Tag: Netherlands

Finding the Unexpected in Leiden

Dear Jasper and Kestrel,

Walking through Leiden, we kept coming across wonderful quirks that reminded me of Portland. First, there were these little mosaics, each the size of one paving brick, in places around the city.

There were enough that I stopped taking pictures of them, yet never so close together as to be boring.

There was also a lot of public art, mostly in the form of bronze statues; a series of young men selling things, like flowers, fish, and fabric. I suppose this was a celebration of Leiden’s history as a market town.

Some of the statues are also draped with string, and one had a key placed at his feet! I wonder what the hidden message was, and for whom.

Some things, we may never know.

Another bronze statue, near the main entrance to the University, was designed to encourage public voices of dissent. This podium, with a little riser behind it, has “Protest” and other words carved on the front. Student challenges to the status quo is celebrated. Hooray for young ideas!

Finally, we happened to be in town for the annual Parade of Boats. It was described by our waitress as a yearly party where “drunk people in boats make a show for drunk people on land.”

A few dozen groups like dance classes, choirs, clubs, or just groups of friends, rode through the city’s canals in decorated boats, playing music and entertaining the crowd. It was clear that many of the paraders, as well as many of the audience, had had a few drinks. But, as far as I could tell, no harm done.
Our hotel room on the second floor gave us a front row seat.

And it was a magnificent party!

Well, that’s all I’m going to tell you about Leiden for now. Tomorrow is our flight to Billund!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Into Leiden

Dear Liza,

After the usual disorientation of an overseas flight and time adjustment, we are in Leiden, the Netherlands, and seeing all sorts of lovely things.

We are staying at a hotel called CTY Books, which is a modern place built inside a really old book sellers (from the 1700s). In a perfect blending of new and old, it has super nifty electronic locks but traditional Dutch stairs; AC for the hot days but is perched on a centuries-old canal.


The parts of Leiden we have seen are busy, modern city businesses that work in a very canal laced geography. This giant windmill sits beside a canal on the way from the train station.

Canals are common in The Netherlands because the land is low and swampy, so for centuries the people have dug canals to drain the water away. The canals also make for nice transport, to and from the sea as well as around town.

Our first day, we found De Brucht, which is the remains of an old castle.

It was originally built up as a high place to escape flooding, but when foreign armies threatened, they put a castle on top.

in in the midafternoon we started drooping from jet lag, and went up for a nap. Three hours later we were fit for more site-seeing, and wandered the neighborhood. The old, well maintained buildings and canals make everything look like a fairy tale.

De Landstrader, the restaurant just below our hotel, serves wonderful French fries, as well as salads and dinners. We stopped for some food and wine before heading back in for the night. We ate inside as the canal side tables were getting noisy and we like our conversation un-shouted.

The sunset was stunning at almost 10 p.m. as we headed up to our cozy room.

Tomorrow will be another full day!

Love,

Grandma Judy

On My Way!

Dear Liza,

I can’t believe that I am on my way to you, and will be seeing you Saturday for lunch in Billund, Denmark!

This past week has been busy. I spent part of every day taking care of Maggie and Hopey, Auntie Katie’s cats, while she was in Chicago.

I also got to water her garden, which is always lovely and refreshing.

I had a nice walk around the Alberta neighborhood with Cynthia. I have never spent much time there, but it is green and interesting, with lots of history and quirkiness of its own.

It is an eclectic mix of urban and parks, with native plant gardens right next to apartments and tiny toy exchanges.

I even got to spend an afternoon with Cousins Jasper and Kestrel at the Portland Art Museum. Most of the museum is closed for a major renovation. However, along with the Post Impressionists exhibit, a few galleries upstairs are filled with a delightfully random collection of art from the museum’s collection.

Each Cousin picked a favorite piece to be photographed with. Jasper’s is a ‘quilt’ made from computer circuit boards, which makes perfect sense, him being a science and technology kind of guy.

Kestrel chose this enormous still life with incredibly realistic flowers and fruit. It looked so fresh, you could almost smell the strawberries!

And now I am all done packing for our trip. We will spend a few days in Leiden, the Netherlands, get over our jet lag, and then come see you and your folks. I don’t have any pictures of that, of course, but this gets the feeling across…


I am so excited!!!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Heading to the Kröller-Müller Museum

Dear Liza,

Our first adventure in Utrecht was getting out of the city and heading to a tiny town called Ede (pronounced ‘Ada’), by train.

Then we took two different busses to the De Hoge Veluwe Dutch National Park to find the Koller-Muller Museum. These works of art are all in the private collection of the late Helene Kröller-Müller, who bought art all over Europe. Price didn’t seem to be an object.

We were there to see an enormous private Van Gogh collection, but we saw a lot of other things first.

Surrounding the museum are many wide acres of green space, which Mrs. Koller-Mueller filled with dozens of major sculptures. This one, Meneer Jacques, would re-appear later in the day.

The wind and rain were impressive as we waited with other chilly folks for the museum to open.

The featured artist was Fernand Léger, a French artist who studied with Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso. He had a cubist style that was different from either of his mentors, and I found it charming and playful.

We also found a few rooms with Piet Mondrian’s paintings. This Dutch painter has always been a favorite of mine, because so much of his work looks like delightful patchwork quilt.

His early works are more pastel-ish, and his later works become more primary-color oriented. I like them all!

We discovered a new artist (for me, anyway), Charley Toorop. She was a Dutch woman who painted bold, unflinching self portraits. They were not “pretty” or feminine. They were simply beautiful, at all the different stages of her life.

I love her image of herself as young soldier, just after the First World War, where she lost many friends. Later in life, her hair has greyed and is worn longer, but she still looks straight at the viewer. She looks like a very honest person.

By this time we were a bit footsore and very hungry, so we stopped at the cafe (named after Meneer Jacques , the sculpture out front) for chicken wraps and salads.

Before we ate, I lined up the flower vase, a candle, and my wine glass. Seeing art always puts me in the mood to make art!

We had more arty adventures after lunch, and I will tell you about them tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy