Amsterdam: Day 2 - The first one's name was Abraham...

December 28th

This was a relaxed trip.  Only on one day did we set an alarm to get up early.  

Every other day we just got up whenever.

Seeing as it was fairly cold (0º C/32º F - I saw this knowing it is in the -20/-30/-40º F in the midwest) and my winter coat was in our still missing luggage we were trying to figure out what to do today.  We could either hang out in the hotel and wait for our luggage, or I could suck it up and hope we found a museum for me to stay warm in.   We chose the latter.

Our hotel was quite close to the airport but a bit far from downtown.  Dan had read that there were all sorts of busses and other public transportation that we could take to get us around.  This morning started with trying to figure out how the public transportation system works.  We couldn't figure out the busses, but found that a train goes between the airport, Schipol, and downtown, Amsterdam Centraal.   Train adventure!

My first photo from Amsterdam!  I took this from the train going into downtown.

As I said, Amsterdam has a lot of public transportation.  Maybe too much.  There are trains, trams, busses, metros, ferries, and I'm sure I'm missing one or two others.  Again we tried to figure out a bus to get us over to the museum district, but failed.  We ultimately figured out the trams and took one of those over to where a cluster of museums are.

Today we thought we'd go to the Van Gogh Museum but upon reaching it, discovered quite a long line to get into the museum.  Remember, I don't have a winter coat and I am cold.  We decided to try to hit one of the other museums instead that doesn't have as long of a line.  We stumble upon the Stedelijk Museum, which turns out to mostly be modern art.   Some of this is okay.  Some of it is not.

Stedelijk Museum -

Roy Lichtenstein - "As I Opened Fire"

 Remember kids, comic books aren't art, but paintings of comic books are art.  Or some nonsense like that.   There is some amazing artwork in comic books, fyi.  I personally like the artwork of P. Craig Russell, but I digress.  

ANYWAY.

Formally, Lichtenstein appropriated images from popular culture. He inserted them into a fine art context enlarging them, altering them slightly and painting them on canvas. Thus, the artist obscured the border of high and low art. 

Jeff Koons - "Ushering in Banality"

Who doesn't like a giant pig with tiny angels shoving it around?

Ushering in Banality shows an enlarged figurine that differs little from its sources of inspiration, which are small statuettes frequently seen as ornamental decoration. The sculpture diverges from its basis in its scale. By increasing the size and giving it this particular title the artist questions both the relationship between art and commodity as well as fine art and kitsch. Koons attests that the work is not meant to be ironic; rather, he would like to give the general public what they request without questioning taste.

This is the Family Lab, and may have been my favorite part of the museum.  Only the colors deemed pure by Mondriaan are used (Red, Yellow, Blue, White, and Black).  As you can see the walls were giant Lego boards on which you could assemble whatever Lego art you wanted.  It was busy when we got to it, so we did not play.

Piet Mondrian - "Composition with Yellow, Red, Black, Blue, and Grey, 1920"

Speaking of Piet Mondriaan, this is one of his.  My mom likes these, or mentioned once that she did.  I think.  So this one is for you mom or maybe I'm just wrong.

Wassily Kandinsky - "Deux Entourages (Two Surroundings)"

Modern art is funny to me, because I like this, but I think something like a plain blue canvas is pointless.  I am not sure where the line is for me between modern art being appealing and interesting and being puerile and boring.

Max Pechstein - "Hafen von Leba" (Leba Harbor)

Jan Sluijters - "Bal Tabarin" 

Donald Judd - "Untitled" There's some nonsense about the artist wanting harmony and not harmony at the same time.  Whatever. If you can't be bothered to name your art I can't be bothered to care.  Dan liked the art blocks.  I am displaying them.

Paul Derrez - "Australian Tits" I just thought this was funny.  There's all this "deep" art and examples of amazing design (which I really needed my friend Will to explain to me why it was amazing.  Most of it looked uncomfortable and awkward).  And then there's this. It's a boob necklace!  Tee hee.  Boobies.

A view out of the Stedelijk Museum onto the big park that runs between the museums.

This concludes the Stedelijk Museum portion of our adventure.

Wandering around Amsterdam -

Amsterdam still had many of its Christmas lights out. This made many of the streets very pretty. Also I have no clue what the DNA-Spray warning sign is all about.  DNA may rain down upon you if you aren't careful?  Flash DNA storms?   Anyone know?

The courtyard outside of the Hard Rock Cafe had a big outdoor chess set.  

These two seem to have only recently started their game.

The outer ring of lights in the courtyard were all chess pieces. 

