Bob in Benelux

2010-05-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

The first days

We bought our round trip tickets to without thinking through too many specific details of our journey. We knew our agenda would consist of three family visits in Germany and looked forward to exploring Amsterdam. After a while a plan came together. Pam found that it was more cost efficient to take the train from Amsterdam to Duseldorf and then take an Air Berlin commuter flight to Munich. This post illustrates some of the highlights of those first two days of our trip.

I don't have many images from the first day. Jet lag, assimilation, and negotiating the train from Amsterdam took up most or our concentration and concern. When we got settled in a fine little hotel that Pam found for Dusseldorf, we went out to seek one of those solid German meals we had been looking forward to. Pam did a nice account of that first day on her blog.

Anyway, this contrast of ultramodern tube sculpture and centuries old church made me feel that yes, we had arrived in Germany.

The Schumacher Alt Braumeisterstube was a most welcome and pleasant experience for these weary travelers. Here Pam is recording some key moments of what we had been up to since landing in Amsterdam that morning. Don't worry, she tore into those wursts in very short order.

The beers will keep coming without prompting until you say you have had enough. Before you think you want another or not, it appears in front of you. The waiter marks your consumption with hash marks on your coaster and tallies your score when you pay your bill. I don't think the liquor control commissions in the US Pacific NW would agree to such a practice at a Widmer or McMenniman's pub.

This image is kind of mundane, but has a story behind it. I wish I could share the soundtrack of our asthmatic cab driver driving at that usual bat out of hell pace that gives tourists that special rush. You wonder in such circumstances that all is going to turn out okay, and of course it always does,

As it turned out, snow in Munich meant a longer wait at the Dusseldorf airport which meant I was goofing around with my camera taking pictures to kill time. Air Berlin to Munich was okay, but a pretty no frills ride. Not exactly a limo with wings like this loading ramp infers.

You can tell how pleased Pam is to have me take her picture at this moment. Note the Karuk sticker on her bag.

We must be in Munich. Beer seems to be everywhere, even left half full on window sills. And you see far more men wearing hats.

Here is where we felt a bit proud of ourselves as seasoned travelers. We bought a Bayeren ticket, took the S Bahn to the Munich train station and then to the local train full of skiers to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As she has explained on her own blog, Pam loves Nutella. Yes, if I could have figured out a way to bring home this giant jar I saw in Brussels later, I would have probably gotten it for her.

Bavarian Excursion Pt 1

2010-04-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

My posts so far have been covered some of the adventures I had during the week I explored the Netherlands and Belgium. Prior to then, Pam and I had traveled in Germany and spent some time from Amsterdam. This blog will also cover some of those travel highlights.

Our first couple of days on this trip were dedicated to travel across Germany and getting settled for a visit with the family of Pam's cousin in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. On Sunday, Pam's cousin graciously took us out on a day excursion to three locations on Bavaria, two of which are the subject of this post. Our first stop was a Benedictine monastery, Ettal Abbey. Ettal has been in the news because their boarding school is one of the institutions that has been a part of the current controversy of physical and sexual abuses during the current Pope's watch when he had oversight duties during his bishop years.

In this image, Pam seems to be turning to me saying "can you believe this place?" We were met by fresh snow and blue skies duing our stay in Bavaria. I'm not certain how anyone can not be impressed.

We were there because Pam's cousin was there as a concerned parent. The institution was working hard to navigate the controversy. Many alum of the boarding school attended that morning. The southern German media was there in full force interviewing school alumni and anyone who would take time with them. My German was serviceable enough to realize that the tone of the sermon that morning was one of reassurance using metaphors and biblical imagery to stress the abbey and school's tradition of good work, despite the current dramas. Even President Obama's "Yes We Can" was thrown in for good measure and crowd uplift.

Our next stop was an ice cream parlor in Oberammergau. We didn't have any ice cream, only coffees and a snack. I like this picture because it is a one stop answer to the question folks have been asking me. "Did you see any snow on your trip?"

Oberammergau looks pretty much like any other Bavarian small town, but there is a major difference. For almost 400 years this town has a tradition of performing a Passion Play every ten years since it survived the Black Plague. It is a five hour plus production with a three and half hour dinner break thrown in. Here is a YouTube clip that gives a better back story than I can.

