The Netherlands

This month, we traveled to the Netherlands for the final championship meet of the year.  The meet was held in Eindhoven, but we flew into Amsterdam and spent a day sight seeing before heading to the swim meet.

 

 We started the day at the Rijksmuseum, where they house the most famous Rembrandt paintings.  It was undergoing renovations, so there were only a small number of rooms open, but it was cool seeing the Rembrandt paintings in person after seeing pictures and reading about them in school.  I think Sam took some pictures while we were in there, but I didn't take out my camera, so no photos here.

 From the Rijksmuseum, we went into the Red Light district, which was relatively quiet since it was morning, but interesting none the less.

 We headed that way for a reason.  In one of the row houses, much like the ones you see behind Tommy and Sam below, is a really cool museum.  It is called, Amstelkring Museum, or Our Lord in the Attic Chapel.  There was a time in Amsterdam's history where Catholicism was outlawed, so this family decided to create a Catholic chapel in their home.  The first 2 floors of the house remained living quarters, but in the top 3 levels they created a beautiful chapel.  They cut holes through 2 of the floors creating balconies and allowing for an impressive alter space.  It was not a large area, but it allowed for 150 worshipers.  It was so beautiful, and impressive to think about all the work that had to be done in order to allow for the home to be totally transformed.  I wish pictures were allowed, but if you are every in Amsterdam, I highly recommend you check it out.

From there we went to the Heineken Museum.

 At one point, there was a tasting area where they teach you how to drink your Heineken.  The woman put a beer in front of me, Tommy, Mike and asked Sam how old she was.  The drinking age in the Netherlands is 16, and she had just assumed Tommy was 16, too bad he was a week shy of his birthday.  Next year, after the swim meet, he can celebrate a good end to the season with a beer, weird!

After the Heineken museum, we went to a place called Electric Ladyland.  It was a "museum" of florescent art.  I did a bunch of research to find things to do, and on line this looked like it could be a cool place for the kids.  It said there were paintings and different minerals and rocks which react to black light.  It was a cool place, just not exactly what I would call a museum.  It was the basement of a "geologist" or "artist", I am not exactly what he considers himself.  He was an older dude with long gray hair and a long gray beard.  I guess he is exactly the kind of person you would expect to be in Amsterdam playing around with black lights.  He had collected what looked like a bunch of rocks from all over the world which glow under black lights.  And we, or at least I, learned there are 2 different kind of black lights.  He also had artwork from different people.  Some of it was done with fluorescent paint and some was done by crushing these rocks and placing the dust in the correct area under only black light.  They were pretty neat, but I can't imagine have the patience to do this.  He also created his own scene.  He built and then painted this scene in florescent paint so that he could turn off the lights and we could become part of the art.  I will let the pictures tell the story.

 

Trippy!

Our final tour of the day, was the Anne Frank House.  Again, no photography was allowed.  It was a somber kind of tour.  No furniture was in the house, but we were able to walk through the attic where she and her family hid out.  There were photos and the decorations she had hung in her room.  It was an interesting bit of history to walk through, and perhaps I will actually read the book now that I have bee there.

 

Then we drove to Eindhoven.  Here are a couple of pictures from our drive....

Windmills!  This was what I wanted to do when we went to the Netherlands.  I had hoped for it to be spring so I could frolic through a tulip field in front of a windmill, but as you see, there was snow, and not tulips.


Finally, the main event.....

 Tommy was pleased with how he did at the meet.  It is always good to finish the season on a good note.  Swimming is done for now, although he is continuing to practice in the mornings on his own.  Next up, baseball and soccer season.

The day we left, we had a late flight, so there was still time for sight seeing.  We started our day at this little restaurant for pancakes.  It looked closed, but said open.  We were the only people there, and the family was doing some rearranging of furniture, ironing, and other chores.  However, they were happy to feed us and help translate the menu for us.  Inside it reminded me a lot of the Dutch Pantry restaurants we used to stop at in Pennsylvania years ago.

The last thing we did while in Amsterdam, was to tour a real working windmill....

 To the right is the screw that actually brings the water up and out of the canal

 This wheel is outside, on the porch that you see above.  It allows for the entire top of the windmill to be turned so that it is able to catch the wind.


 The post below attaches the blades of the windmill to the screw at the bottom.

                                                                        This is the view from the windmill.


An interesting fact about this windmill.  It was moved to its current location, and when they moved it they had to add 2 stories in order for it to be high enough to be above other buildings and be able to catch the wind.  In the extra 2 floors, they added a wedding chapel and a reception room.  How cool would it be to get married in a windmill!?! (In the spring with tulips, of course!)

So that was our trip to the Netherlands.