The Hague & Amsterdam Part II

On Wednesday the 29^th, Brendan, Liam & I set out for The Hague. We spent a quiet morning at home and went in by train in the afternoon. We only had a few hours in the city so we decided to spend the time walking around rather than going into museums. We’ve both found that walking is the best way to see a city, to admire its architecture and get a feel for its atmosphere. Along our walk we saw the Dutch parliament, the queen’s palace (where she currently resides), as well as various churches and squares. The Hague feels much more spacious than Amsterdam, where the houses are all narrow and stuck together. It doesn’t have the same unique charm, but is still a nice city. That night Gladys & Carlo treated us to dinner at a restaurant by the lake across from their house. It was a delicious dinner and a lovely evening – yet another instance of the abundant generosity of our hosts!

Mauritshuis Gallery and Parliament

Self-portrait!

Liam in The Hague! 

On Thursday the 30^th we went back to Amsterdam for the afternoon. This time we took a canal boat tour, which offered a great view of the city. The tour lasted about an hour and took us through several of the main canals. After the tour we made our way to Anne Frank’s house, only to find that the line up to get in went all the way around the corner! I’ve noticed that long line-ups are a common occurrence in Amsterdam. Most of the major museums we saw had huge lines to get in – we were lucky to get into the Van Gogh museum so quickly. So rather than wait at Anne Frankhuis, we took a picture from the outside and continued on our way. Our plan was to explore the older part of the city and go to Rembrandt’s house, but after taking a break to feed Liam, we decided it was best to go home. I wasn’t feeling well, and since we still have the road trip through Normandy ahead of us, we thought it would be wise not push ourselves too hard. Liam had a bit of a meltdown that evening, but once he finally went to sleep we were able to relax and enjoy dinner and a movie with Gladys & Carlo.

Taken from the canal boat

House boat - people actually live in these!

Anne Frankhuis, where Anne and her family hid from 1942-44 

Today is a quiet day, which is definitely what we need before the next leg of the trip. Liam is back to his old self after being somewhat out of sorts yesterday, and I am taking the time to rest so as to beat this cold. Gladys taught me how to make Grandma’s shortbread this afternoon, but other than that, I’ve just been resting, writing, and playing with my boy. B & I will be making dinner for our hosts this evening. B has it all planned out and it’s promising to be quite a feast – one of those entire evening affairs. I suspect we’ll still be eating by next year!!!

Amsterdam, Apeldoorn & Arnhem

After a wonderfully restful and relaxing Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day, we were ready to take in a bit more of our surroundings here in The Netherlands. Gladys & Carlo were off work on Monday & Tuesday, and graciously offered to be our tour guides.

On Monday the 27^th, we set off for Amsterdam. We left mid-morning, and spent the better part of the day exploring. Gladys & Carlo first took us for coffee & cake at a fancy hotel restaurant, then led through the city. One of our first stops was at a tourist shop to buy Liam a pair of wooden shoes, which Brendan had been wanting to do since we arrived in The Netherlands! We also visited Begijnhof, a quiet little village in the middle of the city that was once inhabited by the Beguines, a religious community. The houses in the courtyard are still occupied only by women, though no longer Beguines. Begijnhof is surrounded by busy streets, but the atmosphere inside is quiet and still, making it a lovely little sanctuary. From there we continued on toward Dam Square, stopping at a church nicknamed “The Parrot” because of the parrot figure that hangs from the ceiling near the front door. Along the way we ran into an organ grinder and his fancy music machine, something I had never seen before. The music filled the streets, infusing the air with a fun kind of lightheartedness. I’m sure the locals get to find those things tiresome, but I loved it! We stopped for lunch late in the afternoon, and then Gladys & Carlo returned home. B & I visited the Van Gogh Museum before taking the bus home ourselves. I very much enjoyed my first visit to Amsterdam. The architecture is charming and unique, unlike any other city I’ve seen. We’ll be going back tomorrow and are planning to take a canal boat tour, which will offer another perspective of the city. I’m looking forward to seeing it again and doing a bit more exploring.

Bicycles line the canals in droves

Choosing a pair of wooden shoes for Liam

Begijnhof

The organ grinder 

Dam Square

Liam with his Guncle & Gauntie (Brendan's truncated version of great-uncle and great-auntie!)

On Tuesday the 28^th, we went to Apeldoorn to visit the Paleis Het Loo (pronounced “low”). Apeldoorn is about an hour’s drive away from Hoofddorp, so we took the car this time. Het Loo is an impressive palace, with a long history as a royal residence. It is now a very well kept museum with fully decorated period rooms. We rented audio guide devices at Carlo’s suggestion, which provided extensive information about the history of the place and its residents. There were lots of people there so the tour took a long time, but it was worth the occasional waiting in line to see the various rooms. We also enjoyed walking through the beautiful gardens behind the castle, which I imagine would have been even more lovely in their summer splendor.