Rehearsals for the play take place for many months before the performances begin in May. It seems that pretty much the entire village is involved in the production. Much of the town goes unshaven and unshorn so participants will have the proper biblical look. One of the participants was having quite a time trying to get this donkey to come in and rehearse his cues. Not a carrot or persuasion from Lisa and some random kids could help out very much.

Teylers and Hals

2010-03-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

Teylers and Hals

I've already written about how impressed I was by the Teylers and Frans Hals museums in Haarlem. I need to expand on that fine afternoon further accompanied by some images of those visits.

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst was a maker of linen and successful banker in Haarlem. These were the times of the enlightenment when the line between science and art seemed to overlap freely. He bequeathed his fortune to create a museum dedicated to those subjects. The huge cabinet or room was the first major feature of the museum which expended more fully a hundred years later. An additional modern wing was added a little over a hundred years later, but the majority of this institution seems locked in time to its early centuries.

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The first three gallery rooms of the Teyners are the most impressive. I don't believe they use any other illumination than natural light from the side windows. The first two rooms are full of bones and fossils. The next room, by contrast is a very impressive collection of 19th century scientific instruments that measured and manipulate electronic impulses, light, sound, and gasses. Teyners also features a great flourescent room.

It was at Teyners that I became acquainted with the 19th century paintings of George Hendrik Breitner. I found him intriguing because he was both a photographer and an accomplished painter with elements of both expressionism and impressionism.
I like that the subjects of his paintings are ordinary folks and that they are often framed off center, much like a candid street photograph would.

I didn't realize that Teyners had a cafe. The sandwich on the right pretty much changed my definition of what a cheese sandwich could be. It was a Stilton and Cranberry on incredibly fresh bread. I quickly ate it before the dinosaur on my table had any idea of how good it was.

The Franz Hals Museum is located in a large house that used to serve the poor contemporaneous of the life of the influential painter of group portraits and Flemish life in the 17th Century. Several of his large group portraits were located in the museum, but I liked the Hals a lot, because it was mostly empty when I was there on a Thursday afternoon. The museum also lays out the context of the times and art of his peers in Netherlands.

Some Haarlem Highlights

2010-03-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

I Heart Haarlem

Haarlem is only a forty minute bus ride from Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. I can't remember being so engrossed and charmed with n a place after only spending a day and a morning and an afternoon.

You take the 300 bus from Haarlem from the Schiphol airport, 175 from the Zuid or the 8 from the Central Amsterdam station. It takes anywhere from 30-40 minutes, but what you get is a wonderful town with some great heritage and 600,000 less people than in Amsterdam.

One of the first things I did was go up to the sixth floor cafeteria of the V&D department store in central Haarlem. The food is great, the view is outstanding, and there is a dependably clean bathroom to use for only .25 Euros. For one or some combination of these factors I found myself returning to this location several times during my three brief visits to this city.

This was a great town to wander and observe the various trades people, who sometimes work late in the evening do everything from repair roofs to cobble and brick work. It apparently takes quite a lot of people to keep up a city that is hundreds of years old.

Food options in this town were plentiful and not so much the touristy ones that were so prominent in Amsterdam. The lower shot is from my last dinner on this trip at a wonderful restaurant called Jacobus Pieck which is noted for their reasona.bly priced dinner special. I got there at about 5:30 and sat on the back porch/patio. When Ieft at close to seven the place was at capacity with locals enjoying their meals. It is located just a couple blocks south of the cathedral on Warmossetraat. Highly recommended

St. Bavochurch is a medieval cathedral that flipped to Protestantism after the Spanish occupation ended in the 16th century. It has huge buttresses that ultimately were not needed because the town fathers ran out of cash and put in a wooden vaulted ceiling. The great Frans Hals is buried there along with hundreds of others. Mozart played the cathedral's pipe organ. On my visit during the last hour it is open in the afternoon featured someone rehearsing some Bach on this mighty instrument.

Impressive, but medieval cathedrals are pretty cold disparaging places despite their aspirations to bring you close to the power and the glory and all that. If I was having a spiritual crisis, especially centuries ago, I don't think this would be my first choice to hang out.

