Vincent does van Gogh and then cheese and windmills


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October 7th 2010
Published: October 7th 2010
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Today was one of those days in which I finally got some tourist type things done. Vincent - check; windmills - check etc.

Did the Vincent museum first - can we pronounce it properly first people? - it's van Gockh - not van Goh already. As I had a bus tour at 1pm decided I had better get down there the fastest way possible - well sort of, tram. I had seen a central conductor booth on one yesterday but neither of the two I got today had em so I just ended up not paying - wanted to, but you do not pay the driver. It had a recorded announcement to check out when you get off with your chipped card - well you do when you have one. Basically I was walking everywhere so did not plan to get even a strip card. Trips seemed to be quite expensive - 2.60E the girl at the hotel told me for a 7-8 min trip is fairly dear by European standards.

Anyway the van Gogh museum has the largest collection of Vincent's works in the world - about 200 out of his 600 paintings. [Its quite expensive (14E) by Euro standards - the Louvre is only 9E]. You really need to see it in this concentration to get the urgent flow of his work from year to year in the essentially 10 years or so he actually painted before he shot himself. It was interesting to see his versions of Hiroshige Japanese woodcuts done Vincent style for instance! The yellow ground version of sunflowers is there - was the blue ground the one that Alan Bond bought whenever? (now in the US I think) I spent 2 hrs there but had to keep an eye on the time and jumped a tram (see above) back to the place near the station where the bus went from for the tour.

I had decided that a half day tour to the countryside was what I needed to get more of a view of Holland than just Amsterdam, as will be leaving it tomorrow. The tour cost 37E I think and in that context was good value - we left a little after 1pm and did not get back until about 7.30 almost. First we went to a rather picturesque village called Marken, from which the 30 min ferry trip took us across the rather cold and blowy lake to Volendam. After a short stroll thru the backstreets of the mostly dark green painted houses we saw a brief film on the history of the polders/reclaimed areas etc and were then told we had 1h20m until we were to leave. Some people had to check this - as this seemed a lot of time in the shops, I decided it would be better spent having some bouillabaise in the local brasserie - well it is a fishing village and the soup was certainly full of fish, salmon and mussels - and quite reasonable at 7.25E - with a glass of Heineken of course. Missed out on the place selling smoked eel which is also a local specialty. Then we all walked down to the Volendam museum which had an interesting display including the historical trends in the traditional clothing here, such as the female lace bonnet etc etc. Unusually this village is a Catholic one - one of the few which did not take up Protestentism during the reformation.

Then we jumped on the bus and headed over to a traditional cheese farm. Had an explanation how it is made then were let loose on many many samples of gouda flavoured every which way. I must admit that the one year old goats milk was the one I would buy if it was sensible to do so - and had a few people to help me eat it. Next door was a clog maker demo/shop - machines whip them off from a guided lathe now in 5 mins rather than 5 hrs when made by hand.

It had been relatively sunny in the morning - while viewing Vincent - but had come over rather gray in the afternoon (why Vince moved to the S of France to get away from the Dutch grey weather!). So by 6.30pm when we headed over to windmill land at Zaanse Schans (so the book tells me) it was getting rather dark. However I could hardly leave Holland without having been up close to one as you will likely see from the pix.

Back to the city and the vexed question of what to do for dinner. Had come past a Turkish, and as it was not Argentinian (?!) decided to give it a go. Some nice grilled eggplant with tzatziki type stuff
Volendam chook/bantamVolendam chook/bantamVolendam chook/bantam

this yard was full of them! showoffs
(yes I know its Greek) and a tomato sauce (gotta keep up with the veges). Then some lovely grilled lamp chops. The rice custard I had for afters was probably not syrupy at all which is what I like. I resisted the urge to be authentic and continue with Turkish coffee - it was already 10pm, can you imagine?? eyes on stalks til 3am probably! So had a calvados instead - after earlier having an Efes Turkish pilsener beer. All up a fairly reasonable meal for about 37E.

So that for me was a relatively action-packed day. 'Bout time I spose too.


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Volendam boatsVolendam boats
Volendam boats

old and new - looks like the Vikings are coming


8th October 2010

Van Goghs clogs.
Hi Mike, What an outing. 200 out of his 600 paintings! That must be some viewing, good review. Beautiful shots of the windmills, and the ceiling of clogs! The Marken near the wharf photo as well. Love Huddo.

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