seated in the office. What a nice young man. Sophie had done all the right things and had all the right paper work which made things a lot easier. Going early was the right thing too as we needed to fill in about three hours before it was going to be completed.

We decided to head for the museum. This large building houses a delightful children’s museum downstairs (we skipped this) and a most informative selection of exhibits upstairs; anything from ancient history to the Arctic to children in wartime to animals and sea creatures. We all found something to amuse each of us.

We could have gone to the beach or port but the weather was really miserable and there was a cold wind blowing. Not very summer-like at all!

After a brief visit back to the Embassy to pick up a much needed Emergency Travel document, we reversed our morning trip, and made it back in time to have a quick drink with Sophie and Tim (he was waiting at our hotel on our return), before they headed out to the airport.

S and I found a very reasonably priced take out kebab place down the road and came back to the hotel pretty tired and ready for a quiet night in.

Tuesday 17 July

I realise I have been a bit slack with my photos so today’s blog has more. I should also explain that I don’t have an easy way to download all those photos on my camera so the photos from my  or S’s phone (when I remember) will have to suffice.

I was curious enough today to want to find that book wall I’d posted on my Facebook wall many months ago. It wasn’t hard, just a ride on a Number 7 tram, and there we were! It was nice just seeing a more local part of town, a little away from all the bustle of tourist town.

Next stop was the wonderful Eye building known as the Film Institute. To get to it, we discovered the free bike, motor scooter and pedestrian ferry that travels across the harbour every ten minutes. It’s an easy walk from there to the museum. Inside The Eye (it looks like one too) is a film museum and four cinemas and a magnificent foyer. We were able to go into the building at no cost to see the foyer. We skipped the museum part and headed instead back on the ferry and towards FOAM the fabulous photographic museum. On display was a major exhibition of work by Ron Galella, pioneer of paparazzi photography. The exhibition featured photos of stars including Mick Jagger, Jackie Onassis, Greta Garbo, Brigitte Bardot, Marlon Brando, Andy Warhol, Sean Penn, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Penélope Cruz and many more.

Galella is famous for his 1972 court case with Jackie Onassis where a restraining order was placed to keep Galella 50 feet away from Mrs. Onassis and 75 feet away from her children at all times. There’s a great film that runs at the exhibition where he talks about the case as well as other aspects of his work.

Check this link to see some of the pictures we saw

                                             
                                                            FOAM

Next stop was some food. We chose an Italian place. Somewhere we could fill up and not worry about eating for hours…it worked! I chose a filling risotto and S chose a mixture of pastas. All very tasty.

There were a couple of places left to see. One was NEMO, the technical museum, its name is short for: New Metropolis Science and Technology. It’s not so much the museum but the building which needed exploring. From a distance it looks like a part of a giant ocean liner. You can walk right over the sloping roof (and we did) where children are playing in a water feature, and parents are seated in deck chairs- rather like a piazza. From the top you can look across the city. It’s a great outlook. Renza Piano designed this. Another outstanding piece of the incredibly diverse modern architecture across this city.

We’ve walked our feet off so have now come back to the hotel to rest, catch up on some sleep, and perhaps repack for tomorrow. 

I’d also failed to mention that first thing this morning we’d found a Laundromat so it’s really nice to have some clean clothes. Now we are looking forward to leaving Amsterdam in search of new adventures.