Our 3 days in Rome was packed full of world famous landmarks, incredible art and delicious food. After leaving work and going straight to the airport on Friday afternoon, we were in the airport in Rome by 10pm but it was almost another 2 hours before we got to our hotel, partly due to getting lost in the main Termini train station which was under some heavy renovation. When we popped out of the Spagna metro station and were greeted by the Spanish Stairs and the fashionable crowds wandering along Via del Corso, we knew we were in one of the capital cities of the world.
Piazza Navona
The first full day was one incredible sight after another for 10 straight hours. We started fairly early and had made the short walk from our hotel to Piazza Navona by 8am. It was a beautiful blue day and we enjoyed our take-away cappacino and croissants sitting on a park bench near the fountain before the crowds of tourists arrived.
Fountain of the Four Rivers
We stopped off at a few nearby churches- Sant'Agostino and San Luigi dei Francesi which both contain famous paintings by Caravaggio, Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza whose intricate dome towers over it's beautiful column lined courtyard and Sant'Andrea della Valle which had an ornately decorated gold plated ceiling.
Caravaggio's Inspiration of St Matthew & Martyrdom of St. Matthew at San Luigi dei Francesi
The courtyard at Sant'Ivo
Sant'Andrea della Valle
As we wandered out of Sant'Andrea della Valle we walked past Largo di Torre Argentina, a square that contains the ruins of several BC built Roman temples and the alleged spot of Julius Caesar's assassination. It was incredible that it was right there in the middle of the city, surrounded by normal modern life- a bus stop, a car-filled round about, a grocery store.
Largo di Torre Argentina
Our next stop was the Pantheon, but before we went there we visited Santa Maria sopra Minerva which was just outside. This church had a statue of Christ from Michelangelo inside, and a statue of an elephant from Bernini outside. Nothing however could compare to seeing the Pantheon for the first time- this massive concrete dome was breathtaking. Its ancient looking exterior hid a very well maintained interior. It really gave a sense of how deceptively large the building was when we read that the oculus (the hole in the top of the dome that provides natural sun light) is actually almost 8 metres in diameter- from the ground it looks much smaller than that.
Michelangelo's statue of Christ
Facade of the Pantheon
Inside the Pantheon
Sunlight from the oculus
After a quick gelato stop, we visited the Sant'Ignazio church which has, instead of a dome as was originally planned, a cleverly painted ceiling that makes it appear as if the dome is actually there. The optical illusion disappears as you walk around and view the painting from a different angle.
Fake dome painted ceiling in Sant'Ignazio
We wandered through the streets for a while, past the column of Marcus Aurelius, before catching a bus to the Villa Borghese park for our pre-booked visit to the Galleria Borghese. This gallery, home to , is one of the most famous and popular galleries- Despite our pre-booked tickets we had about a half hour wait outside the gallery and although we were glad to give our feet a rest while we ate some lunch, it was so hot that it was uncomfortable. Once we were in the air conditioning that was all forgotten as we enjoyed the works by Bernini, Caravaggio and Raphael. The audio guide was extremely useful as I don't know much about art and it really helped to give some context on the works.
Resting outside Galleria Borghese
Villa Borghese Park
The Villa Borghese park was quite big and had really cool trees, but it was dangerous as it was full of tourists on pedal powered carriages who were always threatening to run you down. We came out at Piazza del Popolo at the top of Via del Corso, and found that the Champions League trophy was currently on display as part of its European tour. The line was too long to get in, so instead we walked up to the hill which overlooks the piazza and were rewarded with some stunning sunset views over the city.
View of Rome from above Poazza del Popolo
After a stop off back at our hotel, it was off to dinner which was had at a pizza restaurant in the back streets of Campo di' Fiori. We sat at a table that had a view of the pizza chef putting the freshly made pizzas into the wood fire oven.
November is pretty cold, grey and wet in Holland but the Dutch seem to use this as an excuse to invent delicious cold weather food. This week I've come across some traditional Dutch winter foods that should make the weather a bit easier to bear. Any of these would be perfect to eat in front of the fireplace on a cold rainy evening- but I guess I'll have to settle for eating in front of the heater.
Pepernoten
These spongy little cookies taste of ginger, cinnamon and a bit of aniseed. They have a texture unlike anything I've tried before- they are not crunchy, but they are more solid than a cake or a muffin.
