Amsterdam and Poland 2017
Day 4, Amsterdam
Wednesday, June 7
When we woke up this morning, it was cold,
cloudy and rainy so we stayed in bed an extra half hour as we didn't
have any place to go until around noon. After another good breakfast,
relaxed in the
room for a little while.
Today we had planned to attend the noonday concert at the
Concertgebouw. which is the large music hall in Amsterdam It was too
far to walk, and it was raining so we took a taxi. Every Wednesday the
Concertgebouw offers a free half hour concert. We got there just in
time, as a few minutes after we arrived they ran out of tickets. The
concert to get is held in their Rehearsal Hall which was limited to 400
people. They had to turn away many, many people, so we are very glad
that we got there in time to get tickets.
We sat on the third row to
hear Beethoven's Tweede symfonie in D played the Intercontinental
Ensemble consisting of 9 young musicians. It was beautifully played,
and we enjoyed it very much. We could have taken the tour of the music
hall but we had planned to visit the art museum afterwards
Construction
on the Concertgebouw began in 1883 in a pasture that was then outside
the city. A total of 2,186 piles of length 40 to 43 feet were sunk into
the soil to support the building.
The hall opened on April 11, 1888 with
an inaugural concert, in which an orchestra of 120 musicians and a
chorus of 500 singers participated, The Main Hall seats 1,974 people.
When we came out to the concert it was pouring. We had worn our
raincoats and hoods and carried a small
umbrella which didn't do much
good because the wind was blowing so strongly, it was really cold out.
We walked in the rain for several blocks to the Rijksmuseum which a
large art museum comparable to the National Gallery in DC. It is
reported to have 8000 artistic and historical objects that tell the
story of 800 years of Dutch history from 1200 to the present.
Before
visiting the galleries, we stopped in t
heir restaurant for lunch which
was tasty. The cafe overlook the atrium inside the muesum.
Kathleen had bought our tickets online and an audio tour. We
were there for over two hours and enjoyed many of
the old Masters
including Vermeer's "Girl with the Milk Pitcher"
Rembrandt"s"
Nightwatch".
Other favorites were:
The Gallery was very full of art lovers. When we left the
sun was shining but it was still very cold, and we were some distance
from our hotel so we took a cab.
After Kathleen had her usual afternoon nap, we walked several blocks
to another restaurant, Haesje Claes, where Kathleen had made
reservations several months ago. It was a Dutch restaurant, with a lot
of atmosphere and huge crowds. There were four dining rooms and a second
floor where a bus tour group was seated. After we were seated from a
while at a four top with a bench seat against the wall, the maître d’
said he wanted to move us across the aisle to a booth when it became
vacant. It seems that they wanted to move all of the tables together on
the side we were on for a large group which soon arrived after we moved
to the booth.
Kathleen had a tomato soup, and I had a Dutch shrimp
cocktail which was a surprise as the shrimp looked like a bowl of small
worms but they were good. For the entrée Kathleen had salmon and I had
calves’ liver and onion with bacon and fried apples – it was delicious.
We have certainly enjoyed our stay in Amsterdam. It is a fun city with a
lot to see. We will have to come back another time to see all of the
things that we missed. We are thankful that we were not run over by a
bicycle.
Day 12 - Poznan and
Torun
Day 15 coming soon
