Lynn – Page 9 – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Tour Day 3

Today (Sunday) was another long day. We checked out of the hotel in Haifa after breakfast and headed to the bus. The first stop was only 10 minutes away… the Baha’i Gardens. We saw it from the bus when we arrived on Friday. It was beautiful with all the lights, but it’s actually prettier in the daylight. This time we saw it from above.

There are 19 terraces and more than 1500 steps from top to bottom. The Shrine is on the middle terrace.

After the panoramic view, we drove to the middle terrace where you could actually go into the Shrine. We didn’t go as shoes had to come off and Peter just didn’t want to mess with it. We waited in the garden, which was beautiful.

After we were finished at the Shrine, we headed to the Trappist Monastery of Latrun. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you why. Because it was Sunday, the church was closed as the monks are in prayer all day. We sat in a garden that wasn’t that pretty while Tzachi told us about the monks. It was interesting but we could have heard that while on the bus. Peter said the reason we went was because it was on the list. I think he’s right.

The next stop was also a little underwhelming, a field where David may have killed Goliath. Historians know that the incident occurred somewhere in the vicinity, but no one is exactly sure where. We picked up a souvenir stone and got back on the bus.

After a stop for lunch, we got to the main attraction of the day, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The church is the oldest church in the Holy Land (built in 4th century) as it’s never been destroyed by war, unlike other churches in the region.

I didn’t get the photo until we were leaving and by that time it was dark. It’s beautiful with the lights.

The grotto in the basement of the church holds special significance in Christianity as all scholars agree that it the birthplace of Christ. It’s a very simple church on the outside but, from the little I saw, quite ornate on the inside.

Near the center of the photo, you can see an archway. That is the exit of the grotto.

This photo shows you the only part of the church we saw, other than the actual grotto. Everyplace we have visited in the Holy Land has been crazy crowded, but this was insanity. There were literally, thousands of people waiting in line to see to the grotto. Luckily, Peter and I were taken to a spot near the exit of the grotto to wait for our group to get to move through the line. He sat in his wheelchair, and I sat on a stone wall. That’s when I snuck in the exit door to get the picture.

While we were waiting, I went out to the courtyard to get a few pics. The statue is of St. Hieronymus, a 4th century theologian known for translating the bible from the original Hebrew to several other languages.

St. Catherine’s Church is adjacent to the Church of the Nativity. We didn’t get into that one.

After waiting a little over 2 hours, the guard finally came to get us for our visit to the grotto. There were about 10 stone stairs into the grotto that were very scary for Peter. There was nothing for him to hold on to and the stairs were uneven and steep. With the guard’s help we were able to get him into the grotto where we were told to sit on the stone bench and wait about another 20 minutes for our group.

Inside the grotto was organized chaos. People had waited hours to get in and the guards were rushing them through in about 60 seconds. Here’s a short video that shows what it was like.

The guy with the glasses in the plaid shirt on the right side of the screen was one of the monitors that was shooing people quickly through the line. At one time he came up to us and told us we had to leave but I insisted that the guard told us to stay until our group came. He wasn’t happy but finally left us alone. I don’t know what his problem was as we weren’t in anyone’s way as the bench was along the wall.

The actual birthplace of Jesus is what looks like a hole in the floor (it wasn’t, it was actually a 2–3-inch indentation in the floor) in the center of the star.

I’m not sure how I managed to grab this picture as there was a constant stream of people kneeling on the floor over the site.

There was another small section of the grotto that held the manger. It was so dark, that it was really difficult to actually see anything.

Between the dark cavern and the candles, I really couldn’t see much.

On the way back to the bus I asked a woman in the group if she thought the grotto visit was worth the miserable 2-hour wait in line. She said she would have waited all day. I’ve very glad we saw it but I’m even more glad that we were comfortable during the wait.

Our last stop of the day (by this time it was night), was a store that specializes in products made of olive tree wood. They have lots of other things as well including silver and gold carvings and jewelry, but their main focus are the wood products. Peter stayed on the bus while I did a little shopping. I picked up a few things but didn’t do too much damage to the wallet.

Bethlehem from the restaurant window. I know it’s weird, but I almost expected it to look like it does in the paintings of the birth of Jesus…. camels, goats, bushes, etc.

It took about 20 minutes to get back across the border out of the West Bank, but once we did, we were only about 15 minutes away from the hotel. We have a large room with a walk-in shower. Tzachi called them this morning to tell them of our special needs and they kindly accommodated us. Of course, the shower doors only open a little way as they are blocked by the toilet and the toilet paper holder, but at least it’s not a tub.

Now it’s almost midnight (internet connection is terrible and it took FOREVER to upload the 27 second video) and I’m exhausted. So, it’s good night from Jerusalem.