Paleis Het Loo

The snow-covered gardens

The palace from the back

After a quick lunch at the castle café, we headed to Arnhem, the site of Operation Market Garden, an important WWII battle. We first stopped at a cemetery where many of the Allied soldiers who fought in the battle were buried. I had never been to a Commonwealth cemetery before, and was quite moved at the site of it. Rows and rows of white headstones, most marked with names and ranks, but some reading only “A Soldier of the Second World War”. There were 1754 men remembered in that cemetery – a small fraction of those who lost their lives in battle. As I paid my respects, I thought of how different our lives would be now had they not given theirs – something difficult to fathom but that ought not be forgotten.

Near the cemetery is a war museum, which we had hoped to visit but arrived too late to see. We poked around the shop for a few minutes, Carlo took a picture of B, Liam & me next to a tank, and then we headed home.   

We weren't sure what sort of face to make when posing in front of a tank... so we defaulted to the smile!

Christmas!

We have been with Gladys & Carlo since Thursday the 23^rd, and have been enjoying a wonderfully restful holiday here. Much of time has been spent visiting, taking walks, playing with Liam, and of course eating! Gladys prepared a delicious Christmas meal for us, which we enjoyed both yesterday and today (nothing like Christmas dinner leftovers!!!). I’ve also spent a lot of time blogging to catch up a bit before we begin our sightseeing adventures in Amsterdam & The Hague. I once casually mentioned that the blog wasn’t of critical importance but Gladys quickly assured me that it was, and that I better keep it updated before we start doing more things! So I’ve obeyed (not too difficult as I enjoy blogging so much!).

The first thing we did on Christmas morning was go to Mass. When we got home we had breakfast, and once Evert the turkey was in the oven, we sat around the tree and opened gifts (Carlo always names the Christmas turkey – this year’s was Evert!). In the afternoon, B and I went for a walk around a small lake across the road from the house. The weather was beautiful and many others had the same idea we did. When we got back we chatted with both our families and heard about their morning celebrations – it was nice to see them and hear their voices on Christmas day. Gladys & Carlo’s friend Donna arrived late afternoon to join us for dinner. We spent a very pleasant evening together visiting, eating a delicious meal, and then recovering from the delicious meal! All in all it was a lovely Christmas and we are very grateful to Gladys & Carlo for welcoming us here to celebrate with them.

Liam in his Christmas suit! 

Under a REAL tree!

Carving Evert

Carlo readying himself for the feast!!!

Hamleys, Bloomsbury & Harrods

On Wednesday morning we made our way to the Tkts booth in Leicester Square (pronounced “Lester” – not sure why the “ce” is never pronounced!) to get tickets for Oliver the musical, which we thought would be an appropriate show to see to complete our London experience. Unfortunately the ticket man told us that we would not be allowed in the theatre with our little guy. We were a bit disappointed, but quickly recovered by losing ourselves in the magic of Hamleys toy store! Hamleys is an absolute wonderland of a store. Seven floors full of every kind of toy you could possibly imagine! It was especially fun to be there at Christmas time – the energy in the place was definitely heightened to suit the season! My favourite floor was the ground level: wall to wall plush toys! Brendan had the genius idea of putting Liam in with the teddy bears for a picture. The result is priceless:

Here are a few more shots of our Hamleys experience:

The Candy Shop!

Brendan was very pumped about that fudge!

After Hamleys we headed to the Bloomsbury part of town to visit the British Museum, the Charles Dickens Museum, and the British Library. The British Museum is a mammoth place. One could get lost in its countless rooms for days, but since we didn’t have the luxury of that kind of time, we visited only the Ancient Mesopotamia exhibit. We also stopped to examine the Rosetta Stone, one of the museum’s most famous objects. The stone is inscribed with text in three languages, and was instrumental in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics (hence its renown).

The British Museum

The Charles Dickens Museum is in the house he lived in as an adult on Doughty Street in Bloomsbury. We watched a documentary about his life and wandered through the rooms where he lived and worked. It was a simple museum, but I enjoyed it. I like visiting homes and imagining the lives of the people who once lived there.

The British Library was a highlight for Brendan and me. It wasn’t featured as a main attraction in our guidebook, but its permanent exhibit holds many treasures that are worth seeing. We saw a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, Birds of America, manuscripts of music by Handel and Mozart, handwritten texts from as early as the 9^th century, and most notably, one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta of 1215. Being book lovers and history nuts, B and I were in our element there!

