Hortus Botanicus & Elizabeth Gilbert

Hubby and I had just finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book : The Signature of all Things from from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed.
Not a book I would typically read but he convinced me and I found it unputdownable in its archaic language and old-fashioned ways. The material matter can be a bit lengthy at times, but that serves a purpose and we both found ourselves totally enthralled. The next day, last Sunday in Amsterdam we made our way downtown via several trams in lashing rain to the Hortus Botanicus where the story starts and ends. We even persuaded the lady who sold the tickets who hadn't read it to stick to it and persevere...
The horticultural aspect of the 375 year old institution that once played a major role in the botanical world, competing with Kew Gardens, was underwhelming, to say the least.. Maybe it just wasn't the best time of years for abundant flowers.Lots of beds were overgrown, however, or flattened by the persisting rain of the previous week.

The Orangery or Palm House was a gem of a coffee shop where a jazz band entertained the punters. Another gem we found outside was this lily. Well worth the trip if you bring a brollie and wellies!
And...read the book!

Van Gogh Museum

A must - you would say when in Amsterdam. I'm not the most motivated museum goer and Van Gogh is not my most revered painter. Having said that, we felt it was de rigeuer...
The first hurdle of getting tickets is easily overcome by buying them online. You can even choose a specific hour of the day you'd like to be admitted. How whole families with little children queue outside, rain or shine, beats me if there is an easier way.
Spoiler alert: Most of his hardhitters, the most famous pictures were not there!

Sunflowers yes, Starry nights, THE self-portrait: NO! They are in NY or in another museum in a different part of the world.
Every hour they let in about 100 people who then move slowly past the pictures on 3 floors. The audio guide, however, only comments on about 9 pictures out of the 30 or more on the ground floor. We saw 3 other self-portraits by the master himself which were not honored by any explanation. How many did he draw?
If you're interested more in his artistic development and have techniques explained, then you won't be disappointed.
Friday night, unfortunately, was also the time for musical entertainment for the visitors.The group was substandard- sorry, but loud. So loud in fact, we had to give up on our audio guide system.
I liked the museum shop best. A very tasteful collection of many different touristy, even useful gifts arranged according to the predominant colors Van Gogh used: yellow bags, red purses, blue ipad cased for example.
Another area for improvement is the locker room / hand in your coats etc.. Two lonely if busy bees tried to efficiently handle the crowds. From one line to the next: Security check point afterwards. If some bad guy wanted to do harm, he can easily hand in his bomb with his backpack in the locker room and not try to bring it through the scanners.
As the whole outing cost a bomb, I admit we were disappointed.
This picture was obviously taken on another day as it has practically no visitors and photography is forbidden!

It's bucketing

Just like in Ireland.Well, all the good rain comes from the west via Ireland most of he time.Saturday we had set out on a bicycle tour only to abandon the bikes at a metro station and head back home after waiting under a bridge for the rain to stop for about an hour. Then we gave  up. We don't have the gear - plastic ponchos- the Dutch have; most others don't seem to mind. They just zip along on the cycle lanes, around cars, among foot passengers, over crossings, red lights or not.Yet, we never saw an accident.. They seem to have the right of way, most not even wearing helmets. I posted the funniest contraptions last year.Here's another gem with room for two kids:

Sunday turned out a beautiful day and we set out to retrieve the bikes. From there we pedaled liked two true locals to a park in the city center where the big museums are: Vondelpark. Although everybody , young and old, was out in force, on foot, skateboards, bikes, lying on the grass, we didn't see any fondling. It must mean something else..:). In fact, it was named after the 17th century writer Joost van den Vondel. Not used to arduous biking, I hate to admit our derrieres were overwrought. We left the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseum for another day, a rainy day we said.

But today's deluge was so heavy, we just hunkered down. There is washing to do, cooking and other menial things when you swap homes. You live just like at home, at least the chores are similar. It's not like being in a hotel. Actaully, I consider that one of the few downsides of homeswapping.

Now the sun is out, it's lovely again and we're going to procure some groceries so that we don't starve .

Maybe a little bike ride around the lake that is opposite our house,  seen on the right at sunset.