Tour Day 2

Today was a much shorter, but still wonderful, day. We started with a 45-minute drive from Haifa to Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle. In the Gospel account, Jesus, his mother and his disciples are invited to a wedding. When his mother notices that the wine has run out, she urges Jesus to do something about it. After much encouragement, he turned the water into wine. While there is some debate among scholars as to the location of the church, the most commonly held belief is that it was at the Wedding Church of Cana we visited today.

The church is now a Franciscan Catholic Church. We were able to go inside but there was a service going on, so we only got as far as the front door. It is a small church, but still very pretty.

We also saw a replica of the jug that held the water/wine. Each of these jugs could hold enough liquid for 80 people and there were 6 jugs. So, the wedding attendees had quite the open bar.

There is one original jug in existence, but it is in a church in Germany.

In the basement, there were ruins of the original church where the wedding was held.

Then it was on to Nazareth, where Jesus spent his youth. During Jesus’ time, only 125 families lived in the city. Now there is a population of 80,000 and the traffic to go with it. More than 74% of Israeli citizens are Jewish, almost 18% are Muslim and another 2% are Christian. The remaining citizens are from a wide variety of religions. There is, though, no Jewish presence in Nazareth. 70% of the inhabitants are Arab Muslims and the rest are Christian.

Our first stop in Nazareth was the site of the spring the inhabitants during Jesus’ time would have used. It was about 1/2 mile from where they lived. Why not live closer to the water? That’s what I asked. The answer is that the land was not suitable for habitation, so families lived in the caves and walked to get water, wash clothes, bathe, etc.

Mary’s Well is reputed to be located at the site where, according to the Greek Orthodox tradition, Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced that she would bear the Son of God. This event known as the Annunciation.

Just behind this, is a Greek Orthodox church, behind which is the actual spring. There were literally hundreds of people there, so we didn’t even attempt to go down the stairs to see it.

The 1/2 mile walk to the caves where the Holy Family lived was difficult for us as it had bumpy cobblestones, steep hills, narrow sidewalks and a ton of traffic on the one-way streets. So, Peter ended up walking a fair amount of it while I had help with the wheelchair. Seriously, everyone on the tour has been amazingly helpful. I’m so grateful for them.

We finally arrived at the Basilica of the Annunciation, which holds the cave where Mary lived. According to Catholic tradition, this is where the Annunciation occurred, not Mary’s Well. But since we visited both sites, we have all our bases covered.

Basilica of the Annunciation from a few blocks away. You can see how steep the hill is.

The front of the Basilica. You can barely see the dome sticking up in the middle.

The original church was built in 570AD. The second church was built in the time of the crusades, about 1100. The 3rd church, the one here, was constructed in 1954.

There were mosaic tile images of Mary from every country in the world with a significant Catholic population. This one is from Ireland.

The front door of the church depicting major events in Jesus’ life.

The cave where Mary lived during the time of the Annunciation.

Statue of Mary in the courtyard of the Basilica. Due to the position of the sun, there was no way to get a photo without shadows.

Due to the number of spiral stairs we would have had to climb, we didn’t visit the upper church. Had we gone, we would have seen the cave that the Holy Family lived in while Jesus was growing up. Here’s a pic I found on Wikipedia.

We were on our own for lunch, which we ate very quickly as it took forever for our order to be delivered, then it was back to the bus for the hour drive to Caesarea National Park where the remains of the ancient city of Caesarea Palestinea are located. Tazchi said the tour would take 75-90 minutes and we really weren’t interested enough to do the entire tour. We’ve seen so many ruins and after a while, they all start to look alike. We did the first 30 minutes to see the amphitheater and palace.

The theater seats 4000 people and is still in use today.

These are 2000-year-old granite pillars.

After seeing the palace, Peter and I peeled off with a couple of others and headed for Golda’s Gelato shop Peter spotted when we got off the bus. Rachel had never had gelato before, so she enjoyed some with us.

It was a much shorter ride home tonight, so we were back in our room by 5:15. We just got back from dinner and as soon as I finish this, I’ll be relaxing for a while before heading to bed. We check out of the hotel and spend the last 4 nights of the tour in Jerusalem. Tomorrow, we spend a good part of the day in Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank of Palestine. It’s still part of Israel but is controlled by the Palestinians. It should be interesting.

Tour Day 1

So far, all my fears about a guided tour are unfounded. We don’t have to wear name badges, stickers or any other identifying thing (I saw one group yesterday wearing yellow kerchiefs around their necks…. not in this lifetime!!), and we’ve not had to wait for anyone to get back to the bus. Our tour director, Tazchi, is wonderful and the other people in our group (there are 24 of us) are amazing. They’ve all been so helpful getting Peter where he needs to be. We’re using the wheelchair as much as possible and everyone has been great helping us up/down any stairs and ramps.

Our day started only about 20 minutes from our hotel when we visited Jaffa, the ancient port city. The official name of the city is actually Tel Aviv-Jaffa. The picture below is a sculpture of the whale that swallowed Jonah. According to the bible, God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people that they had sinned. Johah refused and boarded a ship in Jaffa instead. There was a violent storm and Jonah, realizing this was his punishment for disobedience, asked to be thrown into the sea where he was swallowed by the whale.

