bicycles, bridges and tulips

In recent weeks we have done something that we haven't done since we were teenagers.  We have gone bike riding - twice!    Hiring a bike to ride in Europe is like using a pay phone.  Very easy, and most cities have a system where you can check out, or check in, a bike at stations  all over town.

I'm not so keen on cycling in traffic, but in the Netherlands we went to a large national park near Arnhem where the bikes were free, so you just grabbed one and went.  It was fun and I only had to avoid crashing into other cyclists.  I am not the best bike rider, and I put that down to not having the opportunity to learn until I was 13.  Just a little late for it to be natural.  But the best part of this park was the gallery in the middle with a worthy collection of Van Gogh paintings - what a treat!

Bikes are what stuck out the most in the Netherlands - I presume they are all born on one.  Certainly we saw lots of infants and children on the back, or in the cart in the front (big wheelbarrow like contraptions that can hold up to 3 children).  In fact, being a pedestrian is a risky business as the bikes seem to have the right of way, everywhere.   I know I stepped out in front of many cyclists, but it was a very appealing approach to personal transport.

Of course the reason they are all happy to cycle so much is that the biggest hill they have to climb is the gentle rise of a bridge over a canal. Phil thought it very graceful to watch the pendulum like rythym of bikes crossing bridges; Bridges over canals that were lined with boats. So the dutch must be big on boating too.

Back to art.  This was one of our main reasons for wanting to visit Amsterdam. We agree that Vincent van Gogh was an outstanding artist and we wanted to see lots of his paintings; And we did and they were great. I wish I could go back again and again to feast on his brush work. Better again, just have some of his paintings hanging on our own walls (dreams are free). The other treats were 1. The MC Escher gallery in Den Haag (The Hague). Yet another brilliant mind, but this one focused on exquisite detail, mathematics and design; and 2. Visiting Rembrandt's 300 year old house in Amsterdam with a special exhibition of his stunning etchings.

MC Escher

We timed our visit for spring so that we could go to the tulip gardens - a place called Keukenhof.  Somehow I managed to pick the busiest day of the season to visit - the day of the huge flower parade - so by noon we had to share the park with literally thousands of other people, all trying to stay off the grass even when there was no path left to share.   The flowers were nothing short of magnificent.  Beautiful. Enchanting.  And in the surrounding fields the flowers are grown like rainbows; not just tulips, but hyacinths, narcissus (daffodils) and iris.  We spent 5 hours in the park looking at flowers and it was only the crowds that pushed us to leave.

Our final stop was Delft, the town famous for blue and white pottery.   For us, Delft is famous for wonderful food at reasonable prices.  We used the opportunity to celebrate our anniversary one night and my birthday the next night (well they were our pent up excuses to indulge in one Michellin star fine cuisine).   The chef introduced us to some palate tingling cheeses which we were subsequently able to buy from a local speciality shop to bring some home and extend the taste sensation.  The most memorable was the Delft Blue - definitely a challenger to a good Kapiti version.  This is Delft below.

We didn't see many windmills, but it wouldn't be a blog about Holland without a photo of one so here it is (snapped on the highway).   My final thought is of friendly people.  The country is full of them and that made our visit so much more enjoyable.

a brush with Brussels

This is a chocolate shop in Brussels (Bruxelles) and the Belgians are right about one thing...chocolate is definitely a cure for some things!   I think I have mentioned before the wonders of Belgian chocolate.  YUM.
Last weekend I got to look around Brussels while Phil was supervising a group of boys attending a mathematics competition (exciting stuff).  The first thing I noticed about the city is the confusion of signage duplications, as everything, and in particular street names, are written in both flemish and french.  This can be most confusing if you are looking for a street by the french name, and the only sign you can see is in Flemish - the link is often far from obvious.   At least identifying the chocolate shops is easy, and there are plenty of those (many with free samples!).
Then there is the Grand Place (central square), which certainly puts the grand into place, partly due to the lavish use of gilded decorations.  Most of the buildings are 400 years old, and many were built as guild houses for things like the bakers and beer makers.  The exception is the state hall, which is 700 years old and has a tower of truly big proportions - certainly too big to easily fit into any photo even with my wide angle lense turned sideways.
 



Many people think that Germany is the beer capital of the world, but I would argue that the Belgians are more passionate about it.  |The story goes that the belgians were advised to drink beer instead of water to avoid the plague.  So they did, and the habit stuck.  Beer became a steady source of income for the many monasteries that exist in Belgium, and these trappist beers (made in limited production) remain extremely popular.

Menus everywhere are dominated by seafood, which obviously has something to do with being so near the sea, but the passion for seafood seems indomitable.  In comparison, New Zealand is surrounded by the ocean, but seems to take a more balanced approach to diet.  I have to note that when one travels through Belgium it is not common to see sheep or cattle in the paddocks, so maybe the comparative lack of other protein options contributes to the seafood diet.  I couldn't help but think of a particular friend (K) who would love a gastronomic visit to Brussels!

