Well, we didn't get to Alan's home place of Kloosterburen in North Holland after all. We got to the archives in Groningen (like the county seat of North Holland) by train on Tuesday morning from Amsterdam. It took about two hours. We got info from the very well organized archive, housed in a great library and facility. Then we walked around the small City of Groningen. Going further to Kloosterburen (KB) would have required an hour or so bus ride and we had GPS pictures to suggest that KB is really just a wide spot in the road. I've done that in villages in Ireland and it's not good, sometimes it's 4-5 houses and a pub that's generally closed.

I would have gone on and maybe if I pressed it, we could have taken a taxi there and back, but I figured it was Alan's history. Also, if truth be known, I was pretty annoyed that he was able to just scratch the surface and get a lineage to the 1600's. I've always thought of myself as the only one in this relationship who had a long knowledge of family history. Ah, it's always this way. When we went on our honeymoon bike trip so long ago, he lost 11 pounds and I gained 5! It's so annoying.
He's not really that charmed though, because his knee continues to bother him. I feel bad about that, he's really laid up.

We are really tying up our Amsterdam experience. The landlord will come on Sunday to 'check us out.' By this time I realize that there is no way on earth that the landlord could have been 'surprised' by the impending renovation, even if the government dictated the timing. They knew it would be 'June,' just not what date in June, but they weren't really surprised at all. Still, she did offer to let us go, it is an amazing location and place, it was not too expensive and we continued to have fun, so...

We got another visit to the Rijks Museum in today. I was able to see Vermeer's letter and milkmaid up close with the hoards. Of course we got there and Alan didn't hazard the crowds around the two paintings hung together in a great juxtaposition. People really hogged close up, so I can't say any more then I got really, really close to them. It was fun though. We now finished 1600 to 1650, the height of the Dutch period. We might get to that museum one more time. If so, I think I'll skip far ahead, so that my coverage of the museum in the four visits will be more balanced. I only have two days to meet that goal.

This might be my final post from Amsterdam. Right now, the month here has felt like a week, at most. I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. I'm dreading my return to Dublin where I feel our last three months, we fly by as quickly. Oh, I am sad...

A minor disaster struck when we returned from The Hague and our so, so successful ancestor search last Tuesday! When we arrived, the building was being covered in scaffolding. It seemed like a surprise to everyone, including the retail businesses on the ground floor. Scaffolding is bad enough but they also cover it in mesh, so you are in a cocoon when you pass the threshold. Oh, it was an alarming development.

In the end there's nothing to be done. We can rail at the stars, threaten to sue, leave in a huff (to nowhere) or accept our fate. We chose the last. We had two glorious weeks of unfettered view that is not to be had elsewhere in Holland. The silver lining is that we are on the top floor (4th//5th floor) and the mesh only comes to the middle of the beautiful windows looking out over the Western Market and church. The workmen are very polite, the apartment lends itself to being partitioned off, as do so many apartments we've encountered in Europe. Also they are working on the lower floors just now. They will be painting. The apartment owner seems as genuinely surprised as everyone else that the job started this week. She offered to refund the unused portion, we didn't accept because we only have a week to go and so far it hasn't been too bad.  Of course, after the workers put up the scaffolding, "at the weekend" kicked in. So it's been quiet. We'll see how it goes this week. To our great sorrow, the Amsterdam is coming to an end in ONE WEEK.

It's been fun being in yet another culture. For example, both Alan and I have remarked on the difference in the walking style of the Dutch compared to the Irish. The Dutch don't stop in the middle of the sidewalk to chat or adjust the pram or light up. The middle of the sidewalk (path) is for keeping moving, preferably fast. This we like. But for another, unlike the Irish, they fill up any available space, so if you hesitate for one second in claiming your little spot on the corner or in the square, too bad for you! And they don't smile or say: "Ah, go on love." This we don't like.

We've had to use all our reasoning power when we first got to Ireland to convince ourselves that the locals weren't intentionally trying to annoy us when they would stop, for no apparent reason, right in front of us, usually at a pinch point. There are so many of these small cultural nuances that seem to make the difference between day to day living and observing a culture as a visitor from elsewhere. These things are so small they don't glare out at you. But, if you spend even the smallest amount of time, you discover on your own. Some you like, some you get used to and some you tolerate. Seeing these things is what I like most about this adventure.