There were quite a few stairs getting down to the old port, but one of the guys carried the wheelchair while I helped Peter down.

The home of a tanner where Archangel Gabrial was supposed to have appeared. I’m afraid I don’t remember the story of how/why it happened.

Luckily, we didn’t have to climb these stairs.

In the picture below, there’s a small rock with an Israeli flag. The backstory on this was something about a dad being punished for saying his daughter was the most beautiful woman and some god not being happy with it, so the god tied the daughter to the rock. Now ships avoid the rock or bad things happen. So sorry I don’t remember all the details, but Tazchi has so many interesting stories it’s a bit hard to keep them straight.

Then we had about an hour drive to our next stop…the Sea of Galilee. Did you know that the lake’s official name is Kinneret? It’s also called Lake Tiberias and is about 8 miles wide and 12 miles long. We stopped at a beautiful overlook which was at sea level. As you can see from the video, the lake is much lower. We could see the Golan Heights and Jordan on the other side. Here’s a short video.

From here we went to the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. The site was crazy crowded, in fact, everywhere we went had dozens of tour buses in the parking lot.

This bible verse was on tiles throughout the site in every language imaginable.

We had the option of having a full immersion baptism but that would have been too difficult for us, so we stuck with wading mid-calf deep. The water was chilly, but we got used to it very quickly.

Some people were actually swimming in the river.

He’s tiny, but you can just see him in the middle of the picture.

We stayed just long enough for a dip in the river, to quickly browse the gift shop (didn’t buy anything) and for Peter to get his daily ice cream, then headed back to the bus for a short drive to lunch. This was also crazy crowded as I think every tour bus in Israel was there at the same time. Lunches are not included in the tour, and I think this is the only time we’ll be in a large group for lunch. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find something more to our liking and less expensive.

After lunch our first stop was the Mount of Beatitudes, where Jesus gave his sermon on the mount.

Our final sightseeing stop was the home of Simon Peter at Capernaum. Jesus lived here with him for a year, healing Peter’s mother-in-law. By this time Peter was exhausted so he waited in the bus while I visited the site, which is in ruins but very interesting.

It was after 4pm and the sun was starting to set. It was beautiful.

The inner most circle is the remains of Simon Peter’s house.

There are also the remains of two ancient synagogues, one built on top of the other. The lower most structure was from the time of Jesus, the other was built about 200 years later.

The darker wall is from the original synagogue.

These are remains of the upper synagogue.

This carving of a menorah was from the original synagogue. It’s so weird to think that Jesus and Simon Peter may have actually touched this stone.

We still had one more thing to do before getting to our new hotel. We took a cruise across the Sea of Galilee in a boat reminiscent of the type that might have been used in the time of Jesus. For this, we merged with our “twin” tour, the 2nd Globus tour that has the exact itinerary. We had met a few people from that group the night before.

Sunset over the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights.

City of Tiberias from the boat. Tiberias is the only city on the Sea, the rest are villages. Tiberias is one of the 4 holy cities of Israel because of the number of important rabbis buried there.

The cruise was about an hour an hour and lots of fun. I danced to Hava Nagila, and we both got a shirt that says, “I’ve sailed on the Sea of Galilee”. Actually, it was more an opportunity to get another clean shirt than really wanting the souvenir, but it is pretty cool.

Once back in the bus, the drive to our new hotel in Haifa was over 90 minutes and by this time we were exhausted. The route was bumpy and very curvy, so Peter was actually feeling a little sick during the last 45 minutes of the trip.

When we finally got to the hotel, it was almost 8pm and we’d been on the go for 12 hours. I took him straight to our room and left him to rest while I grabbed dinner. Then I arranged for us to switch our room to an accessible room as our bathroom once again had a tub shower, which he can’t use. He wasn’t able to shower in Tel Aviv, so we needed something easier, and safer, for him to use. I’ll talk with Tazchi today about arranging for an accessible room in Jerusalem.

By the time we changed rooms and get settled it was almost 10pm, so I hope you can understand why I didn’t post last night. Now, it’s after 6:30 Saturday morning and I have to get ready for today. Where are we going? I have no idea, but I’m sure it will be fun. Gotta go. Love to all.

Sunshine in Tel Aviv

After 5 cold, rainy days, it was absolutely gorgeous today in Tel Aviv, low 70s and sunny. We started the day with an interesting breakfast buffet in the hotel. It’s advertised as a full Jewish breakfast. Not being Jewish, we had no idea what that meant. Well, if our breakfast today is an indication, it means everything you can possibly want to eat and then some. There was a salad bar, fresh fruit, dried fruit, chicken, pasta, pizza, cereal, desserts, quiche and a bunch of food that I couldn’t identify. In fact, there was so much, I had a hard time finding the actual breakfast food. I finally saw a woman making eggs to order so we both had an omelet that was good, but very different looking from what we’re used to. Instead of items being folded into the egg, everything was laid on top. It will take a day or two, but we will probably go through a “ham withdrawal” phase. As you may have noticed, we eat a lot of ham. Well, not in Israel. Not sure how we will survive.