A Sad Day to Arrive

We arrived in the suburbs of Amsterdam on a glorious sunny day. Our exchnage partner were grounded at Schiphol airport for hours because the first flights from Ukraine arrived.I hope they didn't see the unloading of the coffins the way it was televised later for hours.
We were so grateful that we didn't have to fly over a civil war area! If not even the airspace is safe anymore for civil aircraft-- what is the world coming to?

We're about 7 km from the city center. The house is beautiful,an old railway house renovated a few years ago. Very modern inside, with  a huge kitchen cum dining room, a high-tech German kitchen (Miele) and all its appliances. The coffeemaker is almost too modern, built in and high maintenance as we already found out.

The sink has an extra spout for boiling water.Yes, that's how we made tea and coffee (we always travel with a little filter and filter bags).
The back yard is fully enclosed and shielded from view  by a wall overgrown with ivy. The whole place is ideal for parties.

 

The good weather lasted for 2 days all the while we were checking out appliances, shopping for food, trying to get the TV and PCs to work and unpack. We also got a nice bike ride in. We should have dropped everything there and then and make use of the heat and sun and drive to the beach, Sunny days never last long in these parts of the world. Our planned bike ride into Amsterdam fell into water...(German expression). We got soaked and returned home.Now it is sunny again....Ain't that just the way ?
On TV live footage of arriving planes and corteges through the city of dozens and dozens of hearses continue, the streets filled with mourners.

Yes, it's the time of the year again. The Intrepid Home Swappers are at it again: we now have a schedule and two partners for about 7 weeks in Europe. How else could you afford it if not by exchanging homes and cars?
I have to admit this planning season was painstakingly slow. Nothing happening for weeks: I wrote to dozens of members on our website, well a site that we use and who gave us a two year membership for free because of the disaster on the houseboat last July. (Scroll down and you can read up on it if you haven't yet!)

The first positive answer came in and made us very happy: my favorite location in the south of Germany, der Bodensee.

To give you an idea if you're not that familiar with German geography:The lake and north of it is in Germany, to the east is Austria and to the south is Switzerland. We'll be near Ueberlingen...if you squint enough , you can just make it out above the word Germany in red. So in Austria and Switzerland, you'll have the famous Alps around it.

You can't tell much from a map, therefore your for enjoyment and interest a real photo of what to expect:

That's more like it, isn't it?
Our exchange partner just wrote me that they are flying to the British Virgin islands today for some sailing. I can't say if it is a home swap, but home exchangers do get around; most of them have the traveling bug!

So we had one exchange and I waited for more for several weeks.Nothing doing. I even signed up with another site to have more places to choose from. They, I have to say, were not very responsive and if there was an answer, it was a NO.
My preference would have been to go to Italy or France for a change. In my experience, however, these folks don't often reply. Neither are they interested in coming to Florida. We were about to give up hope when, out of the blue, an offer came in from Amsterdam.  So we gladly grabbed that, a very nice family btw. We skyped immediately. No dillydallying with them. One more email and they booked their flights and signed the agreement

I often compare home swapping to internet dating. Either there is some connection and interest or there isn't. Sometimes you have to wait, but you must give it a try. Just sitting at home will get you nowhere. So more about Amsterdam at a later stage.
I never finished last year's report. Just back from a trip to Maui and of course I had to write about that: http://www.shewrites.com/profiles/blogs/i-ve-fallen-in-love-with-maui
Hawaii has 46 members on our home swap site as well.I wrote to about two dozens suggesting a trip from one paradise to the next.But no takers so far.

The newly opened Rijksmuseum

Art aficionados will flock to the newly opened Rijksmuseum. It was only reopened after 10 year's of restoration by Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands this spring. The restoration cost a whopping EUR 375 million. I had seen it years ago and was impressed with it smasterpuieces even then. Dedicated to the arts and history of the Netherlands, it hosts an innumerable amount of invaluable "old Masters." And our exchnage partners had kindly given us two free tickets!
It's situated near the Van Gogh Museum in the museum quarter of Amsterdam.

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous, sunny and breezy, a good day for a museum visit.The lines in fornt of Van Gogh's were too long to contemplate a visit.
Of course, the picture of Van Gogh is a must-see. And the coffee shop isn't bad either...:)

We used the tram for the first time, a very convenient way to get to the city center. It's only about 9km , but both ways on the bike would be too strenuous after museum walking which is a fortifying exercise in itself.