Dutch Design Week

At the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven are the people just as interesting as the designs.

Waiting

Waiting for a ferry behind the Central Station in Amsterdam.

Weekend Reflections

The newest houses in Almere in the area "Almere Poort". People can built their own houses here, so you get various types. The bad thing is however that because of the "crisis" many people cannot effort to built a house anymore. I am afraid that these four households will not get neighbours very soon. It looks a bit unfinised now. See for more Weekend Reflections here

Occupy Sofietje

Our kitty has her own tent to occupy. She still needs a roof over her hat and my daughter had the bright idea to bring a "kitty tent" for her. She loves to sleep in it. She still is very anxious and not so used to humans I think. When I showed her the rest of our home, she went straight to the attic which is full of chaos and hided herself in an far corner behind all kinds of heavy stuff.

From 12 noon till 12 midnight she sat there until she finally came down the stairs to the ground floor and we could go to sleep. We tried to tidy up the attic but there is so much stuff we have brought together in so many years, we don't know where to start.

So you see she keeps us busy.

Snapshot

Last Sunday we went to the Van Gogh Museum to the exhibition "Painters and photography 1888-1915". The intervention in 1888 of the first manageable, easy-to-use camera for amateurs made spontaneous photography possible: the snapshot was born. The enthusiastic users of the earliest amateur cameras included many artists. What role did photography play in their lives and how did it influence their work? The exhibition presents 220 photographs and 70 paintings, prints and drawings from seven artists.

This artist Henri Evenepoel made such lovely family pictures of his children, they looked very modern dressed, as you can see at the poster above. His sun, the boy in the striped shirt he used for a painting later on. It was so nice to see the enthusiasm of the artists to use this new item like we "bloggers" are still doing. Look here for more information on the website.

 (It was not allowed to make photo's! at the exhibiton, so I can't show you more)

Autumn light (2)

Another autumn light at the Museum-square with left the Concert-Building and right the Van Gogh Museum.

Autumn light

I like the hazy autumn light at this time of the year. In the background of the street you see the tower of the Rijksmuseum.

Sunshine

A weekend full of sunshine in Amsterdam. Time to chill on a terrace, the smaller the better.

Weekend Reflections

A quiet reflection in Amsterdam at the Damrak. See for other reflections here

Occupy Amsterdam

After NewYork, the "Occupy movement" has spread out to other cities in the world, so also to Amsterdam. Here the camping ground is situated in front of the stock exchange building. The bad wheater with freezing nights en lots of rain doesn't make it easy for the protesters.

Skywatch Friday

The Dam square in Amsterdam with the Palace and the" Autumn-fair" in front. It was a dark day with heavy rains. See for more pictures of Skywatches here

Advertisement

When passing these bicycles in Amsterdam, I noticed that an advertisement person had covered the saddles one by one with a blue advertisement to change your bank for more interest. This photo was taken a few weeks ago, before the Occupy movement started making  the financial district inaccessible.

Dutch Theatre

The Hollandse Schouwburg ("Dutch Theatre") is not a theatre anymore, it is only a facade. Until 1940 it was a popular theatre in the "Plantage-neighbourhood" in Amsterdam. After the German Nazis had occupied the Netherlands in World War II, they changed the name in "Jewish Theatre" and only Jewish artists were allowed to perform there for Jewish audience. From august 1942 the Jews of Amsterdam were brought in here to be deported to a dutch transit  camp "Westerbork" and after that to the extermination camps in Germany and Poland.

These are the remains of the theatre hall in the courtyard.  In 1962 a remembrance monument was placed here for the Jewish war victims, 110.000 Jewish people has been transported from the Netherlands to the extermination camps, to be killed.

To make a donation you can buy a tulip with a personal message and place it on the wall.

In 1993 the place was renovated with a memorial chapel and a remembrance wall with 6.700 family names which symbolizes all the murdered Jews in the Netherlands.

You can read more about the monument here

A stone seat at the cemetery Zorgvlied, with the falling leaves and the graves around you can have a feeling of transitoriness. But the poor woman carrying the weight maybe take of one's mind a little.