View from our room in the daylight. It’s really beautiful.

After breakfast, we went for a walk on the promenade, which is 14 km long (about 8 miles).

Of course, we only went a short way but far enough to find Golda’s Gelato shop. It’s been several weeks since we had gelato and we were long overdue. It’s hard to get excited about ice cream while wrapped in a scarf, wearing gloves and dodging raindrops.

Mine was black forest and Peter’s was chocolate nugget. They were amazing! Apparently, Golda’s is an institution in Israel.

There are about 8 beach volleyball courts that were filled when we got up this morning at 6am. There were there when we went to bed at 10pm last night. Don’t they work??

After our short walk, I got a 45-minute massage, mostly back and neck. I tweaked my neck a few days ago and it’s been killing me ever since. My massage therapist, Doran, has magic hands. He spent a ton of time on my upper back before even touching my neck. The neck is still sore but is much better than it was. We’ll have some downtime in Greece, so I may get another one there. That should keep me going until I get home and can get an appointment with my usual massage therapist.

Then later this afternoon, we took a free 2-hour tour of Tel Aviv. Did you know that Tel Aviv is not the capital of Israel, Jerusalem is. Jerusalem also has twice the population, 1 million to Tel Aviv’s half million. Who knew??

The shorter building in front is a military museum.

Opera House. It was the first Opera House in the world to have performances in Hebrew.

Symphony Hall. Just like every other city we’ve visited Tel Aviv has construction everywhere.

Actually, the tour lasted about 30 minutes on the way to the Diamond Center, which was the sponsor of the tour. Once there, their goal was to sell us diamonds. It was just 3 of us, me, Peter and our new friend Robin who we met last night. After getting the ring in Antwerp (which was a much better deal) all I did was have fun trying on more rings. Robin almost bought a ring but decided against at the last minute. We met two more couples who are going to be in our group who were also shopping. Well, at least the women were shopping. They guys were sitting along the wall hoping for the best.

We have our first group meeting tonight at dinner. That’s when we’ll meet the rest of the group and, I assume, our tour leader. We leave Tel Aviv tomorrow and have a packed day of sightseeing. We’re really looking forward to sharing it with you.

Welcome to Israel

This is going to be short as it’s been a long day and I’m very tired. Flying on ElAl was a flash back to the early days after 9/11. The only armed security (automatic weapon armed) we saw at the airport was at the ElAl check in counter. We were screened 3 times before being allowed on the plane. I packed my IPAD that we use for music in the car into the checked luggage. We got pulled aside and asked what it was, how long did I have it, what color was it. I totally understand their caution. Israel is a small nation surrounded by countries that want to see them wiped off the face of the earth. So, if going through extra security is what it takes to keep us safe, we’re ok with that. It was just a startling to see it.

Once on the plane, we had an uneventful 4 1/2-hour flight. Luckily, we had a wheelchair escort get us through immigrations when we arrived, or we’d still be in line. Our driver was waiting for us, and just under an hour later we checked into our hotel. It’s right on the beach and we’re looking forward to seeing it in the daylight as by the time we got here it was almost 6pm and dark.

This pic is from our balcony.

Tomorrow we’ll take a walk down the boardwalk.

We’ve already met a woman from our tour. She’s a solo traveler and just arrived today from North Carolina. She was pretty exhausted, so we only chatted for a couple of minutes. She seems very nice, though, so it will be fun to get to know her.

Dinner was at a restaurant a short walk from the hotel. It was chicken for me today. It was very tender and quite good.

This was the heathiest food I’ve had in ages (if you don’t count the fries).

I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow, as the tour doesn’t start until dinner. There doesn’t seem to be much to see in Tel Aviv but I’m sure we’ll find something to do. Going to bed….Shalom.

Last Night on the Continent

Part II of our Epic European Adventure is coming to an end tomorrow when we fly to Tel Aviv. Today was “chore” day. I got a box of stuff shipped home, did two loads of laundry and had my hair coiffed by Zoran, a native of Amsterdam. He did a great job and I look stunning!

The staff at the hotel was great helping me pack up and mail my box. There is no Mailboxes, Etc., here, which is my go-to pack/mail place. So, one of the concierges, Gene, took me to the storeroom where we found a box. Then after it was packed, he taped it up, set up the shipping form and took it with him to drop at the post office on his way home from work. Way above and beyond.

Doubletree at Amsterdam Centraal Station. I would stay here again in a heartbeat should our travels ever bring us back to Amsterdam.

Then it was off to do laundry. Luckily, I got there just in time to grab washers before a crowd came in. That also meant I was first in line for the dryer, so I didn’t have any wait time at all.

So where do you dry your wooden shoes if not in the dryer?

Peter, on the other hand, didn’t leave the hotel. It was another cold, windy day but there was no rain, so for that I was grateful. I made it home between chores to have lunch with him in the Sky Lounge at the hotel.

Beautiful lunch view. The sun was out for about 30 minutes.

Peter stayed with his usual burger, while I had a Caeser Salad.

This sucker was gigantic. He had to eat the meat separately from the rest of the sandwich.

This was big enough for 2 people. I ate about half.

On my way to my hair appointment, I passed a few pretty sights.

The house in the foreground was built in 1695 which means it was built during the Golden Age of Dutch painters. Kind of weird to think about that. It’s now a cafe.

There were only a couple of tables, but this one had some very nice artwork.

I planned to stop at the Rembrandt House Museum but, unfortunately, it closed on 1 Nov for the next 5 months for renovations. But I did get a picture of the outside.

It’s the center house and the entrance to the museum is the building on the left. Rembrandt’s house was built in 1606; he lived here from 1693-1658.

By the time I finished at the salon, it was starting to get dark, so the lights really looked pretty.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

When I got home, I picked Peter up in the suite and we headed to the Executive Lounge for a few snacks. We have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner, so we thought a few bar treats and free beer were in order. Actually, we ate enough free food in the lounge that neither one of us is hungry, so we’ll have our sandwiches on the plane tomorrow.

I can’t believe this part of our holiday is over but I’m looking forward to seeing Israel. It’s a new country for both of us so it will be fun to discover it together. As much as I was originally uncertain about a fully guided tour, I’m now looking forward to it. During the last 15 weeks, I’ve driven over 8,000 miles in 10 countries (England, Scotland, Wales, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) and spent hours dealing with the logistics of finding places to live. While I enjoy planning our trips and I love driving vacations, I’m exhausted, so I’m actually excited about being told where to go, what to see and when to be back. The only decision I will need to make is what to have for lunch. Oddly enough, I’m totally okay with that. Who would have thought?

Here is the itinerary for the next 9 days. Tomorrow, our flight is due in around 5pm (4 1/2-hour flight plus we lose one hour) and we have a car picking us up to take us to the hotel. We no longer need Covid testing so we don’t have to worry about a 24-hour quarantine. The tour doesn’t officially start until dinner on Thursday, so we have all day to explore Tel Aviv. On Friday, we put ourselves in the hands of our tour guide for the next 8 days. This is a small group tour, with no more than 24 people, so that will be very nice.

The last 7 1/2 weeks on the continent has been amazing. We saw some beautiful things, had terrific (mostly) weather, met some incredible people, saw a phenomenal concert, and ate way too many pastries and other not so good for us food. But most importantly, we did all of these things together which is what this is all about.

We’re so glad you traveled with us for this part of our adventure and hope you join us for the final 23 days.

19th Century Art

Yes, the bad weather has certainly caught up with us. But being the troopers we are, we don’t let it stop us from getting out and about. Our main stop today was the Van Gogh Museum which is across the street from the Rijksmuseum we visited yesterday.

We got there before it opened at 9:00 and even though our tickets were for 9:30, we were the first ones in the door.

While most people headed straight for the main museum and the Van Gogh exhibit, we first went to the special exhibit on Gustav Klimt. Klimt was an Austrian painter heavily influenced by Van Gogh, Matisse and Monet. His most famous painting is The Kiss.

We didn’t see this as it’s in Austria, so I got the pic off pixabay.

Here are some of the works we did see.

I didn’t get a picture of the explanation for this one, and I don’t remember the name…sorry.

You can certainly see the Monet influence in this painting.

And Van Gogh in this one.

This was his muse Emilie Floge.

And, finally, this was the painting he was working on when he died in 1918. He had a stroke, then developed pneumonia. He was only 55 years old.

You can see the pencil marks where he’s drawn the image but didn’t have time to paint.

After an enjoyable 30 minutes in the virtually empty Klimt exhibit, we headed to the much more crowded main gallery to see the works of Van Gogh. I was amazed by how much work he did in his 37 years. He was not well known during his lifetime and most of his works were owned by family. The famous Starry Night series of paintings are located in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, so we saw those in 2018. But we saw many of his other masterpieces today. There were at least 18 self-portraits. He did so many because he couldn’t afford to pay models.

Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat (Paris, 1887)

Self-Portrait with Pipe and Straw Hat (Paris, 1887)

I thought this was cool. It is his actual palette.

Van Gogh couldn’t afford to buy frames for his paintings, so he made them himself. The frame around this painting is the last remaining frame made by Van Gogh.

Quinces, Pears, Lemons and Grapes (1887)

Van Gogh wanted to be the most famous painter of sunflowers in the world. I think he succeeded.

Sunflowers (1888). He used only 3 tints of yellow for the flowers.

The Bedroom (1888). If you look closely, you can see his straw hat hanging from the right side of the headboard.

This bedroom was in this house in Arles, France.

The Yellow House (1888). The bedroom was on the 2nd floor with the window with one shutter.

Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were buddies. Gauguin stayed with Vincent for 2 months in this house. He painted this painting of Van Gogh painting sunflowers.

Vincent van Gogh Painting Sunflowers (Gauguin, 1888)

It was during this time that, after an argument with Gauguin, Vincent cut off his left ear with a razor. He was found several days later covered in blood. After that he spent a year in the mental hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Despite his unstable mental health, he was very productive, painting about 150 paintings that, including…

Apple Blossom. We saw this painting, but the crowd was 5 deep, so we didn’t get close enough to get a picture. This one is from pixabay.

And my favorite “flower” painting….

This painting was Van Gogh’s final painting. It is also unfinished, but I can’t really see what still needs to be done.

Tree Roots (1890). He painted this the morning he shot himself in the chest. He died a few days later.

We took so many more photos, but I think I’ve included his most important/famous pieces. The paintings we saw today were so different from the ones we saw yesterday in the Rijksmuseum. With the Dutch Masters you can see every strand of hair on the subject’s head, every fold in the tablecloth and every crack in the loaf of bread. In fact, the bread looks like you could reach in a grab a bite. It is just the opposite with the Impressionists. Their paintings aren’t exactly abstract, but often the lines are indistinct and blurred. While I enjoyed seeing their work today, I like the Dutch Masters better.

The weather was still okay when we left the museum, so we headed back to the tram to do a walk by of Anne Frank’s house. We didn’t get to it the last time we were here and, even though we can’t do the stairs, Peter still wanted to see it.

Statue of Anne around the corner from the house.

Unfortunately, the house is undergoing renovations, so this is all he saw.

The more modern building next to it is the museum and the entrance to the house. When I was here in 1993, all you did was walk in the front door of the house, buy your ticket and start the tour. It’s very different now, probably because it’s the #1 tourist attraction in Amsterdam.

Just as we left the house to head towards the tram, it started raining. Not pouring but enough to get very wet. So, like yesterday, we ducked into the closest restaurant, a sandwich and pancake house.

Oh, foodies, you’ve been so patient the last couple of days (or have you…I wouldn’t have blamed you if you checked out halfway through yesterday’s post). Lunch wasn’t terribly exciting, but it was good. Peter had Wienerschnitzel.

And I have French Onion Soup and a Toastie. I was so cold that I just wanted something warm. The soup was delicious but the Toastie was just okay. Not as good as the one I had in France.

I had a little order envy when the women next to us got their lunch, Dutch pancakes, because they really looked good. I think pancakes, I think thick and heavy. But they were more like crepes, which would have been lovely.

Luckily, by the time we finished lunch, the rain had stopped so we very quickly made our way to the tram for the short ride back to the central station. Like most main stations in Europe, this one is also a beautiful building.

Just as we were getting to the hotel, the rain started again. We managed to get inside before getting wet and are now, once again, snug in our room. I think we may head to the Executive Lounge for happy hour tonight. We missed yesterday but I think a free glass of prosecco is in order.

Tomorrow is a chore day. There are no laundry facilities at the hotel, but there is a launderette a short walk away. I also have to find a place to pack/mail a small box home. We haven’t bought much in the last 6 weeks but it’s enough to make the suitcase rather bulky. Besides, Peter bought his 5th jigsaw puzzle (The Nightwatch) today and there’s no way I get that in the suitcase. And finally, tomorrow afternoon is hair cut/color day for me…yeah! I’m not sure if Peter is even going to leave the hotel. He said he’ll wait for me in the Executive Lounge which is open all day. At least I’ll know where he is while I’m running errands and getting gorgeous.

Dreary, but Fun, Day in Amsterdam

We’ve been on this Epic Adventure for exactly 15 weeks today and this was the first truly dreary weather day we’ve had. We’ve seen clouds, drizzle, crazy hot and very cold, but until today we hadn’t had a miserable day. We had a few short bursts of no rain where we were able to get from the hotel to the tram and from the tram to the museum, but by the time we finished our day, it was raining steadily, and we got pretty wet before making it back to our Bridge Suite at the Doubletree. But now we’re snug in our sweats and the fluffy socks we bought in France, munching on a cannoli, trying to warm up.

Waiting for the tram to bring us home. The holiday decorations are starting to come out. Can’t believe it’s that time of year again.

We started our day at the amazing Rijksmuseum, the national museum dedicated to Dutch arts and history. This is my 4th time to visit, and I never get tired of it.

The museum has been in this building since 1885.

