Art in the Hague

During the first few months that we were in the Netherlands we spent our weekends visiting various different towns and cities. Most of these trips were day trips and so we would try and use the limited time we had to get a feel for the town or city we were visiting. Whilst exploring we would often come across museums and other interesting places that we added to our list of 'must see places'. The idea always being that we would come back in the winter months when being outdoors was less appealing. Well, we are more than half way through winter (or at least we hope we are!) and had still not got round to visiting any of the museums on our list. So this past week while we were deciding what to do with our weekend we had two options we were considering:

1) Visit the town of Leeuwarden or
2) Visit some of the museums on our list.

The museums won! (Leeuwarden, which is 2.5 hours by train, will be a spring time trip)

The Hague has two museums that we have been wanting to visit for some time. Mauritshuis and the Escher Museum.

One of the main squares in the Hague

The Mauritshuis is a 17th century palace in the heart of the Hague and is a great venue for a museum. The museum will however be closed from April 1st 2012 until mid 2014 for renovations and so an added reason for visiting it now. Whilst the main pieces (approximately 100 out of the 800) from the museum will be on show during this time at a temporary location, we don't think it will be quiet the same as seeing the art in the Mauritshuis.

The 17th century palace that houses the Mauritshuis museum

The Mauritshuis museum boasts a number of well known artists, including Rembrandt, Rubens and Vermeer. The big attraction though is Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'. No photos are allowed in the museum, but here are some pics from the museum's website.

 Rembrandt - self portrait (apparently he painted over 80 self portraits over the years)

Vermeer - Girl with a Pearl Earring (a Dutch favourite)

Avercamp – Winter scene (this one reminded us of the recent cold weather we had and seeing everybody out on the ice – a typically Dutch scene)

And then it was off to the M.C. Escher Museum (where they do allow photography). Escher’s work has a way of drawing you in and fascinating you with his mesmerizing works. Some of the items that we really enjoyed are shown below.

This picture of three spheres (a glass sphere on the left, a metallic sphere in the middle and a non-reflective sphere on the right) makes interesting use of reflections. 

Bron looking at some of the patterns that Escher came up with.

Collection of pictures

Creatures that come alive and walk around and then return back to the page. But it is the reflections and the patterns that really make this picture amazing.

Day and night (and the Dutch landscape below)

Some more information on these interesting museums:

www.mauritshuis.nl

www.escherinhetpaleis.nl

And while we are promoting art, the website of some very talented friends of ours:

www.mpenja.com

Have a great week and until next time!

A surprise visit to SA =)

Long Haul flight to JHB via Dubai

Two weeks off work

Arranging a lift from the airport

Look on Dad’s face when upon arriving at front door unannounced: priceless!

My Dad turned 70 this past Saturday and I thought a surprise trip home would be a good gift for him. I was a bit early for his birthday but I think he enjoyed it all the same ‘~)

It was really awesome to be in SA after just more than a year of being away. I forgot how much I miss the sunshine, the hot summer days and the impossibly blue sky. It was great enjoying all the things we miss from home, I munched many hot cross buns and drank a lot of sterie stumpie milkshakes! I was stoked when the shops finally brought out marshmallow Easter eggs just before I left! Legend.

But I also forgot how slow African time can be, how security conscious one has to be in SA and especially JHB, how frustrating the banks, rika and fica are, how you can’t go anywhere unless you have a car but also how friendly the people are. It was really hard to say goodbye and leave my family again but it is also nice to be back with Justin. I think it was good to wait a full year before coming home. I don’t really miss Jo’burg that much, only my family who live there. I think it would be much harder to be in Cape Town for a holiday and then leave again. We really loved living there and miss the CT lifestyle very much.