Wandering into the British Library

Manuscript of Handel's Messiah

In the library's book shop

 Wednesday night after putting Liam to bed we watched Notting Hill – a delightfully cheesy thing to do while staying in the part of town by that name! We had hoped to be able to stop by the Travel Book Co. (the store where Hugh Grant’s character works in the movie) on Thursday, but didn’t end up having time. It was fun to watch the movie again though!

Thursday was our last day in London, and though we had packing and tidying to do, we still managed to see more of the city. Once the chores were done, we walked through Kensington Gardens on our way to Harrods (a bit of a round about way, but it was nice to see the park and the palace). Harrods is a colossal department store that sells nearly everything. It is also outrageously expensive! We saw a watch there for over £12,000!!!  A watch! We didn’t have much time to spend there, but it was enough to get a sense of the incredible opulence of the place!

Kensington Gardens - spot us in the reflection!

Harrods

When we got back from our little jaunt we had just enough time to eat lunch, grab our things and run to the bus stop. The bus took us to Luton airport where, after long waits in various queues, we finally caught our flight to Amsterdam. Carlo met us at the airport and brought us back to his and Gladys’ lovely home in Hoofddorp, where we looked forward to resting after our whirlwind tour of London!

The City

We spent Tuesday in the oldest part of London, known as the City. We began that day’s walking tour at the Tower of London, which had once been a palace for some and prison for others. We had wanted to go inside but admission was expensive, so we contented ourselves with looking at it from the outside. The tower is right by the river, between Tower Bridge and London Bridge. Tower Bridge is impressive looking – London Bridge is rather unspectacular. The original London Bridge was actually purchased by an American and is now somewhere in the U.S. Apparently this rich man thought he was buying Tower Bridge and ended up with the wrong one! I guess he should have paid a bit more attention to where he was throwing his money!

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

From Tower Bridge we headed into the City, stopping first at the Monument, which was built by Sir Christopher Wren as a memorial of the Great Fire of 1666. The fire stated in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane and quickly spread through the whole city, blazing for days and ravaging everything in its path. The city of the day was mostly made of wood, so by the time the fire was finally quelled, there were hardly any buildings left standing. Apparently no lives were lost, though I’m sure some fortunes were. Christopher Wren is largely responsible for re-designing the city post-fire. The monument he built is 202 feet tall, the exact distance from where it stands to the shop where the fire started.

The Monument

Close by the Monument is Leadenhall Market, a lovely little Victorian market founded in 1881. It stands on the site of a Roman basilica dating from the time of Roman Londinium. The market atmosphere was delightfully festive, like stepping into a magical Christmas village in the middle of the city!

Leadenhall Market

We then walked to St. Paul’s Cathedral and took a few pictures from the outside. We would be back later for evensong. It was midday by this time and we had made plans to meet Deirdra, a former collegue of Brendan’s, for lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. The Cheshire Cheese is one of the places I was most excited about visiting in London! Literary greats the likes of Charles Dickens and G.K. Chesterton are said to have been regulars at this pub. It comprises several floors of dimly lit rooms charged with character. The oldest part of the building, where we sat for lunch, was a Carmelite monastery in the 13^th century. The rest of the place suffered in the fire, but was rebuilt in 1667.  We enjoyed our fish & chips in the oddly charming gloom and then climbed back out into the daylight. I would definitely recommend the spot to anyone looking for a classic English pub experience!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Brendan & Liam enjoying the pub!

After walking Deirdra to the tube station, we turned in the direction of the Museum of London, stopping along the way to pop into a few churches. One of the churches we visited (also by Christopher Wren), was dedicated to the RAF and commemorated many of the men who fought in the world wars. B took a picture of a plaque listing recipients of the Victoria Cross, among them William Avery Bishop, whom we assumed was Billy Bishop. Every Remembrance Day Brendan listens to the story of Billy Bishop, so this plaque was particularly significant for him.

The Museum of London is a neat place. It chronicles the history of the city from pre-Roman times to the present day. We breezed through fairly quickly, but did stop to watch a video about the Great Fire.

We made our way back to St. Paul’s for evensong that night. Though a bit fussy at first, Liam was considerably happier at this service than at the previous! Brendan held him this time and he eventually fell asleep, which allowed Mummy & Daddy to thoroughly enjoy the wonderful choir. We both agreed that going to evensong was the best way to see these beautiful churches. St. Paul’s is gorgeous inside and is even more wonderful with music filling its decorated cupola.

Following evensong we crossed the Millenium Footbridge to the other side of the river, quickly ran into the Tate Modern right before closing, and walked past the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe before taking the tube back home. We spent another quiet night at home, resting up for our next full day in London.

St. Paul's across the Millenium Footbridge