Happy to be Traveling

Today (Monday), a slow day, a chilly day with a bit of rain.

Last night (Sunday)…A fish place with a different concept” is how they bill themselves.  The maître d’ handed us an oval tin of sardines with our table number written in sharpie on the top. “Would you like to start with a glass of cava?” she asked. “Well sure” I said as Grubb shook his head…

On the edge of Eendrachtsplein in Rotterdam is a sculpture made by Paul McCarthy in 2001. He called it Santa Claus. Since then it has been popularly nicknamed “Kabouter Buttplug” or the “Buttplug Gnome.” McCarthy said the object is officially a stylized Christmas tree and meant to be a comment on consumer culture. Maybe if…

Every time we visit Rotterdam we try to check out the latest cultural collections. The port city has a lot huge old style warehouses made vacant by the stacks of shipping containers on the docks. Empty warehouses, like abandoned banks, make great music venues and museums. Yesterday, after we checked into our hotel, we took…

Yesterday (Sunday), we had a last coffee and chat with Esther in Delft at a place called Anne&Max. Sadly, we said our goodbyes and hopped a train for Rotterdam. 12 minutes later, we stepped off the train in Rotterdam Centraal, headed down to the metro, took line D and just a few stops later popped…

Saturday morning we went to Tess and Josh’s for coffee. Tess is Esther and Hendrik’s daughter. And of course mother to the adorable Juneau and Cleo. And sweet kitty Marmelade with kitten Toast on the way. They live maybe 15 minutes walk from where we were staying, on a canal in a home they recently…

I have become fascinated with the collection of roofs across the canal from our apartment in Delft. I took a bazillion photos. Since we are leaving Delft today, I’ll spare you and just post two of the photos.

Lately on our travels I’ve become more aware of stores selling antiques. In the past they were just places I passed without much consideration. I was on a quest for the perfect pastry, the sublime work of art. But I’m becoming more doubtful I’ll find that melt-in-the-mouth non-flaking pastry, or be struck by an unanticipated…

Taken during our wandering over the past few days Above: Reflections and unidentified floating object Above: Just a neighborhood and cat splayed on prickly hedge Above: Art and antiques day.

I just need to mention we spent a lovely evening at Hendrik and Gina’s place in den Haag after our visit to the Mauritshuis. So much news to catch up on.  The last time we were here, three years ago, Hendrik and Gina had both contracted Covid and so we were only able to visit with…

Delft Blue is a style of pottery renowned for its white surface painted with cobalt blue, a pigment that withstands very high kiln temperatures without fading. It gained prominence in the 17th century when Dutch traders imported a large amount of Chinese porcelain. The style blended Dutch imagery with Asian artistic influence. We visited the…

Wandering Delft today, we ran into large groups of women clothed in royal purple dresses with red, large- brimmed, flowery hats. Grubb guessed it might be a British tea society. Really? Huh. I approached a couple of these women to inquire. It’s the Red Hat Society. It all started with a tongue-in-cheek poem called “Warning”…

In Delft the Oude Kerk (old church) is known for its tower that leans towards the left. The Gothic church was built in 1246.  The tower is about 2 meters off vertical due to the unstable ground near the canal. Inside are a number of gravestones laid flat as part of the floor. Burial inside the…

Simon Schama is a British historian known for his high brow television commentary in the tradition of Kenneth Clark. (His passionate appreciation for Bernini’s sculpture is practically operatic.) He has curated an exhibit in den Haag at the Mauritshuis called BIRDS that explores how humans have always had an emotionally conflicted relationship with birds. We…