I took it really easy in Jo’Burg and mostly spent time with my family. I was blessed to spend a lot of time with my Dad, my Mom, my brothers and their wives, my 15 month old niece Micaela, my uncle Hilton and a good friend from school Monet. I enjoyed the sunny days and swam and sat in the garden as much as possible. On the Sunday my uncle Hilton and I arranged a surprise birthday lunch for my Dad with family and some friends Dad hasn’t seen in ages. Was really good. I also spent a day at the Misty Hills day spa with Monet which was great fun. My Mom flew up from St Francis Bay and stayed with my brother Darrell for 4 nights. Thanks for coming up Mom! Was really awesome that you came and we could hang out.

And then it was time to go back again =( But first some shopping to take back some things we miss and other things we can’t get in the Netherlands! Thank goodness for the 30 kg luggage limit when flying with Emirates! (The long haul via Dubai is almost worth it.)

Highlights from the holiday:

- The look on Dad’s face when I arrived

- Spending lots of time with my Dad, my brothers Craig and Darrell and their wives Vanessa and Liz, my 15 month old niece Micaela and my uncle Hilton

- My mom flying up to JHB for 4 nights and spending lots of time with her

- A flying half hour visit from Justin’s brother Brenainn who was in town for one night for work

- Seeing Justin’s cousins Mike & Nicola and baby Aidan

- Dinner and a spa day with Monet, a good friend from school

- Surprise birthday lunch for my Dad with some of his friends too

- LOTS of sunshine and 30ºC days

- Summer thunderstorms

- Swimming almost everyday

- Having a braai in the rain with my Dad

- Spending quality time with my cats

- Fish and chips at Ocean Basket with my Dad x2

- Milkshakes at the Boomhuisie with my Dad

- Breakfast at the Boomhuisie with my Mom

- Shopping with my Mom

Things I brought back:

- Beacon marshmallow Easter eggs!!

- Woolies winter sheets

- Woolies duvet covers

- Woolies long sleeve vests

- Kway fleece jackets

- Perforated clingwrap

- Ina Paarman’s chicken and vegetable stock

- Sweet basil

- Viral choice C

- Germolene

- Flu caps

- Savlon

- Cocoa butter lip ice

- Cricket bat tape

Back in the Netherlands the temperature had dropped from a manageable 8ºC to ‑10ºC in the day. I didn’t take a coat or even a hat and gloves with me to save some space. A real problem when it is below zero outside! I was trying to find a nice kway 3in1 jacket all holiday and finally found one airside at the airport, thank goodness! It has warmed up now and is back to about 10ºC in the day, although today we had a snow shower again. But with the ‘warm’ temperatures and the rain all the snow and ice has melted. No more clear freezing days, back to rainy and windy days. I’m not quite sure which is worse! But the days are slowly getting longer; in December it was completely dark by 5pm and now it is still light till about 6:30 pm or so. And it is also lighter earlier in the morning. So that is at least positive.

In other news we have booked tickets to see Bryan Adams and Cirque de Soleil in March. We may still book tickets for Snow Patrol also in March. And yesterday we were online when ticket sales opened and were fortunate enough to get tickets for Madonna in July! Super excited! Slowly catching up for the slow year for concerts we had last year.

Hope you are all well and had a good weekend! Have a good week!

Some pics from my SA holiday:

 

My beautiful 15 month old niece Micaela in her favourite place, the swing! Her other favourite thing is pushing a shopping trolley around, too cute! 

Family birthday lunch at my uncle's house

Micaela's favourite fruit, grapes! She likes to have one in each hand and one in her mouth, lol. 

A tired teething Micaela on Grandpa's lap

The four cousins: Craig, Lloyd, Bronwen and Darrell

Braaing with Dad in the on/off rain! It was a beautiful clear day in the morning when we took the meat out.... 

Wors and mielies off the fire! =)

Boerie roll =)

Granny: Please eat the yummy dinner we made for you!

Micaela: Hm, I'll think about it!

On Granny's lap! 

Elfstedenkoorts!

This week the whole of the Netherlands has been gripped by Elfsteden fever!

