We're Fine, We've Just Been Busy

Hello Faithful Readers,

We've been caught up in a whirlwind of busyness lately! We'll resume our regular blogging shortly.

Madeline, Dan, & Meisjes

The Weekend

Saturday, we headed out to 's Hertogenbosch (aka den Bosch). We had heard it was a well preserved medieval city and contained one of the most beautiful churches in the Netherlands. The latter was certainly true, but the former was not as evident.

We strolled in to the old town and found ourselves in the middle of a large market where we ate some kibbeling for lunch. The walking tour we wanted to go on was full, so we headed back through the market. The church was indeed quite beautiful, intricate sculptures, gargoyles and a lovely painted ceiling. The Madonna and Child on display had been in Belgium for a number of years before eventually being returned.

Sunday morning, we decided to eat bagels, so we went to a chain restaurant called Bagels & Beans. The bagels and cream cheese were great! We had had some bagels from the grocery, but they weren't quite the same. These, were the same.

On our way there, we stopped by the Poppentheater Diridas to see when the next shows were. The window was covered with schedules for other puppet theaters and the inside was in extreme disarray. We turned around and ran into Marit, the proprietor. Unfortunately, she is ill and the doctor advised her to cut down on work. She told us that she leaving Amsterdam and moving to a boat in Leiden. She said, "I have some gifts for you," and ran inside. She returned with a rattle for Amelie and a tin containing a dog fingerpuppet for Liliane. We thanked her and wished her well. She then jumped into a van with a guy who had been loading things from the theater into the van.

Sunday was a special shopping day in which many markets and stores are open. We headed over to the Jordaan to seek out a market we had discussed in Dutch class. It was closed. As we headed to the tramline, we passed by our Dutch teacher's home. The window was open and we could hear beautiful piano music coming out. The song stopped and, suddenly, he appeared in the window. We called up to him, so he came down and met the girls. We continued to the tramline and we noticed a pharmacy with a gaper out front. Gapers used to be very common in front of pharmacies here in days gone by.

That evening, Dan and I left the girls with a babysitter and went out. We got drinks at a comfortable pub called the Chocolate Bar. Surprisingly, they did not have any chocolate-based drink specialties. We sat outside on comfortable chairs. The guys next to us seemed to know every woman who passed by on the pedestrian mall. The only person we knew was the guy who had been helping Marit earlier in the day.

After our visit there, we headed out to dinner at a restaurant called ctaste. ctaste is an experiential dining establishment, where the food is served in the dark by vision-impaired servers. Our waiter came out and led us in. Dan held his shoulders and I held Dan's. We were seated and advised of the location of our cutlery. We got the "surprise" menu with wine pairings, so we didn't know what to expect. I have never been in such pitch-black a place. There were absolutely no lights. We were advised that 50% of visitors actually eat with their hands. Dan poured our water, and he poured it right to the top, but didn't spill it. I developed a technique to make sure I didn't miss any food. What I noticed: The conversations around us. Fewer distractions during our conversation. How visually dependent I am when tasting food. A loss of sense of time (at the end, I thought we had been there about 2 hours, but it was really 2h 45m!). When we came out, we were advised to keep our eyes closed to help adjust to the light. We also were advised to look down at our feet when we opened them. The light was blinding!

The food itself was delicious! Our first course was smoked salmon, with salad and a blini. The main course was roast beef, au gratin potatoes and asparagus. The dessert was toetje (like creme fraiche) with fruit and a waffle shell.

fresh beer from ctaste - it only lasts a few weeks

Leiden

I traveled to the city of Leiden on Thursday, which is about a half-hour train ride from Amsterdam. Along the way, I noticed that there were bicycle paths that track the highway. I tried to take a picture, and this is how it came out:

Once I got to Leiden, I headed a science and medical museum called the Museum Boerhaave. This museum is situated in a former almshouse (one of the many for which Leiden is well known). It was a very interesting place and I saw what is thought to be the world's first pendulum clock, invented by Dutchman Christiaan Huygens. I also saw some of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes. The microscopes were so tiny, that at first I actually walked right past them. A docent later directed me to their location. One of the more interesting parts of the museum was the surgery gallery featuring animal and human skeletons as the spectators.

My next stop was the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum. The Pilgrims left England and spent 11 years in Leiden before embarking on the Mayflower due to the tolerant culture that has been part of Netherlands history for centuries. Every Thanksgiving, there is a special celebration in Leiden acknowledging the Pilgrims and their role in history.

The museum was a house furnished with period furniture. According to the guide, who was once a visiting professor of art history at Arizona State University, the house could be the oldest in Leiden. The apparent owner of the building lived upstairs. She had been supervising a construction project on the adjacent building whose door, according to the professor, had not been opened for 400 years. I saw something that looked like modern plumbing, so maybe I misheard? The owner allowed me to look around her abode upstairs, which is not normally opened to the public, on the condition that I take no pictures. All in all, I found the museum interesting. It was very cozy and lit by candles. There were some portfolios relating the story of the Pilgrims and their involvement in Leiden. As I was leaving, some Americans arrived and announced that they were the Cooks. I'm not sure if they had made a special appointment or if they were descendents of the Pilgrims.

Doesn't that look like modern plumbing on the left?

After the museum, I passed a covered bridge that was once used by merchants. I then walked to the area of Leiden which houses the law faculty. On my way back to the train station I stopped in an antique shop that had several antlers for sale. I purchased a pitcher that the seller advised was French. I really liked it because it reminds me of pitchers that one sees in still-life tableaux.

the bridge & the pitcher