And for those of you who, like me, enjoyed a good read of Tintin when you were a bit younger, there are the delights of wandering around the old city streets searching for cartoon art which certainly brightens up a grey city day. There are about 30 wall murals to discover by a wide range of artists.

Finally, and most importantly, I have to mention the highlight of my explorations which was the museum of musical instruments.   What an amazing place.   I spent two hours wandering around looking at the most fascinating instruments, while my headphones would tune in and out of the wifi signals which gave samples of music played by the instruments.  I wish I could have purchased some of the recordings on the spot - it was wonderful.  The final picture has nothing at all to do with the museum, but it does have a bell on top that gets rung by a little man.  This is a very modern piece that I imagine one day will be a tourist attraction

I'm dreaming of a white christmas...

 

This is Luxembourg city this week.  It's even whiter than last week.  Not a big deal for some of you, but a huge deal for this town.

We decided we had to change the words of the song 'I'm dreaming of a white christmas, just like the ones we used to know..'  because of course this is still new to us!     So now we're singing 'I'm dreaming of a white christmas, just like the ones in the movies ....'

Our landlord tells us that Luxembourg hasn't seen this much snow in 30 years.  And they are certainly not equipped to deal with it, even the main shopping street in the city is piled high with snow and as you can see, even good for a sleigh or two!   And there is not a snow shovel left on sale in the city - so Phil has been borrowing our landlord's to clear the foot path in front and just enough to get the car in and out of our garage for essential trips out.

If you are up with the news you will know that travel in Europe has been severely affected by all the white stuff, so we are very glad to be staying at home this year.

We wish you all a Joyeux Noel!

the big freeze

 Last week we had what they call 'the big freeze'.   Basically, that means it gets cold enough for long enough that the ground starts to freeze and ponds etc along with it.  And it was cold, averaging about -5 degrees all week.  And those ducks are still swimming about in the parts of ponds that aren't frozen.

This week it has been warmer, but on wednesday we got the biggest snowfall in Luxembourg for 20 years, resulting in a 'snow day' to Phil's great delight, as they cancelled school yesterday!   So we decided to go for a walk and kick (and throw) some snow about, and enjoy the beauty of an almost monochromatic winter palette:

So what do people do in weather like this in Luxembourg?   They go to the Christmas market and eat and drink and shop.  Looking at these photos, I noticed how the festiveness of the Christmas markets helps to explain the pleasure of colour and light when there is none anywhere else.  

Barcelona by Gaudi

After the summer holidays here we decided we needed a rest from travelling, but I had already booked a trip to Barcelona, so that is where we went last week even though it would have been more restful to stay at home. Barcelona was another one of those places on my ‘must see’ list, and with good reason. If you are not into art or architecture then I recommend that you just look at the pics – they’ll give you the general idea!

There is a lot to do in Barcelona, which is a city of five million people, but we like looking at art so we went to no less than 7 art galleries on a combined ticket. Three were excellent, two were good and two were verging on rubbish in our opinion.

The best was the MNAC – the national gallery. I kind of expected to be a little bored, as while i like art, I often find wandering around huge galleries exhausting. But I was delightfully surprised by some 12th century spanish art that showed amazing expression and creativity instead of the usual flat, blank staring images. I even wanted to take a few pieces home with me (see first photo) but they would only let me take a photo ‘sin flash’. Good enough.

The rubbish was modern art. We did see some interesting 20th century art by Joan Miro who extensively documented everything he did and wrote notes about what he was trying to achieve, and [probably consequently] some of his work showed thoughtfulness and intrigue. Then we looked at work by Antoni Tapis who, in a film we watched, admitted that he tried not to think about what he was doing. It showed. This confirmed our suspicisions about alot of modern art – that there is not a lot of thought or talent behind it. 

We still don’t understand why they think it is worthy to exhibit every last little scribble (when some of them are not good) just because someone does some brilliant work. If you are a succesful novelist and you write a dud, critics will tell you so and not buy the book. Indeed, you probably would rather sweep your disappointments under the rug yourself. For example, Picasso did some brilliant work, but some of his sketches show no inkling of this brilliance. Hmm, is that the point? Still, if you are paying €8-10 Euros entrance fees (which we didn’t), what are you getting for your money?

Sagrada familia

The main reason for our trip to BCN was not the football, (or the art), but the legacy of Antoni Gaudi, who died in 1926 when he was hit by a tram. At the time he was full swing into his masterpiece the Sagrada Familia, which is a church with three facades. Some of the basilica and his workshop were destroyed by bombing during the Spainsh civil war in 1936.