The Elfstedentocht or the Eleven City Race is a 200 km race skated on frozen canals connecting 11 cities in the Northern Province of Friesland. 16 000 skaters are expected to take part and in order for the event to take place the ice needs to be at least 15 cm thick over the entire course. For this to occur it needs to be below 0ºC for at least 10 nights and days in a row. The race starts at 5 am with a cut off time of midnight. Skaters have to collect a stamp at each city and also three other secret check-points. It is a very prestigious race under grueling conditions and the winner is guaranteed instant fame in the Netherlands. Farmer Evert van Benthem won the race twice in a row in 1985 and 1986 and set a record time of 6 hours, 47 minutes. Needless to say he is a national hero.

The route of the Elfstedentocht in Friesland. The race starts and ends in Leeuwarden and includes the cities of Sneek, Ijlst, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, Horkum, Bolsward, Harlingen, Franeker and Dokkum.

This week it came pretty close to being held but the ice was too thin in some of the Southern parts of the Friesland. Saturday would have been the best day since it is supposed to warm up again from Sunday. Saturday was forecast to be about -10ºC, Sunday about -1ºC and then going into the positives again from Monday and into the week (apparently 3ºC is warm! lol). So for now, the race is off for this year.

The race hasn’t been held since 1997. Apparently the conditions were perfect in Dec 2012/Jan 2011 but then it started snowing. Snow is bad because you can’t really skate through it and it also insulates the ice and prevents it from becoming thicker. The snow from last week Friday has been sitting on the ice all week and even though it has been really cold the ice still wasn’t thick enough. In the second half of the week the Dutch army began clearing snow off the frozen canals in Friesland in an attempt to help the ice to grow but no such luck. I think they started a bit late… To anyone who complains about how the government spends your tax money at least it is not for using the army to clear snow off the ice for a skating race!!

The Dutch love skating and are completely crazy over this race though. It has been the topic of conversation, the news and newspapers for the whole week. Some people at work have even taken some time off to go skating while the ice is still good. We were in the city doing some admin yesterday and we saw some special Elfsteden cookies and things available with packaging covered in the Friesland flag. And some shops had a special 11% discount for Elfstedenkoorts. I think it is great that the tradition of this race has survived and people are as excited about it as ever.

We would love to witness an Elfstedentocht while we are living in the Netherlands, the atmosphere in Friesland must be amazing. Hopefully one year. Friesland gets seriously crowded though and if you actually want to see any of the skating it is probably best to stay home and watch it on TV, lol.

So it was supposed to start warming up from today but it started snowing as I started writing this! So still pretty cold! But we are expecting to go into positive temperatures again from tomorrow. We can only hope as it is seriously cold and the train service has been reduced while it is freezing.

In other news we watched ‘Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo’ at the movies last night and Justin is coaching under 16 cricket again today (they have an indoor tournament today). I am glad I am wrapped up indoors! And later we have been invited to have dinner with some of Justin’s cricket people.

Hope you have a good week! Coming soon: Bron’s surprise visit to Jo’burg =)

x

...and skating in Rotterdam.

Today started with finding out that last night was the coldest night in the Netherlands in 27 years. -15 degC in my neighbourhood and areas to the north were in the -20's.

All week everyone at work has been talking about going skating (the outdoor type). Apparently it is a typically Dutch thing to do. So at 10 o'clock this morning, with the temperature a fresh -8 degC I got on my bike and headed out to meet some friends for a bit of skating.

So apparently this field was purposefully flooded in order to create an outdoor skate rink

The friends that I went skating with and their 3 month old twins

This section of the Kralingse Bos lake had frozen over and was being used for all sorts of outdoor activites

Who needs a bridge when you can walk on water!

Snow in Rotterdam!

On Monday the first snow of the season arrived... but it was actually just a tease and barely covered the ground. Today it was a little bit more serious. About 6cm serious. OK, it doesn't quite compare with other parts of Europe that have had more than a metre of snow, but it is still really awesome!

The view from our place

The view down our street

Some pics from around our neighbourhood

I think this car is really cool!

Impromptu ice skating

Making snow angels (or Goofing around). No I haven't been to the local coffee shop. Can't vouch for the guy in the photo though.

As for the temperatures this week, the temperature hasn't been in the positive since last weekend. The high today was -4 degC and there is no sign of it getting any warmer. 

First snow of the season...

The temperatures have plummeted (the high on Thursday is apparently going to be -4degC) and today we had a bit of the white fluffy stuff falling out of the sky. Not enough to cover the ground, but everything got a light dusting and it looks great. Hopefully if we have a bit more snow there will be pics to follow.

This week Bron is in Joburg for a surprise visit. Her dad has a big birthday coming up in February and apparently he nearly fell over when she arrived at the house.

If you haven't had a chance to read about our time in Spain have a look at the previous two blog posts.

Until next time =)

Southern Spain: Sevilla to Malaga

Time for the second installment on our time in Spain! =)

English is not very big in Spain. Even Spanglish is not very beeg in Spain! It was a bit difficult to get around and especially order food in Spain as not a lot of places cater for English speaking tourists. Generally in the hotels at least one person can speak some English but even this is a problem in the smaller towns! In the bigger more touristy towns it was a bit better but we had to learn a little bit of Spanish just to get by. We can’t really string a sentence together but we learnt quite a few words (we made a list, it’s quite impressive!) to get by and especially to order food! The Spanish will eat anything if it sits still long enough so it was quite important to be able to work out what you are ordering from the menu! The first important words were hola (hello), gracias (thank you), leche (milk), batidos (milkshake), Té (tea), café (coffee), bocadillo (sandwich) and Feliz Navidad (Merry Christmas!). Hopefully we will still remember most of them the next time we visit Spain!

Another thing about Spain was the lovely Christmas and Festive Season everywhere. All the hotels had nice big trees and other decorations up. There were also trees up in cities, often more than one and mostly made up entirely of lights. There were also lots of strings of lights in the streets. In Ronda there was even Christmas music blaring from speakers dotted around the city!

Sevilla to Malaga:

After a very relaxed Christmas day in Sevilla we moved on to Cordoba on Boxing Day. We arrived in the early afternoon so we went for a walk around the old city centre. Cordoba is another one of this cities heavily influenced by the Moorish architecture; there are round arches and colourful tiles everywhere. The main sights in Cordoba are the Puente Romano or Roman Bridge and the Mezquita, a Mosque that was converted into a church after the conquest. Cordoba also has a Plaza de Toros or bull ring which we skipped since we had been to the one in Ronda (we guessed they are all pretty similar inside).  After a bite to eat and a quick look around the leather shops we headed to the Mezquita.

The Mezquita-Catedral or Mezquita-Cathedral was originally built as a mosque and later converted into a church. The building was added to and renovated a number of times. The original building was built by Abd al Rahman I and subsequently extended by his 3 successors. The resulting building is quite large. There is also a courtyard of orange trees with a fountain and some shallow pools where people washed before entering the mosque to pray. Fortunately after the Christian conquest the building was not destroyed but converted into a church instead and kept in the same style. It is a stunning example of Moorish architecture. Highlights include the orange and white arches supported by decorated pillars of jasper, granite and marble which cover the entire inside of the church and the ornately decorated Mihrab or Muslim prayer niche. We really enjoyed exploring the Mezquita and chilling in the orange courtyard. Entry to the orange courtyard is free so we returned a few times just to chill =)

The rest of our time in Cordoba was spent exploring the city, wandering in the gardens, soaking up the sun, leather shopping and we even squeezed in a nap! On our last evening we had a fabulous traditional Arab meal. Justin had a lovely lamb tagine with prunes and almonds and Bron had sole also done with fruits and things. Was really good! We finished off the meal with Arab pastries and traditionally served Arab tea. As we were leaving we discovered that the restaurant is above the traditional Moorish baths! We were leaving the next day so didn’t have time to try out the baths =( But we were soon informed that Granada has traditional baths too! =)