This house of cards was part of the Amsterdam Light Festival (there will be more on this later).   This installation is supposed to represent something about how society is fragile.  If one card is taken away the whole thing tumbles down.  Or something like that. Dan being artsy (left).

We went to the Amsterdam Sex Museum, which had some interesting things and some very silly things. It was also something that was open late (the other museums close around 17:00) and got me out of the cold for a while. The museum followed a winding three-story path.  It contained paintings, pictures, sculptures, video, weird animatronics, knives, plates, fans, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.

If you are lactose intolerant, look away!   Otherwise, have you ever seen anything so magnificent as all this cheese?!   CHEEEEESE! Dan among the Edam (above).

This bar/restaurant is The Grasshopper.  The food was very good.  

This more or less ends our meandering for the evening.

We tried to figure out how to get a bus back to the hotel, but I was quickly be coming a popsicle and just wanted to take the train back rather than stand in the cold trying to decipher the bus schedule.  

So we did.

Dan - 0, Buses - 3

Today I will end with the second verse of our song:

The first one's name was Ab-ra-ham.

The first one's name was Ab-ra-ham.

Ab-ra, Ab-ra, ham ham ham.

Ab-ra, Ab-ra, ham ham ham.

The first one's name was Ab-ra-ham.

Amsterdam: Day 1 - Once there were three fishermen...

December 27th

Getting to Amsterdam proved a bit unpleasant.  

We arrived at the Naples airport to find our flight had been delayed due to bad weather in Frankfurt where our connection was.  This was not a concern, the check-in desks day told us, because all flights in Frankfurt had been grounded.  Hmmm....

We waited in the Naples airport.  I played my 3DS (gameboy to you mom) and Dan napped.  I went on a mission to find peanuts and discovered that the Naples airport does not have any sort of food establishment that just sells snacks.  I could buy some sort of fancy chocolates, an actual meal, or balls of mozzarella, but no snacks.  This was irritating.  Anyway, some two/3 hours after we arrived at the airport we boarded our plane to Frankfurt.

We wait for half an hour on the tarmac because we have again been delayed.  I continue to play my 3DS while Dan pokes his Kindle.

We finally land in Frankfurt with much confusion.  Not enough people on our flight are connecting to Amsterdam, so we don't know where our connection is, if it is still here.  Our connection has departed, so we head in the direction of the gate for the next flight to Amsterdam.  On our way we pass the Lufthansa customer service desk.  It has a line probably a quarter of a mile long.  No joke.  Dan is pleased that there is a line instead of the expected Neapolitan mob that we are used to.  He gets in the line and I go off to find the other Amsterdam flight.

I find the desk and manage to get a standby ticket for the flight.  They will not issue a standby ticket for Dan because I don't have his ticket information.  I walk back to find Dan, who has moved maybe 10 feet since I left him.  I get his ticket info and head back to the desk.  Of course I can't get the same person I spoke to last time and the new person is much more concerned with IDs and proper verifications (the other person did not ask me for any ID).  I go back to find Dan who has moved about 15 feet this time and tell him to go talk to the gate desk.  I will wait in the long line.

I wait and continue to play my 3DS.

Dan successfully acquires a standby ticket.  The flight is supposed to start boarding in 20 minutes.  There is no way we are getting to the end of the customer service line in 20 minutes, so we take our chances and head off to get a snack and to see if we can get on this flight.

We manage to make it on the flight, Dan even gets and emergency exit row seat (woo leg room).  Unfortunately, when we land, it becomes clear that our luggage has not made it out with us.  This is mostly of concern because my winter coat is in my checked bag.  Dan wanders off to find the lost luggage office and returns with two overnight kits from the airlines.

We grab a taxi to our hotel, because by this time, about midnight/1 am, the free shuttle service has stopped running.

We are amused at the differences between the Male and Female overnight kits.  The Male kit has a toothbrush, brush, and razor that are all black and shaving cream.  The Female kit has a toothbrush and brush that are white, no razor nor shaving cream, but it has lotion.  Each has an XL or XXXL plain t-shirt inside.

So concludes our adventure for today.



I end with the first verse of a song my mom used to sing with my brothers and me when we were kids and is the only thing I really knew that had anything to do with Amsterdam for a long time:

Once there were three fish-e-rmen.
Once there were three fish-e-rmen.
Fish-er, fish-er, men men men.
Fish-er, fish-er, men men men.
Once there were three fish-er-men.

Roaming in Romania: Day 3

December 15th

Today is our last day in Romania.  Some of the group wanted to just relax, but Emily, Meagan, Savannah, and I decided to continue exploring.