We started in the Gallery of Honor where the most famous works of art are found. As I mentioned in the post from Delft, Johannes Vermeer is my favorite artist. Well, here is my favorite of his paintings. The detail in works by the Dutch Masters is simply amazing. You can see every seed in each roll and each crack in the loaf of bread. It all looks fresh enough to eat. I have a print of this at home.

This is one of Peter’s favorites. You can see the teeny, tiny skates on each of the skaters. The figures are very small, but the smallest details (e.g., eyes) are clear. It’s really incredible. We have a print of this one as well.

Winter Landscape with Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp (1608)

The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn (1650)

Here’s a famous self-portrait by Rembrandt.

Self-portrait as the Apostle Paul by Rembrandt van Rijn. (1661)

Be honest, how many of you knew Rembrandt’s last name? How many of you thought Rembrandt was his last name?

And, of course, the star of the show….

Nightwatch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642). His use of light is just incredible.

There was also a large collection of 19th century art.

Battle of Waterloo by Jan Willem Pieneman (1824)

And one by Van Gogh.

Self Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh (1887)

But there is more in this museum than paintings. We saw tapestries…

Drawings…

You could see the tiny details on every face…incredible.

Furniture…

Dollhouses…

Carvings…

Carving of Saint Agnes made of boxwood (1680)

Glassware…

Beer anyone?? This large stein is from 1594.

Pottery…

And stained glass windows…

We spent over 2 hours at the museum but could have stayed for much longer without seeing everything. After a while, everything starts to blur together so two hours is usually our max in museums.

While on our way to find lunch, the rain started again so we ducked into the first restaurant we found, Cafe Hans en Grietje, where we had very good burgers. The Marc Chagall Gallery was across the street. We’d had enough of art for one day, though, so we didn’t visit.

By the time we left the restaurant, the rain had let up again, so we sped as fast as we could with me pushing a wheelchair, to the Heineken Experience. It was less than 10 minutes away and, luckily, we made it before the rain started again. The place was crazy crowded with at least an hour wait to start the tour. But one of the staff let us skip the line so we got in right away.

The tour is in the original brewery and the self-guided tour told the story of how the brand started. In 1864, Gerard Adriaan Heineken, bought a brewery and, without any experience in making beer, turned the company into the giant it is today. The current head of the company is Gerard’s great granddaughter.

The letter Gerard wrote his mom telling her he was starting a new company.

Here’s what the original Heineken bottle looked like.

And here’s one from the year I was born.

The ‘A’ Yeast is what gives the beer its distinct flavor. It was specially developed for Heineken.

At one point in the tour, we “became” beer as it went through the brewing process. In this video we’re being bottled. It was pretty cool.

The end of the tour included an interactive piece which was a lot of fun. We couldn’t get on the bikes to ride through Amsterdam, but we did have our picture taken in one of the vats.

While the tour was self-guided, we needed someone to help us with lifts because there were a zillion stairs, so it was almost like we had a private tour. It was a lot of fun. BTW. You have the opportunity to drink up to 3 beers during the tour. We didn’t.

Unfortunately, by the time we left, it was steadily raining. We thought about trying to catch a cab but there was no place to stand out of the rain to get one. We were right around the corner from the tram, so we did that instead. It was during the walk home from the central station that we got pretty wet. I had an umbrella for Peter but if he put it up, I couldn’t see where I was going so, I guess we should have kept the ponchos we sent home in one of the boxes. Oh well.

Tomorrow, we’re headed back to the same area to the Van Gogh Museum. We’ve had those tickets for about a month as they tend to sell out. It’s supposed to be another rainy day but hopefully it won’t be as bad as today. Fingers crossed.

Haarlem

We dropped the car off at Schiphol without incident after putting 831 miles on the car. We didn’t have terribly long drives on this part of the trip because the Netherlands and Belgium are pretty small countries when compared to France. But we did do a bit of crisscrossing because we had to go back to Antwerp on Sunday for the concert. This last Thursday was the longest drive we had, about 3 1/2 hours. Nothing like the 10 hours in 2 days we did in France.

We started at Schiphol, went to Doorn to see Kaiser Wilhelm’s house, then landed in Rotterdam for 4 nights, never moving the car. Then it was around Antwerp and Brussels to get to Waterloo, finally getting to Ghent for 4 nights. We drove to Bruges for our day trip.

Then last Sunday we went from Ghent back to Antwerp for the concert. On our way from Antwerp to Bastogne, we went through Liege because we didn’t want to drive around Brussels. It was a little out of the way, but we had horrible traffic around Brussels on our way to Waterloo, so we didn’t want to deal with that again. We spent 2 nights in Saint-Hubert, going back to Bastogne for the second day to do more sightseeing. Then it was off to Aachen for just one night and finally Leiden (via the Castle) yesterday. And, finally, it was back to Schiphol today.