Pepernoten
Kruidnoten
Round and crunchy, Kruidnoten taste similar to gingernut biscuits but have some extra spices that make them taste like speculaas. These are a specialty for Sinterklaas in early December. They are delicious and really small so you always want just one more.
Kruidnoten
Stamppot
My friend Yoram and his wife were lovely enough to invite us over for dinner and show us some genuine home made Dutch cuisine. Deborah cooked us 'rauwe andijviestamppot met spek en rookworst'- raw endive stamppot with bacon, rookworst sausage and mustard. This is basically mashed potato with some vegetables mixed in. It sounds simple but tastes really good. It is served with mustard and some fresh capsicum which cuts through the heaviness of the other ingredients- delicious.
Stamppot
Olibollen
An oliebol (literally 'oil ball') is like a ball shaped donut with raisins in it, normally served with a sprinkling of icing sugar. This typical Dutch winter food is eaten especially on New Year's Eve but they are already being sold in November. There is a temporary food cart set up on Museumplein that sells really good oliebollen.
The Amsterdam city council is proactive with removing old bikes from public areas- and they have to be because there are always thousands of old abandoned, stolen, broken, lost or illegally parked bikes locked on to pretty much any solid object you can find. Every now and then they will go to an area and put bright orange warning stickers on all the bikes, and any bikes still there after the expiry date marked on the sticker will be taken away. This time period could be hours for illegally parked bikes or a few days for public areas like central station.
These bikes are taken away to the Amsterdam Fietsdepot (Bicycle Depot). If you find your bike missing you might be lucky enough to find it stored at the Fietsdepot.
A few weeks ago my bike was taken away- it was locked up in the bike rack outside our house, but they had a sign saying there would be council maintenance being done on a certain date and I didn't remove my bike in time. So this weekend I made the long trek out to the Fietsdepot in Western Amsterdam.
The depot was a massive parking lot in an industrial estate that holds thousands and thousands of bicycles- the pictures don't really do it justice. They are organised into sections and the staff were pretty efficient at taking some details of the lost bike (description, date lost, location from which it was taken) and tracking down which section of the depot it should be in.
Fortunately the people there were very nice and not at all judging towards any of the 50 or so people who were waiting in line with me to collect their bikes. Unfortunately it was freezing cold and pouring with rain, so the hour cycle home was very uncomfortable. But it is good to have my bike back, and I found out over the last few weeks how reliant I am on it now that I don't own a car.
This weekend we visited The Hague. Known Den Haag in Dutch, it is officially called 's-Gravenhage which means "Count's Hedge" in Dutch. It is not the capital of the Netherlands but is the home of the Dutch parliament and also the royal family. End geography lesson.
Lots of green areas even in the city
The city felt really relaxed and seemed to have a much different demographic of people than Amsterdam. There were much fewer tourists, and people seemed older. That being said, The Hague is a big city and we only spent a few hours in the centre, so it's not a lot to judge by.
Binnenhof overlooking the Hofvijver river
We first visited the M.C. Escher museum, an artist whose trippy and mind-bending drawings I first saw quite a few years ago but had no idea he wasa Dutch until last week. The museum was full of his confusing but fascinating drawing which explore the infinity of space and eternity of time through equation based tesselations and unusual perspectives which remain confusing even after the third or fourth look.
Escher museum, in a former royal palace
M. C. Escher drawings
The Binnenhof is a cluster of important and historic buildings in the centre of town. It was quite a beautiful area with a nice courtyard in the centre, next to the Hofvijver river. It was a really interesting contrast with skyscrapers in the background behind these medieval aged buildings.
Dutch house inspired skyscrapers in the background
Binnenhof courtyard
We took a guided tour around a building that was once the prison 500-600 years ago. Unfortunately the tour was in Dutch only but it was still really interesting.
The trams are red in The Hague!
The Hague is possibly best well known internationally for its role in international politics and war crime tribunals. We visited the Peace Palace (Vredespaleis) which holds the International Court of Justice and various other international law bodies. While we could not actually go in, there was a small but informative tourist centre, and the palace itself was a really beautiful building to see.
The Peace Palace (Vredespaleis)
After a bit more exploring and coffee and cake at one of the many nice little cafes, it was time the hour train ride back to Amsterdam.