Having decided that we had already done quite of a bit of walking, and time was short, we ventured into the metro to get out to the Village Museum.   In the metro they have a book vending machine. If you forgot a book to read, you can buy one!

Herăstrău Park -

Rather than walk directly to the Village Museum, we wandered through the grand park, 

Herăstrău Park.  There was some fun art in it that Savannah and I got into.

Meagan and Emily on their Bucharesti bench.

Wandering into another portion of the park.  Photo courtesy of Savannah.

Looking out across Herăstrău Lake.

This concludes the Herăstrău Park portion of our adventure.  There is much more to it, so don't be fooled by the limited photos.  We did not have time to adequately explore it all.

The Village Museum (Muzeul Naţional al Satului Dimitrie Gusti) -

The Village Museum covers 15 hectares (~37 acres) along Herăstrău Park.  It was erected in 1936 by royal decree and contains over 200 original structures from all over Romania.  Things like houses, mills, churches, stables, etc.  Most structures are from the 18th and 19th century. 

It was a very cool museum, however, it would probably be more exciting in the summer when there are more tourists and the buildings are open.  As it was, we could only look at the outsides of building or peer in through windows as most were locked for the winter.

A map of the museum.   The colors for the numbers correspond to the historic region from which the structure was acquired.  Pink is Transylvania, Orange is Banat, Purple is Muntenia, Green is Oltenia, Blue is Dobrogea, and Yellow is Moldova.

Who doesn't like a good wood carving?  I mean really.

This is a traditional Lippovan household from 1898.  The Lippovans were common in the Dobrogea regions of Romania and were big into agriculture, fishing, and wine.  They also liked to paint their houses with bright colors, like the blue shutter in this photo.  

This is a church from the village of Răpciuni from the Moldova region of Romania.  

It was built in 1773 out of fir tree beams.  

Details from the church including the swallow tail style of joining 

and the intricate carved wooden door. 

This is a swing or merry-go-round from the commune of Zăpodeni, which is from the Moldova region of Romania.   It was an entertainment for children on major holidays like Easter.  It was operated by two boys who would push up on something on either side to make the chairs move.  The English translation of the description isn't very clear.

I just thought this fence was interesting.  It's made from woven vines.

 

This is a house from the village of Vrancea Mountain which resides in the Carpathians.  It is an area where the predominate occupations are related to grazing livestock.
This house is from the early 19th century.

A room from the Vrancea house displaying textiles from the region.

Horse carts and plows.  We actually saw people using carts like on the left when driving up to see the castles yesterday.

Look!  A windmill!   This windmill was primarily used for grinding grains.  The base is made of stone, the skeleton is made of oak, and the rest of it is made of fir.   The window on the side is an outlook point.  This makes this a "mill with a bosom".  The last portion of the blades of the mill would have mobile panels on them when it was in use.  The panels enabled the mill to catch the best wind. It is from the early 19th century. Meagan and Emily make an appearance.

Savannah in a cutout!   I think she's being attacked by a goose...or....something...

More crazy carved wood.  This is a gate to...a house?  There wasn't a sign by this, so I'm not sure what it's for, but it's probably from the Oltenia region.  Anyway, it's neat.

Close up of the carving.

This is a typical 20th century home from the Şuici village in the Muntenia region. 

It is split into two to accommodate guests.  

Or when your kid doesn't leave/moves back in after s/he can't find a job.

This is the kitchen from the Şuici house.  

You are not imagining it, that table and those stools are very close to the ground.

This charming house and barn are from the village of Drăguş which is near Braşov, where we were yesterday.  That makes it from Transylvania.  This house is from the 19th century and is typical of the heavy agricultural area from which it comes.  This can be noted by the fact that the barn is bigger than the house.  The barn contains cereal and tool storage, as well as stalls for cattle.

I didn't have a placard for this one either, but there's clearly some sort of cool carriage in there.  So...yeah....moving along.

This is a church from Dragomireşti village which is also in Transylvania.  It was built in 1722.

The cross was beside the church.  I don't know anything about it, but I thought it was interesting. 

There's me on the steps of the Dragomireşti church.  This concludes the Village Museum portion of our adventure.  It is also the conclusion to our Romanian adventure.   The photo below (courtesy of Finesse - featuring Finesse and Brittany) is of the Palace of Parliament.  I did not make it over to view/tour the building, but we drove past it on our way out to the airport.   It is MASSIVE. It is the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. It is also the most expensive and the heaviest building. Now you know.

Mulțumesc România! 

 I had a wonderful time. I hope y'all enjoyed the photos.