Delfth Porcelain Figures Dressed in Red

After my affair with Vermeer was over, we continued on through Den Haag to the Peace Palace. However, the map I was using was wildly out of scale and it took us roughly 2 hours to walk to the Peace Palace. Because I had not made an appointment for us to visit the grounds, we did not stay long, but looked outside, which was gorgeous, saw the beautiful building in which Rockefeller donated lots of money to build, and then took a trip around the World Peace flame. Hardly worth the hike, but interesting none the less. After a irritatingly slow-late lunch in Den Haag, we jumped the train for Delft.

This is the “small” little town famous for it’s hand-painted, white and blue porcelain. Though Delft is a nice place, we didn’t see too much of it. The Royal Porcelain Factory closed at 5pm, so we had roughly 30 minutes to walk there, pick some things out and leave. I personally felt like a tool for not going through the factory on a tour, but so be it. It was a beautiful place! I had my mind on getting something for my mother for her birthday. We “toured” the gift shop and found some lovely Delft tiles, a porcelain pitcher for my mother, and various other items. It was quite fun. After that we walked back to the train, amidst many rush-hour professionals making their way back to their homes for the weekend. It was Friday, after all.

Our last day ended with a not-so-big bang. It ended, like every other day in Amsterdam had. With us wandering around looking for food. We decided to take an detour on our search, and ended up with a large crowd meandering down one of the canal streets. Up ahead I saw many windows reflecting a bright red out of them. They dotted the street like fireflies, or those lamps that attracted fireflies. Except these attracted a different kind of fly…the human fly. We had found ourselves in the Red Light District at night. as we walked down the street, we came to one bright red window, and in it stood the most interesting mannequin I’d ever seen. Then it BLINKED. OOOHHHHHH, silly girl. These were the women of the red light district. Moving ever so slowly in order to emphasize their figures in their scandalous dress. As I nudged Brother Bee to get his attention, his cheeks turned the same color as the lights, and we didn’t spend much time admiring these women with interesting career choices. And what about the empty red light windows???

Never mind that. It was back to the hostel, packing, and getting ready to shove off. Bon Voyage!

My affair with the Girl with that Pearl Earring

On our final day in the Netherlands, we decided to get out of Amsterdam and into “the countryside.” Apparently we went the wrong way because all we saw where buildings, homes, buildings, farms and buildings. Oh yeah, and people. We took the train to Den Haag, which is the capital of Holland. There wasn’t too much to do here, except for one amazing thing. Maybe amazing to girls, not so much to boys.

The Maritus Huis in Den Haag is home to Vermeer’s Famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. The Maritus Huis is a beautiful building that used to be a family residence. However, it has sense been turned into this art museum. The great thing about the museum is you wouldn’t know it was there unless you KNEW. It’s tucked away off of the main streets in Den Haag, and there’s relatively no advertising for it. But thanks to Frommer’s, we knew exactly where we were heading. Inside you can see all kind of art by many famous Netherlands painters, from Rembrandt to Van Gogh to Vermeer. They have quite an extensive collection of beautiful art from all periods and all types and mediums. The most wonderful feeling, however, is when you are looking for Girl. Let me paint (ha!) you the picture:

You enter The Maritus Huis from the basement through the servant’s entrance. You can see the gift shop, so the excitement of seeing the original Girl is building up inside you. As you climb the staircase that leads you gracefully into the center of the first flower, you look around, take in the art, but all the while knowing that Girl is there somewhere, waiting for you to seek her out. You try to keep yourself calm by reminding your anxious heart, “She’s here! She’s here! Don’t worry! We’ll get there. Just enjoy the wonderful art and don’t miss out on anything!” But that becomes increasingly hard as you wander through the rooms and yet, you’re looking for someone. Climbing the stairs to the third floor, you’re surrounded by still lifes of tulips and Lilies and various other flowers as your audio tour hums in your ear, “Naturally, these flowers wouldn’t bloom all together, but here (such and such artist) portrays the eleg”….blah, blah. I KNOW! But where is she???

You enter the room, resigned to the fact that you might have to go back through again and find her. As you stare into the stamens of another tulip, you look to your left. Here, Brother Bee is looking at a painting, then back at you, and then at the painting. As you turn, you realize, your senses weren’t on radar. Here she is! In all her splendor. The Girl with the pearl earring is staring back at you. She’s not on her own pedestal or behind glass. She’s hanging on the wall with other pictures as plain as can be. But you can’t help thinking to yourself, that this is how she should be. In fact, Girl with a Pearl Earring was never supposed to be that big of a deal, but yet, it’s Vermeer’s simplicity with this painting that makes her stand out beyond all others. Not to mention that Tracy Chevalier made her famous with her book, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Oh yes, and the movie.

I was enchanted, charmed, stunned, and moved. It was almost as good as seeing a celebrity…without the paparazzi, flashing lights, and “I make millions of dollars” attitude. It was surreal to say the least, and completely wonderful. Am I in love? Quite possibly. But I can only imagine what goes through one’s head while traveling around The Louvre. I assume it’s much of the same.

The Day That Almost Was

After our second not-so-restful night in our Piggy Beds, our second day in Amsterdam was to be glorious. We started off our day doing what else? Searching for our breakfast. It is a surreal experience~one part adventurous, one part frighting having to search for your food. However, once you find food, you’re filled with the sense of accomplishment and nourishment. We were in search of the narrowest house in Amsterdam. It was somewhere around that square that was filled with school children dressed in bright yellow construction vests do some sort of exercising/sitting around/loud music/completely confusing.
We grabbed some food at a nearby bakery and wandered around questioning the point of children being out of school to do nothing…unorganized fun, apparently. We found ourselves in Amsterdam’s Chinatown. It is, from what I could tell, only a couple of block long, but surprisingly ornate. A wonderful little street to find yourself lost in. We traveled around the square marveling at the students, while keeping a weathered eye open for the narrow house. But we failed. We did not find the narrowest house, we merely gave up!
But we were bound for the Heineken brewery! After a short walk we found ourselves at the doors to the brewery. As we entered we were enveloped in the smell of hops and freshly created beer. We paid our wages to go inside and drink in the art of making beer. Touring the facility was a lot like the tours of Lehrkind’s Coca Cola factory back home, but this time in a purely adult world. As we saw the vats, boilers, copper machinery that worked hops into liquid, we were tempted by the fact that our ticket got us two free beers from the pub attached to the factory. And all at 11am! Wahoo! After that wonderful dip into what Frommer’s calls, “Alternative Amsterdam,” we crawled our way to some lunch.
Lunch was in the form of a small, family owned diner where I experienced some traditional Netherlands food, Gouda with mustard and these potato and meet fried balls of which the name escapes me. It’s like balls of shepard’s pie fried, but without the peas. Quite delightful.
After a nice lunch, we headed back to the Dam to visit the royal palace. This is a spectacular residence in the heart of the old Amsterdam. Intact and beautiful, it is a vision from the outside, but the inside is radiant. Flowing with furniture from all times, your guided tour floats from room to room as you absorb the reality that the current family still lives there. You don’t get to see the family, of course, but you do get to view the court rooms, and everything but their private areas (not THOSE private areas). We completed the tour and headed to the hostel for some showers and to ready ourselves for the movie!
Now, I’ve already described our first encounter with the Amsterdam movie theatres, but our second was delightful! As we approached the Theatre Tuschinsky that I had pictures of, I was genuinely excited to see the movie. Some might call it a waste of time, seeing a movie in a foreign country, but still, this was an experience to be had! It was wonderful. The 1920s Art Deco was amazing! We bought our tickets outside, and wandered inside and around the modern part, passing through the lobby which was decorated with sharp angle contrasts, but wild colors. I felt like Greta Garbo or Grace Kelly wandering these halls. Inside the theater were perfect plush red velvet seats. We settled in as some of the first people there and watched and listened to people as they came in. Apparently we had “Americans” tatooed on our foreheads, but it didn’t matter to me much. After the movie, we sleepily headed out ready for a good night of sleep. This definitely was the wonderful end to a slightly made up story. But I will leave you with this…
I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!