The Puente Romano in Cordoba

The bell tower of the Mezquita

Arches and pillars in the Mezquita 

The Mihrab or prayer niche in the Mezquita 

The old city walls

Christmas tree in Cordoba

The next day we were off to Granada! Granada was the coldest of the cities we visited. Everywhere else was about 20ºC in the day but Granada had a max of about 11ºC in the day with temperatures of around 3ºC in the early morning and in the evening. This is probably due to snow on the Sierra Nevada mountain range which tower over the city. We arrived early afternoon again and headed out into the city for some exploring! We saw the Cathedral and walked up the hill into the Albaycin area and found the Plaza de San Nicolas with a view of the Alhambra. We spent the evening walking around and checking out the touristy shops =)

A lot of places in cities we had been to offer Flamencos shows with or without dinner. We were really keen to see some Flamenco and finally found a nice place to try out in Granada. We had dinner and enjoyed an hour of Flamenco at a really nice restaurant in the Albaycin area on the slope of the hill. Wow, the flamenco was really good! The group consisted of 2 guitar players, a singer guy, a clapper guy, a lady dancer and a guy dancer. They started off nice and slow with just guitar with clapping and singing. The tempo speeded up and then the dancing started! Wow! It was really good. We really enjoyed the show, it was really fun =)

A tea seller advertising goods available

Shopping in the streets

View of the snow capped Sierra Nevada and the Alhambra from Plaza San Nicolas in Granada

Sunset at Plaza San Nicolas

Flamenco!

Early the next day we picked up our friends Martin and Kirsten from Malaga airport! Martin and Justin met at UCT where they went to the same res and after wards shared an apartment for a year. It was so awesome that you guys could join us for a few days!

Back in Granada we re-did the walking tour of the city we did the previous day. We spent lots of time catching up with each other and Justin gave Kirsten some tips on how to use her new SLR camera. Bron and Martin were the non-photographers checking out all the souvenir shops! For dinner we tried out a tapas bar that looked like where locals hangout tapas bar and shared some tapas. Not much English to be had but it was recommended to try a cold and hot board or plate of mixed tapas. Wow, hat a lot of food! Was very yummy though.

The next day we had tickets to the Alhambra! Woohoo! Right on top of Bron’s must-see list. The Alhambra is a city on a hill overlooked by the Sierra Nevada and overlooking the city of Granada. It was built by a series of Moorish monarchs and later added to by some of the Christian rulers after the reconquest. The Alhambra was built with the idea of paradise on earth. There are a number of palaces and gardens in the complex and also places of worship, the traditional baths and also a fortified area where military training took place. The Generalife is also part of the Alhambra complex and is a separate palace where the rulers would take their leisure time. The Gardens of the Generalife are massive and must be amazing in the Summer.

Generally simple materials such as plaster, timber and tiles were used but with such great craftsmanship and with exquisite use of space, light and water. The typical round Moorish arches were used everywhere and water features being the centre of attention with pools in all the courtyards and lots of running water. All the walls and most of the ceilings are covered in highly decorated plasterwork. It is amazingly even and symmetrical considering it was probably all done by hand. Patterns include geometric patterns with many stars but also plants, birds and animals. There was less colourful tiles than the Real Alcazar in Sevilla but it did not feel any less decorated. It is difficult to explain but I hope some of the pictures will show it better =)

We had a great day walking around and exploring the Alhambra complex. There was a little bit of time for some shopping and a cup of Arab tea before we headed off for our appointment at the traditional Moorish baths! At the baths you start with a warm shower and then spend a little bit of time in each of the warm, hot and cold pools, always moving around between them. There was also a steam room and hot stones to lie down on. You could also book a massage but we just went with the bath option. We really enjoyed the refreshing tea available all the time. The hour and a half went by too fast but it was so relaxing! We left feeling very warm and rejuvenated and assured of a good night’s sleep!