The bicycles of Haarlem were not nearly as prolific as those in the big A. I would also venture to say that the demographic of riders was much broader, both younger and older. I would have loved to have had enough Dutch to hear what the question of the day was to the man on the street.

If you have a nice day in Haarlem, I can't recommend enough the canal tour. You get to travel on several eras of canal waterway, pass by a windmill, a bunch of churches and if you are lucky, some of the populace out enjoying the first few days of spring. But also you go under a bridge that contains one of the tunnels that the resistance used to evade Nazis in WWII. Just like in the movies.

Atomium

2010-03-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

Atomium Power, Baby!

The Atomium is this very cool symbol for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. It is a 168x blow up of a cell from an iron cyrstal. I took the metro all the way out to Heysel park for the opportunity to visit this strange historic icon. The 58 fair was the first major world expo after the war. It was quite a show for six months bringing millions into Belgium.

Check out the clouds in the image above. These are undoubtedly Margritte clouds in his own homeland. Kind of a thrill. Now if the sky would only change into the shape of a dove.

The audio tour I took was especially apologetic for the skyscrapers. "Manhattan" development from the seventies was described as a Brussels misstep, a development that cost the city many historical buildings. I believe this part of town is also known as the Rogier. I ended up at the edge of it at one point. I'm sure it has been used as a setting for movies.

This has got to be the coolest elevator I have ever been on. Many science fiction film sets would benefit from this tunnel.

Three of them do not have enough support so can not be occupied. But maybe there is somebody or something in there anyway? One could expand a tale of the Phantom of the Automium,

They have a program where kids can sometime spend the night on the Automium. I would have loved that at about fourth or fifth grade. Could you imagine how much fun one could have on the elevators?

The various globes in the Automium are filled with nifty displays relating to the 58 fair. I dug these space age ash trays.

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The other attraction left from the World's Fair was a kind of brewer's village that now serves as a kind of a food court of restaurants, many that feature buckets of mussels at reasonable prices. It turned out to be a good thing to do after being in an atom for an hour or so.

2010-03-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

Clare and the Reasons in a Hot House:
The Botanique in Brussels 3.21.10

This was a great night both in regards to the music and the setting. In my pre-trip research I found that Clare and the Reasons, the band who was center at the things at the Van Dyke Parks concert I saw in my Macworld trip in February was going to be in Brussels during my time there. Because I was overwhelmed with Church Street bookstore and food options, I missed the first part of their set in SF.

Clare is Clare Muldaur, daughter of Geoff Muldaur, but I can find no web evidence that mother is Maria Midnight at the Oasis. Regardless, her spiritual and musical DNA seems to have more to do with Harry Nilsson than anyone else. But they also have this kind of sonic exploration that is like chamber music meets Beck.

The group is a phenomenal collaboration between husband and wife. Clare is married to Olivier Manchon. Manchon is a classical musician and seems to be a very good natured and gracious chap. I have not yet had a chance to hear his new album Orchestre de CHambre Minature - Valume 1 but I am sure it will give me some clues to this very inventive man and how he bravely and colors a quriky pop based look at the world I've never yet encountered.

There are two other Reasons. There is a very tall guy with glasses and a great haircut and another fellow who keeps things steady bass rhythm wise.

Then there is the matter of the location. I figured it was going to be a club. After I confirmed the show was going to be in town, I asked the concierege to call the name and number of the venue. She said it was going to be closed. I thought that was kind of crazy because there was a show scheduled. She dialed anyway and got a recording. The bartender explained to me how to get there during box office business hours via the Metro, a stop for which was practially on the sidewalk in front. He told me there were a couple rooms to see music there, but I failed to ask him anything more about the venue.

When I got off the subway I did one of those short untrained postman walks trying to match number which in hundreds years cities can be irregular to say the least. But finally figured that what I was looking for was this big 1829 green house that had been turned into a cultural center. Here you can visit the gardens, go to a concert, have a drink, or see an art exhibition.