The first few days in Amsterdam we were pretty terrified of getting run down by any type of conveyance. Trollies, trucks, cars, tightly clustered pedestrians on tours, horses and bikes, bikes, bikes seem to come at you from every angle. It's all amazingly orderly once you get the hang of it, but you must conform. This is so against my nature that I've taken to acting quite passive in the streets and letting Alan lead me around. I find if I can relax as much as possible, he can pull me along quite easily. I'm like his zombie. Problems arise when he lets go, or a shiny thing catches my eye.

We haven't gotten back to the Rijks Museum. On our way there last Wednesday, we were distracted by the Amsterdam City Museum on the way and went there instead. We've been to that museum several times in past visits, and they have a new interactive Amsterdam City history exhibition that was quite good. We both enjoyed it.

On Friday, we rented bikes and rode to Haarlem. It was a nice ride, the bikes you can rent are good, but it wasn't very picturesque, kinda boring really. The real disappointment was that Haarlem isn't that nice a place either. Not bad but like biking from The Mall in DC to Hyattsville. Once you get there you wonder why you came.

On Saturday we took the ferry across The Eye to Norrd. This is a newer neighborhood of Amsterdam across the bay. The more I'm here, the more I'm impressed with the first bike guide's reminder that the 'forrest' we were riding through was, like everything in Amsterdam, "built environment". Nothing naturally occured where you are standing that wasn't first built by the Dutch. It's really astounding.

On Sunday we went to Delft. The train ride was fun as was walking around the old city early Sunday morning (before 11 a.m., things start late, much later than I thought). Otherwise I thought the city was pretty touristy, like Williamsburg, only the set is real too. Bruges in Belgium was a much, much better example of the period. Still, it was nice. I was disappointed that the Delft Factory, and many of the antique shops, were closed on Sunday.

Today we caught up on housekeeping, both corporeal and organizational. I see I have a preference for Mondays for that...Hmmmm.

During the time it has taken me to write this, I've advanced from acceptance to grim acceptance of the building maintenance. When I began to write this post, the workers had been on site for at least two hours. Alan, ever the early riser, was up at 7, so we can count on the punctual 8 a.m. start time as he's seen it twice now. It was quiet and except if I passed the room where I could see the scaffold veil, I didn't care. Alan spent the morning preparing for our trip to his home place tomorrow. When we broke for lunch, I got my first whiff of paint, and it reminded me of what's to come. Now they are using a grinder on the facade, not the trim. This causes the entire building to vibrate. But, they WILL stop at 4.

I'm now motivated to ensure that we use our last week here to good use. Tomorrow we go to Groningen and Kloosterburen, Alan's ancestor's last home in Holland. We are about to go to the town that nurtured the guy that brought the Balkema name to America. This is akin to my going to Moate, the town in Ireland from which my father emigrated to bring our branch of the Dignam family to America. What a moment! Hopefully it will be fun and we don't find it's Holland's Amityville.  

We went to a concert on Saturday evening in the Concertgebouw: Hayden's Symphony #98, two Strauss songs and Mahler's 4th Symphony. The concert hall is just beautiful. Very similar to others we've seen in Europe. Really ornate and fitting for such a wealthy city. The music was good, I much prefer Hayden to Mahler and was sorry the bill wasn't reversed, with the Mahler the shorter selection. Still, it was good to get out to hear music. Earlier in the day we did another part of the Rijks Museum, I'm up to 1800. I was resolved to remember one thing well and I focused on the Roentgen Writing Desk. This is a truly amazing piece of furniture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC5Hqk7wl7U


On Sunday, we went on a bike tour to "the countryside". It was a very well led group. The young man leading the group, Stuart, reminded me of the leader of a Bikecentennial adventure way back in the olden days of 1976. It was fun to follow someone so fit, who really knew how to keep the group engaged, interested, and moving! On a bike, that's pretty critical. It was a fun adventure. We were exhausted when we got back in the evening.

We took it easy on Monday, catching up with laundry and the like. And today we took our first trip outside Amsterdam. We went to The Hague to start Alan's ancestor search.

The trip to The Hague was quite successful in finding information about Alan's family. In fact, finding all he needed to really get into the community we will visit where the Balkema name and Alan's ancestor, Jakub, originate has been made available. It was quick and easy. He was able to get in a half hour, what would have taken months otherwise. His brother had earlier done some digging, but Alan's research was the first among official documents. He started with Jakub's self report to the marriage license place in Lafayette, Indiana (home of Purdue), that he arrived in New York from Amsterdam in 1851. Turns out it was 1850, but one could see how he would get that wrong since he didn't have any paperwork. From that, Alan got the town and a list of the parents and siblings of his ancestor. It's a wealth of information. He's pretty engaged in it I think.

We are planning to do another area of the Rijks Museum tomorrow. Alan will plan the next trip to his ancestral region. We also made a commitment to return to The Hague because a museum that's been highly recommended, the Mauritzhuis is closed for the next 11 days. There's a countdown flag in front of the museum and it looks like it's been closed for a long time. Still, it also looks like the perfect museum, small, interesting rooms and an amazing collection. We will likely combine that with a trip to Delft.The time is going so quickly, I'm starting to wonder if we will even fit all this in.

Alan is doing much better, so much so that he cancelled the acupuncture treatment that was scheduled for yesterday morning.  We went to the Rembrandthuis Museum instead, had a nice lunch out and got back after a full day for yet another great home cooked meal. Since we had a visit from our friends Mark and Judy and Alan brought up that it had devolved that he does "all" of the cooking, we have had made a good compromise in that we alternate cooking responsibilities. This is one great thing about a long and successful marriage, we're still learning how to live with one another. That divergence was prompted by my thoughts about the great food we've had here. Both that which we've prepared for ourselves in this great apartment, and meals outside. We continue to benchmark against the $300 fiasco in the restaurant with no stove in Stockholm. I don't think we've spent that in the supermarket yet.

Anyway, back to Alan. His knee was much better the morning after the last treatment and he was willing to walk for a mile or so. We have been keeping a routine of going to a small museum in the morning (not too early) then having lunch and doing a good walk in a new area of Amsterdam. Alan is a very good pathfinder and now with his bum knee, he's not so inclined to just start walking just by looking at the sun. So that makes it better from my perspective. He's got really good wayfinding abilities, but I'm always nervous that, particularly in these old cities, the path turns and becomes blocked by centuries old terraced houses. There are definitely secret pathways, but even when you go searching for them, as we did yesterday, you can't figure out how to get in unless someone tells you.

The windows to the back of the apartment where we are staying view a very quiet and private courtyard. In contrast, the building front faces Vijelstraat a busy trolly stop (Westerkirk). We also face the church, also Westerkirk, the first one in Amsterdam built for protestants during the reformation. The buildings on the street are the western wall protecting this little courtyard within from the busy world out front. There are lots of trees and birds sing throughout the day. Our walk adventure yesterday was to try and figure out how to get in. There has to be a way because there are at least a dozen roofs to be seen from our fourth floor (5th floor) aerie. The courtyard is not big, but like so many Dutch things, it is very well laid out. We had a little luck in one of the small hotels that is within the warren of roofs we see from our window. They had a cafe in their tiny part of the courtyard and we (well Alan) could get bearings. I'm still a little confused, but I do see the church (the one behind, not Westerkirk) so I know there's a way. Alan wants our walking exploration today to be a reattempt to get inside.

I thought we would be doing more adventuring around Holland, but we've been here 12 days today and have not ventured too far afield. I must say, Alan is being a good sport about his knee. Of course early in his convalescence he was free to play computer games all afternoon without me nagging him, so he got his fix. Plus it was only a few days of complete lay-up.  During those two days I went to the Rijks Museum and bought us Museumpass cards that are good for a full year. They were expensive, 54.90/each, but we are resolved to go to a museum a day and I think they have really already paid for themselves. We will give them to friends when we return to Ireland because they will continue to be good for months afterward.

That first day, I stayed in the Rijks and did the first floor rooms, from 1100 to the 16th century. I went through it pretty quickly because it's heavily religious in subject and I don't find that particularly interesting. My plan is to do the Rijks in stages, and this pass really facilitates that plan. Alan says he will go back for the next section (1700-1800). This should be the most interesting in the whole collection, I think, and I want to be fresh for it. If we can, we will push on to 1900 the next time. I just don't see how I will be able to get the whole way through that museum alone.

We've been to three smaller museums included in the Museumpass on our daily forays since Alan has been feeling up to walking. Mostly my favorites, house museums. I'm especially excited to see a lot of them because of our impending move. It's so interesting to see people's old stuff!

The first one was the van Loon house. As we were walking through I was just overwhelmed with the wealth everywhere on display. It seemed so pretentious and over the top. Still, I could see how one could get used to living that way, if you didn't think at all. All the way through the house I had a feeling of unease and when we got to the basement kitchen, I saw the "family crest" predominently
displayed on every piece of china: two black men in chains facing one another. All this wealth was a result of the slave trade. It was creepy. We capped that morning off with a good walk around the Rembrantplein area. 

The next day we did the Willet-Holthuysen House, a really nice house with interesting furnishings, history and owners. The last owner, Louisa H. gave the house to the city of Amsterdam in 1894 to be run as a museum and it has ever since. The must have been a good endowment with that house. She was the owner through her father, she married Abraham W. late. They seemed to have an interesting relationship and I think in these times, both sounded like they would have been happier living openly but I think they did OK. He was known then as a bon vivant and they both were called collectors. I don't think either did much, but they lived well.

Yesterday we went to the Rembrandthuis. It was interesting, but as I reflect on what I saw, I realize that I can't call to mind a single painting. In fact, I think most of the collection on display in the house was not authentic. I was much interested in the house, and saw that it was the type of lifestyle Alan and I might live today. It was very like our house on Lake Drive in Milwaukee in ambiance. Poor Rembrandt met a sad end though, still he wasn't tortured for years like Van Gogh, but it sounds like no picnic.

The acupuncture guy has done the second treatment and continues to advise Alan to keep off the knee. What a drag. Up to today, I've done excursions on my own, yesterday visiting the open air market at De Pijp. That's near the Heineken Experience, in the south part of the city. It was an interesting market, many streets long, with an array of diverse goods in stalls that were bigger than they looked. There was one of everything there. Alan wouldn't have liked that either, so I was happy enough on my own again.

I have been able to figure out the trollys and it's been fun to do it. Still, I would like to do an adventure further afield, like the Friezen Islands. The "doctor's orders" prevents thinking about that for now. He will get another treatment next Wednesday. He is feeling incrementally better again today so it might be doing him some good. I hope so. We are planning to go to a movie tonight.

Our auspicious start has been scuppered. After the first day walking around the uneven stone streets, Alan's knee struck out. He was totally laid up yesterday.

I went for a shopping excursion, which was quite fun as I usually like to do that by myself anyway.When I returned, he'd about finished his book and was happy for the beer I brought up. On my way back I stopped in a Chinese herbalist and masseuse and she said Alan could come back either at 5 p.m. or this morning at 10. He was up for it this morning, but I didn't really formalize the 10 time with a call and when we got there it was closed. He was pretty undone by that time but after a half hour or so (while I had a coffee) it opened and Alan had an acupuncture treatment. He seems to feel marginally better. We made another appointment for Friday morning. It is hard to believe that we will have been here six days by that point.

This place is still very nice and well equipped, it's just that now we see that it is about the size of our condo in Washington. That was a small place, but well laid out, like this one. Still, I don't think I could go back to that now that we've had so much more room in Dublin.

I'm hoping Alan is better tomorrow. He's encouraged me to go out and purchase the pass for Amsterdam museums and I think I will do that later this afternoon. I'm suddenly conscious of the time a fleeting.

We got to our great apartment in Amsterdam yesterday afternoon. We have been in Holland a lot of times and have never had such good digs, so conveniently located. It's on a tram stop at the Western Market. There is plenty going on in the neighborhood but the working elevator takes us to the 4th floor in ease. When we get there, we are in a quiet, roomy apartment with really comfortable furniture. It's all we were hoping for.

I had a field day integrating our stuff into the amazingly well appointed larder and housekeeping items already here. Our all broiled veg meal last night was perfect. Cooked in a kitchen well equipped with good appliances and crockery. There is a supermarket downstairs that carries really fresh produce, dairy and meat. What an auspicious start.

After a good night's rest, during which I wasn't awoken with allergy woes for the first time in two months, Alan and I spent the morning walking around the neighborhood. We did a similar walk in February, during our stop-over here on our way to Aruba. It was interesting to compare the same neighborhood in the season change between then and now. We stopped and had a really nice lunch, returned to the neighborhood and hit the supermarket, returning just now with another load of groceries. I think I might have more to blog about and hope to get back here before too long...