After dropping the car, we could have taken the train from the airport to the Central Station for less than 15 euro, but we would have had to schlep about 15 minutes on both ends with the 24-inch suitcase, two backpacks, and a wheelchair. So, we bit the bullet and took a taxi (75 euro), and we’ll do it again on Wednesday when we head to the airport for our flight to Israel.

When we got to the Doubletree, they gave us a wonderful upgrade to a suite.

Our bedroom. Odd that it’s only a queen bed but we can live with that.

Since we’re here for 4 nights, it’s great to have a little more room to spread out.

After getting settled in, we headed to the train station for a short ride to the nearby town of Haarlem. I’ve heard so many good things about it that we wanted to check it out. It was a cold and cloudy day, so we were a bit bundled up but still enjoyed our relatively short visit.

A cute courtyard we found on our way to the town center.

Building from 1624 is tucked between two relatively new buildings.

When we arrived at the Grote Markt (historic town center), we found that they have a weekly Saturday market. Desiree, you would have loved it. They sold everything from leather goods, to flowers, to food, to rugs. It was great.

And no, there really was no scent, even from the seafood. There was a tiny fish smell but not what you would expect given the amount of seafood they were selling.

The cannoli came from Catania Sicily, which is where I used to live. Of course, we had to buy a few but we haven’t tried them yet. We’re saving them for later.

After wandering around the market, we stopped for lunch. It should come as no surprise that we had Italian. Cynthia commented on an earlier post that she was surprised about the amount of Italian food there is everywhere. We discovered a long time ago that in virtually every city in Europe has two things…. a Cathedral and at least one, if not more, Italian restaurants. It’s the most popular type of food in the U.S. and it wouldn’t surprise me if it as the same here.

Peter had a pizza, but I was afraid it couldn’t match the incredible pizza I had in Antwerp, so I had ravioli instead.

I had a tiny taste. It was good but nothing like the one in Antwerp.

Yes, I know it looks terrible, but it was quite good. You had to love mushrooms, though. It was a bit salty but other than that I enjoyed it.

There are two main churches in Haarlem. We didn’t care enough to walk 20 minutes to get to the main cathedral, but we did pop into the Grote of St.-Bavokerk, which was right on the square.

Construction began in 1370 and concluded in 1520. The church is most known for its incredible organ.

A close up of the gorgeous carving near the base of the organ.

There weren’t a lot of windows, but this one was my favorite.

Then it was a 15-minute walk back to the Haarlem station. When we got there, we went into the older side of the station that doesn’t have a lift. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize it until after we scanned our tickets and got to the 2 flights of stairs leading up to the platform. But once again, with the help of two kind strangers, we made it to the top. One woman helped Peter up the stairs while another helped me get the wheelchair to the top.

Now we’re snuggled in our suite wearing the fluffy robes and warm slippers we found in the cabinet. We broke into the gingerbread stocking we bought in Aachen.

Isn’t it adorable. I hated to ruin it by eating it, but we can’t take it to Israel so…

It is very yummy. Sometimes the ginger flavor is overwhelming but not this time. It’s perfect.

Well, it’s just after 5pm and we’re off to the Executive Lounge to check out happy hour. We only have a couple of small peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner so hopefully we can find something good to nibble on. Have a great Saturday night everyone.

Castle De Haar

Today was another easy day. After breakfast in Aachen, we headed northeast to Utrecht where we visited the De Haar Castle. Well, we didn’t visit the castle as much as we visited the gardens and took pictures of the castle from the outside. There were way too many spiral staircases for us to maneuver, so we spent about 40 minutes exploring the expansive garden.

The original castle on this site dates to 1391 but was destroyed and rebuilt several times before this version was constructed in the late 19th century. It is the largest castle in the Netherlands.

Yes, it was cold enough for hats, gloves and scarves. It was low 40s but cloudy and damp.

The Roman Garden was the only one with flowers in bloom.

These two parts of the castle are connected by a covered walkway.

The grounds were beautiful.

Here’s the castle from the back garden.

Visiting the castle only took us a few minutes out of the way, so we’re glad we stopped to see it. But we were getting very cold and hungry, so it was back to car for the 50-minute drive to the Hilton Garden Inn in Leiden, about 20 minutes from Schiphol Airport. There’s nothing to do here but it’s a place to lay our heads down tonight. The good news, though, is that they have a restaurant, so we stayed here for lunch. It was pasta for both of us.

I had Spaghetti Bolognese. Yes, that’s Peter’s usual order but we decided to take a walk on the wild side and mix things up. This was the first time I had pasta that I didn’t make myself. Both were very good.

Tomorrow, we take the car back to the airport and head to Amsterdam. As nice as it was to have the car to get around, I’m glad to get rid of it. It will be nice to “park” ourselves for a while. After the 5 days in Amsterdam, we have 9 days in Israel, 9 days in Greece and 5 in Turkey before heading home 4 weeks from today. We’ve been moving around quite a bit and we’re both getting tired so not having to keep loading/unloading the car will be great. Talk to you later. Love from us.