This particular show was in a rotunda laid out with a third of the pie being for the audience. This was one of those great experiences where the right band was in the right room. After about five songs or so, Clare said she thought this room must have the best acoustics for a place to play in all of Europe. "You're not the first to say that blurrted out The interactive shout out guy guy with beard and glasses and sometimes ponytail that is upiquitious at all pop concerts. (We have a small tribe of them at the Aladdin in PDX)

I am sure lots of groups said this, but how many of them have a female singer who hits these notes unnatural more with precision than any seasoning of being precious and a band that sometimes takes the sonic rides that remind me of Wilco. True factors, but what brings it over the top is that Clare can whistle. Really well.

Whistling is important to Belgium. Clare could be seen to be on a kind of cultural holy ground here. We're talking about the land of Gypsy jazz and Toots Thielemans, who besides playing harmonica was featured on nearly every Quincy Jones album and is still active. And Toots whistling cred? Try the Old Spice jingle for eternal pop culture size.

I think Claire and Olivier should reveal more of themselves through play and patter on stage. They themselves are interesting stories just as the Nickel Creek kids are. The Brussels sprout joke was a miscue, but Clare's good natured French and the exchange surrounding Olivier's newly mined euphonium skills were winners. The Manchons seem like the kind of folk I would like to hang out with.

A few more notes on Haarlem

2010-03-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

A Few More Notes on Haarlem

The last week could be described as a Haarlem-Belgium sandwich. Besides a few hours in a Citizen M or sitting on a train or bus, I have either been either in Haarlem, Brussels, or Antwerp. More on the last two soon.

But I'm very much hoping that Delta and KLM have a healthy flight option between PDX and AMS because that means more opportunities to hang out in places like Haarlem. Haarlem is not Amsterdam. It is a place with heritage, but also seems like a pretty nice place to live. I met some art tour organizers in Brussels who indicated how desirable it was to live there for many in the region.

Haarlem is a hard town to get lost in, but at the same time one where there is something to discover or consider every few hundred yards or so. Sure there is the Teyners and Hals museums, places worthy of visits on returning trips in future years. But there is a good vibe to the place. Farmers and antique markets rotate in the area a block away from the V & D, which seems kind of like and extension of la tG Grot Klerk, the town square. Besides V & D has a great cafes on the ground floor and an affordable and excellent restaurant on the sixth floors which also features a terrace where one can have a good meal and really get a sense of how the town and its canals evolved.

That big view is great, but so the one from the canal level is pretty outstanding as well. I think we must have traveled under about half of the sixty six Haarlem bridges during a one hour tour. One was so low hanging that the top of the cruise boat actually touched once or twice. That one known as the Spider bridge because of the hundreds of eight legged beasts that hatch there in late spring is sometimes not accessible to tour bus, but only once or twice per year during some of the dam regulating measures.

All I know is that if I had kept my head outside the moon roof of the boat as we passed under many of the bridges, I would not be sitting here writing this. The seasoned captain of the boat knows that folks are looking around and may not see what is ahead of them was really doing her job when she'd let us know that it was time to put our heads below.

The tour was also an opportunity to see how the canal system was created to support and enhance Haarlem's brewing industry in the 17th century. Evidence of Spanish, Roman and French influences, particularly in the town's religious life were also evident on the tour. But the thing I really liked was being able to see one of the tunnels under the bridge that was used to evade Nazis during WWII. I looked at one of the elderly Dutch men on the tour and said ''like in the movie." He smiled at me like he got what I meant.

I also had a chance to visit the St Bavo Church. The church organist was in full practice on an organ that Mozart once played. The place has buttresses but a wood roof because the city fathers ran out of money. Regardless, the place was cold enough to store meat. If I was in a spirtual crisis, the last place I want to be hanging out is such a cold and forbidding place.

I need to try to get a nap in before the series of plane checkins just a few hours away.

A Great Day in Haarlem 2

2010-03-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

A Great Day in Haarlem II

Teylers Museum
Teylers is like walking back in time. The collection originated with a huge endowment from a 18th Century merchant Pieter Teyler. The place really hasn't changed that much since the first century or so of its origin. The display cases ware solid wooden cabinets with display windows that are lit by tall the exterior side windows. The first three two exhibit rooms are filled with fossils of every conceivable life form, skeletons of dinosaurs and a cave bear. There was an English audio tour for many objects and I listened to most of them.