Justin, Bronwen, Martin and Kirsten at Plaza San Nicolas

Tapas!

Catching some rays in the Alhambra. Notice the new boots bought in Ubrique!

At the Myrtle Courtyard in the Alhambra

The Alhrambra

Plaster work and round arches

Pools of water and gardens

In the Hammam or baths at the Alhambra

Water feature in the Generalife

View of white washed houses from the Alhambra

At the Arab tea house! 

A street in the Albaycin in Granada 

The next day was New Year’s Eve and time to move on to our final destination for the holiday, Almunecar. We stayed in a really nice hotel right on the beach! It is also right next to a ruined castle on a small hill and a bird park; it was so nice to have the sound of many different birds floating up to us all day.

We had a really relaxed afternoon walking on beach and just chilling. We decided to have a nap and then head out into the small city centre in the evening for some dinner and then to enjoy the evening’s festivities! However, there wasn’t a single restaurant or pub open! Apparently people have dinner at home, celebrate New Year’s at midnight and then head out after 12:30 or 1 am to party. After walking around for a few hours and having a drink in the English pub, the only thing that was open!, we settled for a random Turkish take-away, the only place that was serving meals! We quietly ate our take-aways on the balcony of our room and saw in the New Year. A bit of a disappointment as we were so keen for a party. It was too weird. We didn’t go out again but we didn’t hear any raucous parties either. It is probably the quietest New Year’s we have ever had! Lol. Apparently the Dutch go so crazy with fireworks that you are limited to buying ‘only’ 10 kg of fireworks and sales only start a few days before. Apparently Rotterdam was the second loudest city on New Year’s eve. Too crazy!

We had a really nice New Year’s day exploring Malaga though. We drove through in the morning and spent some time walking on the beach, around the harbor and around the city. We found a hill with a pathway and stairs leading to great vies over the harbor and city and up to an old castle. We were also able to walk around the castle and watched the sun go down with great views over the city.

Back in Almunecar it was time for our last dinner with Martin and Kirsten. We had another shared tapas meal and an early night. We dropped Martin and Kirsten off at the airport early in the morning and spent our last afternoon walking around the city and on the beach trying ot soak up as much sun as possible! Our last meal was in the restaurant of the hotel and was superb! We both had the Dorada and were served a whole fish each, head and tail and all! It was grilled but tasted like it came off the braai fire. It was too amazing! We highly recommend this hotel and restaurant!

The next day we had time for one more walk in the sun and then it was time to head back to the airport =( We had such a lovely holiday and had one day at home in Rotterdam to get organized before starting work again on the Thursday. However, the Netherlands and Northern Europe were in the throes of a storm when we tried to land and it was not pretty! The wind was so hectic we couldn’t land on our designated runway and had to circle for half an hour before we could land. Bron and a lot of other passengers felt so sea sick it was really awful. But we finally landed and got home in one piece =) And so ends our time in Andalusia.

The beach in Almunecar 

The boys skimming stones into the ocean

The beach at sunset. An escaped resident of the bird park? 

The fish we ate was caught right on this beach! =)

On the beach in Malaga!

At the harbour in Malaga

View of the Bull Ring from the winding alkway 

Malaga at sunset from the castle

In other news we went ten-pin bowling on Friday night with some friends from Justin’s work. Was really fun! The rest of the weekend was spent chilling and catching up on the never ending amounts of home admin!

Welcome back to the Northern Hemisphere Graham and Michelle! I've heard your trip was epic! Looking forward to hearing more and seeing some of the 6000 Japanese Tourist photos! Sterkte for the first week back! Don't worry, you will acclimatize to the cold again. All the best for back to work this week! Thinking of you guys. x

Hope you are well! Have a good week! Till next time,

x