We've been meaning to visit Zaanse Schans for a while, so when we finally had a free Saturday when it wasn't raining we were happy to finally get there. Zaanse Schans, about 45 minutes in the bus North of Amsterdam, is a preserved historic village that is particularly popular for it's functioning windmills. It is quite beautiful and although it is touristy, it is a different type of touristy compared to the city of Amsterdam.
We started our visit with a tour through the museum which contains items and displays from the Zaandam region's past- a little bit dry but there were a few interesting things to see, including the reconstruction of the Verkade chocolate and biscuit factory.
The windmills were the main attraction. There was 6 or 7 big windmills along the edge of the river which were open for tours. We visited a saw mill called Het Jonge Schaap (the young sheep) and saw it in action, sawing a large tree trunk.
The wooden shoe factory was mostly just a shop, but it had a display of unique clogs, both functional and novelty.
There was also a live demonstration of how they make wooden clogs these days- not by hand as in years gone by, but with these 3D copying machines that can use an existing wooden shoe as a template for a new shoe.
A video of the wooden shoe copying machine
There were different types of windmills including a saw mill, spice mill, a flour mill and an oil mill. It was a really nice walk along the water past all the windmills.
Just for something a bit different, there was also a preserved Coopery- a barrel making workshop. It was cool to have a quick look inside and see the kind of professions that were at one time well respected but now quite obsolete.
We had a nice lunch at a little cafe, and wandered around the area visiting some of the other attractions, including the Albert Heijn museum (the first Albert Heijn shop ever built), a cheese factory and a bunch of other touristy shops. Overall it was a really nice place to visit and is definitely on the list to take visitors to who want to see Dutch things on their holiday.
Last weekend was my work's annual weekend away. We stayed in a seaside resort village near Anjum which is on the Northern coast of the Netherlands, right on the border of Friesland and Groningen. It's a very sleepy area of Holland with lots of farms, wide open spaces and big houses with backyards. It's the kind of place that people who live in Amsterdam think is terribly boring, and that the only reason to go there is to go sailing.
The resort itself was very cool. It was not a traditional resort with a big hotel, but had streets lined with traditional Dutch houses that were set up as individual holiday apartments. We were lucky enough to get a house to ourselves (partners were invited).
The main activities of the weekend were visiting the seal hospital and doing a cycling tour of the area. The Zeehonden creche at the nearby town of Pieterburen was a place where sick and injured seals are cared for and rehabilitated until they can be released back into the wild. The seals wee cute and funny to watch but it was really sad ti find out about the serious damage that humans have done to the seal population by taking over and polluting their natural habitat with commercial fishing and shipping passages.
The cycling tour was like a scavenger hunt on wheels. Our team was given a GPS unit- not one with roads and directions, but one programmed with markers that gave a compass point and a distance, and it was up to us to pick the right roads to get to the next point. In typical Dutch style, the cycling was easy because the bikes were good quality and the roads were flat, but it was quite a hot day and we were pretty tired by the end of it.
Fortunately 'een beetje' is a broad enough term that it can be used to describe my small vocabulary and broken grammar that we like to refer to as 'Dinglish'. We took lessons earlier in the year but have been on summer holiday recently, and we start again next week. I was doing some revision of last term's lessons and it's unfortunate how much of the content I've forgotten in just a few weeks without practice.
It is perfectly possible to live in the Netherlands without speaking a word of Dutch. Ninety percent of your essential interactions are possible in English, and the majority of the remainder can be done in text where Google Translate comes to the rescue. However as I attempt to become more immersed in life here, it becomes obvious how speaking Dutch would make life much easier.
Even though pretty much everyone speaks English, I'm discovering that not everyone is confident or comfortable doing so past the initial surface interactions. I've found myself quite a few times recently in social situations where I am the only, or one of very few, non-Dutch speaking people in a group, and after the initial greeting and a bit of small talk (ironically usually including questions about how the Dutch lessons are going), everyone invariably reverts back to Dutch. It seems that Dutch people don't really like speaking English to other Dutch people. I can't blame them- if you can express yourself faster and more accurately in Dutch (to 90% of the people listening) then why wouldn't you?
Anyway, it's just more motivation to work hard on the lessons. Back to the CD and texbook...