Autumn weekend

Autumn has really started here now, cold nights and mornings 2 degrees C (35.6 F)  and then a day full of sunshine which does the temperature rise to 14 degrees C (57.2). A good day to bike over the dike in Almere. The two men near the car were of Birdwatch and spotting birds, the barn-swallow,  who should have left our country already to the warm south countries, but still are flying around here. Maybe because of the warm "Indian Summer" we had lately, they are still hanging around here. Come on boys go south, it is becoming cold here.

We cycled home through the woods over small bumpy roads.

Weekend Reflections

At the cemetery "Zorgvlied" in Amsterdam the grave of "Frank Govers" a famous dutch fashion designer who died in 1997. He was inspired by the hippies in the sixties and later designed the "boho chic" in the seventies. He was the first fashion designer in the Netherlands who made a commercial on television for washing power which was not done in the ninetees. But it was a big hit and everybody remembers his voice. See for other Weekend Relections here

Sofietje

We call here Sofietje (Fietje). She is more relaxed now, has left her hiding places so now and then and starts feeling home. She is very curious and is exploring the ground floor. She comes from places we hardly know with dust and spider's web at her ears. So that is something to think about my housewife qualities, to much blogging keeps me busy.  I will keep you informed so now and then about Sofietje.

Here I am

In my computer chair.

Between the books.

Under the table  on a chair.

This is our new cat who arrived yesterday. She is very shy and hiding away all the time under a cupboard, or in the bookshelves and on chairs under the table. As long as she has a roof above her head. She is two years old, very small and comes from a "British Shorthair" cattery. She has a weird name "Bar" from Barcode because of her stripes! We are still thinking about another name, any suggestions?

Playground

A small playground in the centre of Amsterdam .A grandmother with her grandchild just passed by to make the picture complete.

Amsterdam Cat

I am in a cat-mood, this week we get a new cat!  This one was enjoying the sunshine on the pavement with a friend when a dog came by and he decided to walk away quickly. The bollard with three crosses we call an "Amsterdammertje"  and is placed along the sidewalk of canals in long lines to prevent cars parking there. The three crosses refer to the Amsterdam  Coat of Arms.

Decorated buildings

Some buildings in Amsterdam have such beautiful sculptured decorations. I think this one is of the sculptor "Hildo Krop".

 Both sides of the entrance of a building at the "Oudezijds Voorburgwal" are decorated.

Fun in Antwerp

At the Groenmarket was a kind of action organized for psychiatric patients, I don't  know exactly all about it, but people were having fun with music and each other.

The Plantin-Moretus Museum Antwerp

This is one of the most beautiful old museums I have ever seen. It is the residence and printing establishment Plantin Press of the famous printers Christoffel Plantijn and Jan Moretus. The printing company was founded in the 16th century by Christoffel Plantijn. After his death is was owned by his son-in-law Jan Moretus. In 1876 Edward Moretus sold the company to the city of Antwerp. Since 2005 it was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage list.

The house is complete with furniture and 30.000 books. This is the shop where the people could buy books. Look at the beautiful windows.

You could walk through the house and go up to two stores and an attic by little wooden stairs, and walk on cracking wooden floors. The family was very wealthy which you could see at the richly decorated interior with paintings and furniture. Watch the leather wallpaper, I had never seen this before.

This is the courtyard and you have an impression how big the house is. I saw authentic printing presses, the two oldest surviving in the world. Complete sets of characters and matrices and an extensive library with a Gutenberg Bible, geographical books, a book describing herbs. To much to mentione all. If you ever have the chance to visit you will not regret it.

Antwerp Old Buildings

From our hotel it was a 20 minutes walk to the inner city and we passed many old houses.

This house looks so old, probably 16th century.

You can imagine how people have lived here long time ago.

I always like this very much, a building at the head of two streets.

The MAS

The MAS, (Museum on the Stream) in Antwerp has opened this spring and is a real eyecatcher.

The red towers of the MAS are covered with hand-cut Indian stone and the curved glass panels are at least six meters high. The MAS is designed as a giant storehouse with stacked containers or "boxes". These museum boxes are stacked in such a way that they create a spiral tower. As you ascend, you get a constantly changing view of the city. On the roof you get a 360 o panorama over Antwerp.

You have a free walk upstairs to the tenth floor which we did, we were more interested in the building than the museum, so we will visit the museum-collections an other time.

The view over Antwerp was not so good, we had a bit strange weather, very warm but a bit misty.

A view in the entrance hall.