I was excited about the next room filled with instruments. Not musical ones but hundreds brass, wood, metal, and glass objects of the 19th century in that enlightened time when man was dealing with how to measure and modify light, electric current, sound, and gasses. Unfortunately, there was no audio tour available for all the objects in English as they had a special one in Dutch. But they did have a printed book to consult. Very cool stuff.

Teylers comes from a time when museums were still collections of cabinets for the curious. They had a great flourescent room for both minerals and gasses. There was another room devoted to models that showed how a 19th century magician performed his illusions. And then there is the glorious round room in the center of this building filled with minerals and more 19th century applied science.

Next I visited the museum cafeteria and had a cheese sandwich that redefined by whole concept of such an item. It was Stilton and cranberry on wonderful brown bread along with a bowl of Oxtail soup. The room was filled with grey haired Dutch ladies. I saw many of them earlier in the contemporary exhibit space the museum also maintains intently watching a video of Prince Charles giving a tour of how green the royal gardens were. The cafeteria had very high walls which acoustically influenced the sound of scores of the elders all talking loudly in Dutch.

Another fun moment was when a tightly controlled group of school children came in. The only table I could fine was right next to where they queued past where I was sitting. Every one of them seemed to check out the American tourist sitting in front of a sea of their Grandmothers and aunties.

A Great Day in Haarlem

2010-03-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

A Great Day in Haarlem I

The Story So Far
PDR and I completed two weeks of wonderful times in Germany and Amsterdam that has been reported on and will be expanded upon on her blog. I am now in the midst of another week in the low countries. I'm not sure how many posts I will have up during the week, but I'll try to keep y'all as up to date as possible

The Netherlands Connexion
After bidding farewell to lovely, I did some research for the rest of the trip and then jumped a 300 bus from Shiphol Airport to Haarlem. After a stop or two, four uniformed officers jumped on board and did a complete and thorough fare card check of everyone. It was something to behold. Portland's Tri-Met fare inspectors are like below bush leaguers when it came to this crew.

At first I thought they were like regular police guys, but then I noticed they had Connexion, the name of the suburban bus service in the area on the back of their SWAT jackets. There was definitely a fare amount of martial training in the way they carried themselves. My waiter at dinner said one time he was in the Metro and they had eight guys doing this detail.

That's one Grote Markt
I found my way to Grote Markt Square. It was very unoccupied except for a statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster holding up a piece of hand carved type. Gutenberg gets the credit, but ol' LJ gets a piece of my heart. He is kind of like those Skladanowsky Brothers whose efforts are overlooked by the Lumieres. History is full of Rodney Dangerfields. I think LJ is one of them.

I later went to the top of the Vroom & Dreesmann (aka V & D, which considering some of the hedonism associated with the culture of Netherlands is a bit evocative a title) and had a cup of coffee and a roll and admired a city that has its orgins .nearly a thousand years ago. I then went to the tourist office and bought tickets for the Teylers Museum and the Frans Hals Museum. I guess I should have gone there first because with my purchase they gave me a coupon for, guess what! a cup of coffee at V&D.

Haarlem v. Amsterdam
Haarlem is like Amsterdam's more civil and less manic sister. Especially in non-peak tourist times. The bikes are far fewer and it is easier to stay out of their way. A lot of the same elements that make Amsterdam unique are present, but not as manic or noisy and the touristy steak houses and all of that kind of nonsense is not apparent at all. It feels like a lot of cities in Europe with a great legacy. And I learned that the most powerful citizens in Haarlem were, for a long time, the brewers in the town. Printing and beer. Sounds good to me.

To be Continued...

Bob in Benelux

The first days

Bavarian Excursion Pt 1

Teylers and Hals

Teylers and Hals

Some Haarlem Highlights

I Heart Haarlem

Atomium

Atomium Power, Baby!

Clare and the Reasons in a Hot House:The Botanique in Brussels 3.21.10

A few more notes on Haarlem

A Few More Notes on Haarlem

A Great Day in Haarlem 2

A Great Day in Haarlem II

A Great Day in Haarlem

A Great Day in Haarlem I

Clare and the Reasons in a Hot House:
The Botanique in Brussels 3.21.10