Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Anne Frank

Hi there
On Sunday, Boxing Day here, we went out again to Jo and Jared's place in Haarlem.We walked through streets and parks and there were children and parents tobogganing on anything which resembled a slope and having a great time.We managed to persude Jared NOT to walk on the ice over the canal as none of was going to pull him out with any ease! Since most place were shut we went into the Grote Markt (big market place in photo) and had lunch at Brinkman's Cafe opposite the Grose Kerke (go on,work it out!). The Dutch do good soups we have found and that was a welcome lunch sitting outside in the week sunshine.Our walk back was a long way round and we saw many pretty sights including a large windmill(in another shot).

We have been having a real cultural overload here recently.On Monday we went to the Anne Frank House. The Anne Frank House is a respectful and well organised museum and NO gift shop!!Using the building itelf, Anne's writing, models,audio-visual displays Anne's story (and her family's) ae told very powerfully.Obviously,I knew her story - what English teacher doesn't? What I hadn't realised was how small the spaces where we she lived for those years. To be able to look out through the window which was Anne's only view of the world was a moment I will not forget.We all met up in the cafe for a restorative hot drink and time to come back to ourselves.It was a moving experience for us all.

After meeting up with Jo at the Club Med offices we walked to a sandwich place,Vlaamisch Broothuis for lunch - melts and open sandwiches. Delicious.As a complete contrast to the morning, we followed up in the afternoon with the Heineken Experience.Set in an old brewery, this sales experience cum museum makes skilful use of video screens, interactive games, beertasting, dray horses and even real beer drinking and Lambie had a good thirst!Dinner that night was at a Dutch restaurant - not really a cuisine that I had experienced before. Satay chicken was a colonial variation,other meals had a lot of mashed vegetables - or there was fondue!On the way back we had dessert - a crepe at a stall in the Winter Plaza near our hotel.

On Tuesday we decided to take the Hop On Hop Off canal boat which takes you around the canal system for about 14 euros for 24 hours.This city is amazing - the systematic settlement of this boggy set of islands (built on the Amstel River)
dates back to the 14th century and the trading history is apparent in the buildings you see along the canals. The variations in the building styles on the roof tops (see the photo) and building fronts all tell a story.As we motored along in the boat we crunched through the ice and occasionally had to divert for swans who do not get out of the way.There are also about 2500 houseboats along the canals in Amsterdam, many of them very elegant and well-appointed but some little more than floating slums. Having done a loop of the city we got off the boat and found lunch in the Hansel and Gretel Cafe (complete with oven!). Then we checked out the museum queues at the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum and formulated a plan for the next day.

Two main principles have been revealed to us about going to big name places like this.First,whenever possible, book tickets on line because you avoid one line (always the longest)and a priority queue is a wonderful thing when its cold or wet!The desk staff at our hotel (Vondel Hotel-recommended highly)booked and print our tickets at any time which has been great.Second,always go early. The crowds which arrive for these places usually come in buses from about 10.00am and it is then that the crowds happen in full.

The next stop was the Rembrandt House after another journey on another canal boat. This museum is set out as Rembrandt would have lived in it. They know this because he went broke after taking a mortgage to buy the house and then having to sell up.They inventoried all his possessions and were able to set things out as they had been.It is a great way to get a feeling for the man and his work.The high windy staircases are a bit of a trial for large feet, but it's worth it!To see his works, studio where he worked and the collection of artefacts he used in his paintings was amazing.There was also a Caravaggio - a study of John the Baptist - which was really stunning too. Dinner was at Wagamama - the first time we had been there. Highly recommend that - and I know lots of you will have eaten at this great food place.

So today (Wednesday 29th) we got going really early to get to the Van Gogh Museum which is about 10 minutes walk away from our hotel, getting there just as it opened - and with tickets in hand. That was another amazing morning. There were so many great paintings. I loved a painting of a chestnut tree in full bloom.John loved the Monet of the bridge in the garden at Giverny.They really do Museums well in this city and there are so many to see. We walked back to the hotel to leave the purchases from the shop and get washing as we are currently at Jo and Jared's for dinner. Jillian, Struan and Kimberley (Jo's parents and sister) have been great company and with Jared we have had another wonderful day. We walked (about 5 kms) from our hotel to the Central Station, getting lunch and dinner at La Place in the V&D building.So we are sorted and looking forward to another great day in Amsterdam tomorrow.Lots of love to you all.

when the snow lay round about ...

Hi Everyone
We are in the village of Weston, which is quite near to Stevenage. Lisa (John's niece) and her husband Angus live here with Alex (aged 3 and a quarter) and Thomas aged 10 days.Gran Jan from Christchurch is also here.Just before I started writing this today, the snow fell off the roof of the house next door. It is not currently snowing but it has been this morning.The houses all look very pretty - like the pictures on the Christmas cards which we have seen all our lives.

