A Full-time Life

AMSTERDAM

It's Thanksgiving Week here in the US and we have so much to be thankful for  -- we had so many good days here in Oregon this summer and fall -- and took lots of pictures.  But our trip to Europe  has consumed almost every one of our blog posts lately.  When we got "re-Oregonized" back in July, I thought it was a joke  when I said I'd probably be blogging about our 'grand tour' until it was time for us to go back to our Florida winter home.  But here we are in real life getting close to that departure  and yet  in blog-land we're still on our early-summer European trip.    (And I'll definitely still be blogging about Oregon after we get back to Florida!)

 

Amsterdam has over 1200 bridges and 165 canals.  

But the end is in sight.    This post is about Amsterdam -- and Amsterdam was the last stop on our European tour. 

The City started around a dam in the Amstel River -- all of the land around the river was originally marshy, but it was made liveable by draining the swamp and building the canal system.

 

 

 

We saw this banner or sign everywhere in ordinary shops and stores -- at first, we thought  Amsterdam was capitalizing on its reputation as somewhat of an  "adult" (X-rated)  city*.   (A little frighteningly for us at the time,  the banner even hung on the window of our hotel.)   

But fortunately, we learned  that this banner is actually Amsterdam's historic coat of arms -- the white crosses on the black background represent St. Andrew's Cross (because he was a fisherman and in the 1500s, Amsterdam was a fishing village).  Or, in another version, the crosses stood for  the three perils that the City once faced -- flood, fire, and plague.   I  like either of those versions better than what we first thought.      

*And yes, we did walk through that part of town and no I did not take any pictures.  And now we can say we've been there.    (We actually felt completely safe everywhere in the City.)

 

 

Everyone knows that we are drawn to water and boats and so of course Amsterdam was right up our alley canal.  We saw all kinds of  tour boats (we took one) and many personal pleasure boats, but the most fascinating to us was the many many live-aboard houseboats docked right along busy downtown streets .   Some were beautifully kept, some nearly derelict.   These boats are not cheap lodging.  The  sign in the window of the center boat  says "For Sale by Sotheby's."   That firm does not deal in low-rent housing!    Our canal boat tour guide somewhat satisfied our curiosity about how space rental and maintenance concerns were handled.    I think we may have been the first people who asked that kind of question.  

 

Dutch architecture.   

 The tall narrow houses were built because they used to be taxed by width.   Some homes along the River were built on stilts because of the sandy soil.  They've settled over the years and now appear to be leaning forward.  

Koninkluk Paleis  (The Royal Palace)

 

 

Views of Zuiderkerk (South Church) from the Staalstraat Bridge

Part of the reason I blog is to clarify the memories.     I used to imagine  (when I started blogging)  that someday, when we got too old to travel and explore, we could sit in our rocking chairs and read about what "adventures" we'd had.    I'm grateful that  (as of today anyway)  neither of us has yet reached that point.    Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

  

LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to the hosts: 

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; TUESDAY TREASURES;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  SIGNS SIGNS;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS; and WANDERING CAMERA

 

 

 

 

LUXEMBOURG CITY

 

Musee de la Banque

 

It was green!  That's the first thing I remember about Luxembourg City, the Capital of the country by the same name.  (And we needed a taste of nature at that point in the journey.)   Our hotel (booked just a few days before our arrival, rather than months in advance as the earlier three stays had been) was not in mid-town, but it was a very nice place to stay and we were able to use the excellent city bus system to get where we wanted to go.   

 

View from inside the tunnel.  

 

 From the bus stop in the center of the city we walked across a bridge and down steps and through tunnels to arrive at  Parks de Petrusse -- a lovely green park under the old ramparts originally built to protect the city.

 

Bock Casemates

 

A fortified castle on the Bock promontory built in 963 was the beginning of the city of Luxembourg.  Ring walls (called casemates) were added in the 15th Century which eventually turned the city into a well-defended center.  The fortified city could shelter thousands of people.    Today 17 kilometers of tunnels remain, on  different levels with staircases inside the rock face. 

 

View of the City from the walkway.

 

 We walked down the stairs and miles of paths down below  -- loving the quiet and and green -- there was water and bird song.  The Park is one of those magical places that seem like you are miles away from civilization but really you are in the middle of the City.   

Happily, there was even an elevator on the lowest level of the park, which we rode back up to street level.  It had begun to rain a little and the elevator (magically?) opened right next door to a tavern    A great place to wait out the rainstorm. 

 

 

Adolphe Bridge

This beautifully restored iconic bridge has great views from the walkway on top and is great to look at from below.

 

Underground art gallery at AM Tunnel

The artists:  Till Aydin; Anna Ney; Sophie Hoffmann

 One of the tunnels houses an Underground Art Gallery.     The exhibit we saw was  of photo collages.    I confess, the display had me immediately thinking of linking to Mosaic Monday.  So this is a mosaic of mosaics!!  

 

Palais Grand Ducal

 

We had only a day and a half to spend in Luxembourg -- it was a rather long rail journey  from here to Amsterdam (our next and final stop), but a lovely one through more beautiful green countryside.    There was no English translation on this train though, so we had a couple of fun adventures on the way -- apparently at one point the train was diverted due to construction and the transfer point we had on our ticket was changed.   Along with one other passenger we stayed on the train because the sign was different from what our ticket said.  Eventually a gentleman from the train came in waving his arms and we finally got it through our thick heads that we had to go somewhere and get on another train.  

 

 

 This would be funnier snapshots if they actually showed either of us racing to the correct platform lugging our suitcases up and down escalators  and asking anyone who looked like they might speak English if we were going the right way.  (People were helpful -- and obviously we did make our connecting train.)

 

 

 

This one is a view of the Luxembourg countryside from the train window as we began our journey to Amsterdam (before the mix-up, but the whole journey was quite lovely and the slight hiccup gave us something we are still laughing about).    We are glad we spent some time in this pleasant green country! 

 

LINKING this week to the following, with thanks to the hosts:

MOSAIC MONDAY;  ALL SEASONS; THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; TUESDAY TREASURES;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS; 

 

 

GHENT BELGIUM

 

 

Even if I didn't have pictures to remind me, one thing I would always remember about Ghent is how absolutely stunning this city is by night.  

 

St Nicholas Church

 

It is a great city in broad daylight as well of course and we enjoyed the old town and visited as many of the historical places as we could.

 

Ghent, St Michael's Bridge 

It's a very walkable City -- our lodging was about two blocks from this main Canal Street.     There are several colleges and Universities here and that always makes for a vibrant City.   

 

Ghent by Night

I took so many pictures; the city was magical by night.   And so we were not surprised to learn after the fact that the Ghent Light Plan has received international acclaim.   It was designed to provide environmentally-conscious lighting while at the same time displaying the city at its best.

 

St Bavo's Cathedral

 

We visited St Bavo's which is home to a 15th -Century painting called The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (no inside pictures.)  The Cathedral altarpiece is by Jan Van Eyck and is considered  his masterpiece.   There are numerous other paintings and sculptures as well and four organs.     As part of the tour, we listened to a talk about the altarpiece.  It is hard to imagine parishioners attending regular Sunday services here -- because during the tour, it seemed more like a fine Art Museum than a Church.                                   

 

 

 

 

It was a busy city, but we had the feeling that most of the people enjoying the pleasant days were local -- (except for all of us on the Cathedral tour. )

 

Gravensteen Castle

This 11th Century building in the Center of town has been a Castle, a prison, and a torture chamber.  Kids were using the grounds for picnics and playgrounds and sunbathing during the days we were there!  

 

 

Except for the  night before our flight back to the States, our stay in Ghent was the last place where  "The Travel Planner" had booked lodging before we left for our River Cruise.  Between our last night here and that final night,  we had four days  left to  play!    Why not, we thought,  see the last of the three countries of Benelux?  So,  from our room in Bruges,  Bill booked a hotel room in Luxembourg City for  a couple of nights and then  a couple more in downtown Amsterdam, since we had seen really nothing of that City except for the ship dock.   

We had loved Belgium  and almost hated to leave -- but looked forward to the next and last two chapters of our journey! 

 

 

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities.  Thank you to the hosts.

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  TUESDAY TREASURES;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;   THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS; 

BRUGES, BELGIUM

We were impressed with the train we took from Amsterdam -- our first inter-country train ride.  (Thankful for the European Union... it must have been so much more difficult when you had to show your passport at every border.)   We had to transfer at least once, maybe twice.  But all announcements were made in at least three languages (including English) and there was an electronic reader in each car, also in  each language.  So it was a piece of cake to get to our  next destination -- beautiful Bruges Belgium.

 

 

Bruges is the capital of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish region of Belgium.  We loved seeing those beautiful buildings -- and  (to nobody's surprise) we loved the Canals. 

 

Grote Markt (Market Square)

Bruges has one of the best preserved medieval areas in Europe as most of its architecture from that period is still intact. 

 

Church of Our Lady

 

We took a (self-guided) tour of the Church of Our Lady, a beautiful stone Church that took two centuries (from the 13th to the 15th) to build.  At present it is undergoing a restoration, nearly completed, but some of its art treasures are not available for public viewing (they have been moved for safety or are covered with dust protectors).   

 

 

We came with no expectations, so we were happy with what we did see.  Each aisle of the large church has small altars with paintings and woodcarvings and there are the usual crypts of royalty.

The picture on the lower left is part of a 14th or 15th Century mural which was discovered under many layers of paint during the restoration..   The panels showed better in person than they did in my photos .. we could make out details.  I found the process for saving these works of art to be fascinating.  The sign in my photo below explains that process and interprets the representations. 

 

Enlarged photo of sign explaining medieval paintings being restored

I'm happy that there are experts who know how to save these treasures.

 

Bruges City Hall

 

One evening while we were wandering about admiring more of the medieval architecture, we saw people entering the courtyard underneath the famous Bell Tower -- and we let ourselves be carried along with the crowd.

 

Thirteenth-Century  Belfry of Bruges and Carillon which was added in the 16th.

 

We  had stumbled upon a free carillon concert -- just on time for good seats.    We learned that the City still employs a full-time person to play the 47-bell instrument, which dates from the sixteenth century.   University music students were also taking part in this evening's event,  a mix of light classical and pop standards.   

 

 

Here is a night view of the Church of Our Lady as seen on our way back to our home-away-from-home after the concert.

What a beautiful evening!  

 

Night or day, Bruges was a beautiful City and we were happy that we were able to spend some time there.   We could easily have spent longer, but there were other places to go!   On the third afternoon of our stay we took another train to another city in Belgium... which is another post.  

 

Linking this week to the following sharing opportunities.  With thanks to all of the hosts.

 

MOSAIC MONDAY;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; TUESDAY TREASURES;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and  FRIDAY  BLISS;