Gaudi only completed one facade, and since his death no less than five architects have taken up the challenge. Currently Mark Burry from NZ is the executive architect, and they have introduced computer modelling into the project. There are a legion of builders on site, and they expect it to be completed in my lifetime. I haven’t met anyone else yet who actually went inside the church, but it was well worth the half hour wait. Incredible. Like nothing we have ever seen or imagined. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie.  And it is still unfinished. It impressed me more than the Sistine Chapel (which is a painting of course not a scuplture).

Casa Mila

Casa Mila

The other Gaudi works were fun, very clever, flirtatous, and most importantly ergonomically harmonious. What I mean is that the seating was comfortable and the spaces made for man to be in. He seemed to understand spatial organisation, so when you walk through a room you don’t just think ‘oh wow – all the walls are curved’, but ‘this feels right, I could live here’. I think that is what made him an artistic genius. That, and the ability to throw up the lofty irregular towers and cantanary arches of the Sagrada familia without sophisticated computer modelling.

Park Guell

Park Guell

Gaudi’s work was part of the modernism movement in architecture, which was the spanish response to Art Nouveau. And there are other buildings in Barcelona built by Gaudi’s contemporaries that are also noteworthy. We went to a jazz concert in one, which had to be seen to be believed as it was completely over the top, and so poorly laid out inside that a lot of us had seats with no view of the stage; fortunately the theatre was a spectacle in itself.

Amidst all of this architecture and art, there were also roman ruins hidden in the old city and very recent glass enrobed office buildings that attempt to defy the laws of physics. I applaud the Catalonians for their insight to invest in new ideas both past and present. It is an area where I feel New Zealand has always been weak, and even now, only Wellington seems to have had the courage to be adventurous with public buildings (whether you like the new airport or not, it is most definitely courageous).

So we liked Barcelona, and I think I would like to go back in 15 years and visit the Sagrada Familia again, hopefully in a more complete state, when the interior is more free to wander in. I wonder if they will still charge to go in then - probably. As an aside, in England they charge for EVERYTHING including notable churches; in France churches are most definitely free; and in Spain it depends. In Luxembourg the cathedral is free.

pate

Okay so either you readers don't speak french, or you haven't the time to tell me I am wrong!   Wouldn't you know it, last night our french teacher tells us the difference between pate and pate.   Pate does refer to pasta, but pate with an accent over the 'e' refers to fois gras, or pate as you know it.  So we didn't get it wrong after all.   The proverbial egg is on my face - such is the joy of learning a language!  

je ne comprends pas

Je ne comprend pas.   Parlez vous l'anglais?    I don't understand. Do you speak english?   This is a phrase that we are tired of using.    I am frustrated that I can't speak to the woman who works in the dress shop downstairs (who only speaks french), as smiling and saying 'bonjour' when we pass seems a bit lame after a whole year.   I'd like to be able to say "Isn't it a lovely day!" or something even more meaningful.

So we are both taking french lessons this year - together.   This means of course that we can keep tabs on each other and also practice at home with our limited vocabulary.   Our class of 12 includes people from 10 countries, but only two outside europe;  Most of them can speak reasonable english.

Learning a language is exhausting.  Our french teacher talks to us in french for the WHOLE lesson.   That is 1. 5 hours of serious concentration levels (two evenings a week), because if you tune out for just a minute then you have missed what she said entirely and you wonder why everyone is flicking through their books and you are not.  Fortunately Mme Massy is good at repeating instructions slowly!  She is also very good at pantomine because she has to act out the words we don't understand!  I would definitely choose her for my team in charades.   We also get homework, which we attempt to do because we are serious about wanting to learn, but it does take a chunk of our weekends.    

The concerted effort is paying off, as already I am distinguishing more words in french instead of the stream of sound that I usually associate with the language.   We are currently watching the french version of 'Master Chef' for the food and the language!   It is obvious to us how much we rely on body language for understanding when we can't translate the words.   Then there is always google translate....

French certainly has its peculiarities such as the need to create their own words for things which most of the world is happy to share a word for.  ie. computer.  Even in spanish it is just a computador.   But in french we say ordinateur.  Camera is 'appareil photo'.   Apparently there is a government department dedicated to french language and they are tasked with coming up with new words when required.  I think this is peculiar for a language that likes to condense itself as much as possible and in spoken form doesn't even pronounce half its letters (no you do not pronounce the e on the end of Porsche).  

One of our strangest discoveries here (to our slight embarrassment) is that the french word 'pate' refers to pasta.   It has absolutely nothing to do with pureed chicken livers, which is foie gras (pronounced 'fwah grah').   How could we get that sooo wrong in NZ?    So far my favourite french words are 'mot'  (word) because you say it how it looks unlike most french words, and choisir (to choose) simply because it sounds nice : 'shwazeer'. 

Finally it wouldn't be a blog post without a photo.  So here is the prettiest castle in Luxembourg, Vianden, on a very pretty day.