Now, I know that the news on the weather in the UK is all very dramatic but you must realise that British pluck comes to the fore in these things and they just get on with things. To prove the point, a man has just come to the door and is going to move a fence - even in snowy conditions.Lisa has been out to the doctor's (mastitis) and Angus is taking Alex swimming soon (indoors obviously!)However, The Sun newspaper yesterday had a headline "the Great Queue of St Pancras" which cannot have been pleasant (6000 people in a queue - the Brits know how to do it, don't they?)

In the morning we were up with Alex and Angus as they did the day care run and we were dropped off at Baldock station.John and I went into Cambridge for the day. The journey was interesting. We were to catch the 8.23(don't you love it?). The trains were delayed so it was 9.11 before we set off (temp -9 and snowing intermittently). The train was quite full and from conversations which others were having a volume it appeared that some were trying to get "ooop North" by zigzagging their way acorss country ("Eeh lass,I'll get to Peterborough and see what the delays are like to Newcastle. Toodle pip.")

Cambridge is smaller than I had imagine and walking around the old city proved easy, if slushy, underfoot.As we had left without breakfast, we made our way through Lion Yard to Carluccio's (owned by Antonio Carluccio of Food Channel fame). The eggs benedict and cappucinos were excellent.(NB later in the day we also went past Jamie's - Oliver - restaurant. As there are strict rules about how the fabric of the buildings under graded listing can be changed, there are some odd pairings of style. There was a market in the square outside Guildhall (and some very cold market stall owners). I needed a hat by this point so picked one up for £3.We stepped into the Round Church, built on the old Roman road and dating back from the Middle Ages. we walked down to Magdalene (pronounced maudlin -!)crossing over the Cam River. The punt owners were de-icing the punts; the (brown-feathered) swans were trapped by ice in a small patch of water; but the funniest sight were the ducks walking on top of the ice looking for a place to paddle in! - as you can see in the pics.We also managed to find a College which was open - most were closed. Gonville and Caius has a beautiful setting as you can see - thre was also a bedraggled-looking ponga in a corner of the grounds.
Our next target was King's College Chapel which was easy to find as there was a large BBC van outside - they were setting up for the recording of the Christmas service.The chapel (no small building, this) is a very impressive piece of church architecture started by Henry VI and finished by Henry VIII to show what great mates he was with God.The carved screen which today masks the organ's "engine", has the entwined initials of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn - I wonder if he ever felt bad about that! After leaving the Chapel, we walked around the edge of the building but not on the grass. They have signs for that as you can see! We found lunch in The Eagle, a pub dating back to 1575 - steak and ale pie and fish and chips with mulled wine and chardonnay. You will know who had what, I am sure! After lunch we stopped at a bakery called Fitzbillies to buy some Florentines to take back to Weston.

The names of the streets in Cambridge deserve a book on their own (and probably have one or two). At one time, all the Fellows (lecturers) of the various colleges of the day had to take divine orders, ie become priests.I guess that is one way to keep the universities under control!The names of places and streets abound with saints' names - Andrew, John(see the shot of John in situ), Benet (Benedict) and even Mary gets a look in. There's also Jesus College, Jesus Close and Jesus Ditch. There is also Maid's Causeway, Christ's Pieces and All Saints Passage, just to name a few.

Our last stop of the day was the Fitzwilliam Museum, which has an amazing and exhausting number of galleries. There was a great display of armour - the kind that knights wear - including armour for horses. The swords (including an execution sword were very mean-looking.The rooms of Renaissance paintings were beautifully displayed, each room having its own rich colour (red, green brown) and the paintings being set off by antique furniture - chairs, sideboards, etc and beautiful rugs. As it was 4.00pm and dark was setting in, we walked back to the station where there were lots of people catching trains, fortunately ours started from Cambridge so we were able to get seats.The grammar of the train messages intrigues me. The message is always "This train is for King's Cross" - which seems rather odd somehow.

We have just been out for lunch and to pick up the Christmas turkey from Church Farm, an organic enterprise which is very popular and looks quite properous.It is on the web, as everything seems to be nowadays. John and I walked down to the village shop for the papers (and a copy of OK magazine!)it was quite cold with a slight wind blowing. That has not stopped the fence man from continuing his work. Tomorrow we are travelling with Jan into London, leaving Lisa, Angus, Alex and Thomas. John has checked us through Luton on the internet and we look like we are good to go to Amsterdam on Friday morning. Fingers crossed!It is lovely to read your comments - they are cheaper than texts, too. Lots of love.

