Spot the relationship...

Museum dag...

On Thursday a long day in Amsterdam at the fully restored Rijksmuseum and then at the Stedelijk Museum - the latter new to me. I have blogged about the Rijksmuseum and its magnificemt collection before so this time just a couple of photos of the many young people enjoying - and really studying - the paintings. Good to see.

The Stedelijk Museum, with its modern collection, was much quieter and a pleasant contrast. Here's a selection of images...

Mondrian-inspired St Laurent (I think) design.
Nice.

Karel Appel work

I'd like these

Very joyful

And outside, in Museumplein, the young people enjoy the sun and the fun.

Outside Rijksmuseum

Outside Stedelijk Museum

Ummm....

My favourite place in Den Haag is a minute's walk from Bilderdijkstraat. I walk this way every time I go shopping in the Rijswijk village. It is the reward for crossing a very ugly and challenging road.

This morning, on the hedge at the end of the pond, in front of the house, I saw this...

My best guess is a mascot? Looked as though it had had a heavy night! 

Whatever, it made my day!!

In Oostzaan...

A special day on Wednesday. Jaap and Gerda invited me to go with them to Jaap's cousin Piet's home in Oostzaan, out of Amsterdam. I caught the train to Heemstede. Jaap and Gerda picked me up at the station and we drove north, skirting around Amsterdam and into an area of small, often green-painted wooden houses, surrounded by many sloots or canals. The road was very narrow and negotiating the oncoming traffic required a patience and dexterity that would leave a ChCh driver for dead! Gradually the houses thinned out and we came in sight of Piet's home at the very end of the road. Piet had farmed here - mostly cows - transporting his animals around the watery farm in the flat-bottomed boat that we went out in.

All the comforts were supplied...

Loading up

We had another passenger who stayed at the prow the whole trip - peed there too...

We were observed...

And we observed...

What the photos don't show is that the signs of industry intrude on the not very distant horizon. What was once only farming and wet land is now under population pressure. However there is a large polder - where the windmill, which would have been used to drain the polder, is sited - that is reserved in its 'natural' state for recreation.   

It was a special insight into a unique, and passing, way of life. We had coffee with 82-year old Piet afterwards with lots of conversation, mostly in Dutch, and said our farewells.

Apparently I have an invitation to return to Oostzaan whenever I am back in Holland! I felt very privileged.

Grrrrrrrrrr.........

OK, here's a grump. I left home early yesterday morning. Tram and two trains to Amsterdam. All day in the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum with very little sustenance. Going home in the evening the train from Leiden to Den Haag HS was overflowing.  I stood for the duration (15 minutes?), one of three standing in a carriage that was full of young people - some of them a quarter of my age. Had the tables been turned I would have vacated my seat promptly and willingly. I am sad that this social courtesy seems to have all but disappeared. Saying which, I did see a young man stand for an older gentleman on the tram the other day. I was very heartened!

Hep Scheep Vaart Museum, Amsterdam...

Every time I look at this name or try and say it, I think of sheep. But it's not sheep - it's ships - Hep Scheep Vaart Museum, The National Maritime Museum. The building, constructed in 1656 as the arsenal for the Amsterdam Admiralty, looks like this...

Stunning eh? Very simple, elegant and, to my mind, much more appealing than the florid architecture of the tourist-pleasing Rijksmuseum or Station Amsterdam Centraal.

The exhibits are just as stunning, using interactive technology and state-of-the-art display techniques. A whole room of the most gorgeous globes...

And a huge display of model ships through the ages...

Lots to keep the children busy including a model of the East Indiaman Amsterdam in which they can fire cannons, sleep in hammocks and generally run amok...

I succumbed to coffee and appeltaart (with slagroom) again and drooled over the lights in the cafe area...

I'm not sure how much actual light they provide but they look great!

Keeping watch...

Windpower...

Now why can't we do more of this in New Zealand? Everywhere you go in Holland you see wind turbines. Not a great big farm of dozens, but four or five or six in a cluster. They are on the outskirts of urban areas, along the motorways, on farm land and, I gather, out to sea. The ones above were on the shore at Enkhuisen. I find them very beautiful and certainly a lot more aesthetically pleasing than most modern technology. I don't know whether there are debates about their siting as in New Zealand - I guess Holland's history of windmills and the relative absence of alternatives makes them more acceptable.

Sunday in Enkuizen...

Sunday I started out early. Tram to Holland Spoor, train to Amsterdam Centraal, change train to travel to Enkuizen on the Isselmeer - polderland. Once upon a time Enkhuizen was a thriving, weatthy fishing port and a centre for the commerce of the Dutch East India Company. Then in 1932 the Zuiderzee was cut off from the North Sea by the Afsluitdijk or barrier dam, blocking Enkuizen's fishing access. So the town has had to reinvent itself. It claims one of the largest marinas in Holland and is also the location of the Zuiderzeemuseum - whose indoor and outdoor components tell the story of the Zuiderzee villages over seven centuries.

Everywhere in Holland are reminders of the importance of water, the sea, boats, shipping. I got off the train and waited to catch a ferry to the Zuiderzeemuseum. The boat lanes were full of activity...

The outdoor part of the museum was rather like a much larger - and I have to say much better integrated - Ferrymead. The buildings have been gathered from all over the region.

All sorts of village activities were depicted and it was clear from the magnificent vegetable gardens that some of the homes were occupied.

Herring (I think) drying. You could buy a freshly cooked fish. I didn't.

Great water storage system!

I just happened to be there when their annual goat festival was on!!

Later I walked round the seafront to the indoor museum.  These two photos caught my eye... Click to enlarge and see the faces/postures more clearly.

Part of the museum exterior

I was left with the impression of great wealth for some and a hard, hard life for others (what is new?). 

It was a lovely day - sun, sea, fresh air and a fascinating array of boats on the Isselmeer. What I was searching for - but didn't find - was an account of the transformation of the Zuiderzee into the Isselmeer and the creation of the massive polders, the engineering of which fascinates me. Maybe a little of this in another post...