Crisp and even

Hi everyone
We left Hamilton at 31 degrees;Dubai was 20 degrees; now we are experiencing the joys of a range from minus 2 to much colder - but it's all good so far.
Back to Dubai - impressions - clean (one empty water bottle and only one example of graffitti seen); organised (road systems going effortlessly in all directions) and empty - at 7.30am - as people do not go to shop until 10.00am. We had a wonderful Tour with a Local, which John had spotted on the web. Sunil, a Muslim Indian met us where he said he would and took us to his immaculate white, air-conditioned Previa. He took us to all the things we had hoped to see (Palm Island;the Burj el Arab; el Jermeirah) and some we had not known about - the Dubai Museum and a small souk which was really charming - and also shut at that hour of the day. It was a cheap trip from that point of view! Overall, Dubai seemed to me to have much the same combination of power, wealth and ego as places like the Palace of Versaille and the castle at Carcassone. I wonder if future generations will be looking at the collection of buildings in Dubai in the same way.

Arriving at Manchester Airport at about 7.00pm, we had to wait about 15 minutes while they de-iced the airport bridge so we could connect with the terminal building. Ominous. Our friend John P. picked us up and told us to wrap up as it was minus 6 degrees outside. We did. The journey back to Grindleford took about 2 hours as we had to avoid likely snow patches, even though he drives a 4 wheel drive, he does not take chances.As we made our way through Derbyshire, there were glimpses of a countryside with black and white as the dominant colours. It was quite unnerving not being able to see much, as well as the added drama of not knowing if we would get there!
In the morning we woke to a world covered in the most picture-postcard snow. The robin in this photo was in a tree which we cn see from the kitchen table.John P. had set up fat balls in a roll of plastic fencing and the birds come to this. As we had breakfast weWe also spotted tits of many varieties, blue jays, robins and a large grey squirrel. Ruth, who is a dermatologist, had stayed overnight in Nottingham so she did not miss her patients because of getting stuck in the snow and the other three of us set off for the day. Some stops were David Mellor - who is a silversmith - very smart designs but he also designed the modern traffic lights used in most cities in the UK; Hathersage, fanous because Charlotte Bronte wrote "Wuthering Heights" in the local vicarage;and Derwent Reservoir where they practiced the low plane runs needed to achieved the WWII action seen in the movie "The Dam Busters"; and Chatsworth, home of the Devonshire family. The house was closed (as they say) so we went to the Stables, now converted into a very up-market retail opportunity. The huge water trough/fountain was totally frozen solid. As we drove through the estate, we saw deer under the trees, just waiting for the next shoot, I guess.Our last stop was the plague village of Eyam (said "eeem") famous because when the plague of 1666 came to the village they decided to sequester themselves from the world so that others would not be infected. We also went to the church where there was a font dating from Saxon times. The graves around the church are left in a tidy condition but they are all collapsed and quite sad, though there was a magnificent Celtic cross.The village had a row of houses, all Grade I listed which dated from the time of the plague and have plaques outside remembering those who died. I should think they would be quite cool to live in as double glazing is not allowed there!
That was just the first day of our stay in Grindleford and Ruth and John have treated us very well. The twisted spire shot is from the market town of Chesterfield where we did indeed go to a market. We also visited the church , whose spire is made of wood and has unaccountably twisted. It is a Catholic church which may, or may not have anything to do with it. Ruth and John are both great cooks and, as well, we have eaten and drunk some amazing things: mulled wine in a pub called "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Inn" dated from 1570 in a little place called Castleton where they have a stone carving of Brigantia which dates from 1000BC; yesterday; corned beef hash in the kitchen of Hardwick Hall an Elizabethan power house; today: parsnip pie in another pub in Sheffield called "The Fat Cat" which rates as the best vegetarian pub in that city.
Tomorrow we are up to catch a train (at 8.11am!) to Stevenage where we get ourselves by taxi to Lisa and Angus. We will be there for a few days. The weather reports on the BBC are very dramatic and make things sound very bad. Having been here for a few days we can see that the UK has not come to an icy halt but you certainly need to plan your day around the weather - and the fact that it is dark by 4.00pm! Lots of love to you all...J&J

Where's Lambie - not again???

Hi there all you family and friends - it is two more sleeps (that's proper ones lying down)until we set off on our next journey. We feel a bit fraudulent going to Europe. It is barely 15 months since we were last there; it will be winter; and just yesterday we saw Jo and Jared at James and Charlie's 2nd birthday party in the park! Still there is Jamie's wedding to attend and John has not ever had a winter Christmas, so we will be joining Joanne and Jared and her parents Struan and Jillian and her sister Kimberley in Amsterdam on Dec 24th.In between we will be catching up with friends in the UK and having a weeks or so in Paris and London around all that....tough but someone has to do it!

Of course Lambie is coming too and it's a good thing Lambie has his woolie (sp?) coat on...the weather forecasts have been really grim so far.We depart on Dec 15th at about 6.50pm and return to sunny NZ on Jan 18th. I have high hopes that you will come in from the sun and check us out so this will be our main way of telling our news - and a few photos as well.

Happy Christmas and a bright New Year to you all - love from J&J