LIfe in Holland: August 2008 Archives
On Sunday we took a bike ride to Zeist. This is Slot Zeist:
We couldn't go on the guided tour of the Slot itself, being just 5c short of the amount we needed to get in, but we went instead into an exhibition of the work of Bernadien Sternheim being hosted by ING Bank. It was awesome! The exhibition hosted not only the work of Bernadien but also of some of her contemporaries and people who influenced her, and while we were there a docent came and gave a guided tour giving us the background on some of the pieces. I took two surreptitious photos, which I'm glad I did as I couldn' t find any of her work online.
This piece by Bernadien is entitled 'Getekend' which means 'Drawn'. Note the double meaning. I like the perfectionism in the way she paints.
This is a piece by Kik Zeiler, a contemporary, entitled 'Vaste Klanten' (Regulars). I love the pun in this.
I was captivated by her work although the pieces after she lost her husband are less bold and more spiritual.
Nearly forgot to mention I used my Sunday walks book to help guide us in where to go and there was a recommendation for coffee and cake in the Espresso Bar at Figi. Put shortly - the cake was a bit apathetic and the staff were worse. I asked the waitress what cakes she had and was told to go look in the cabinet! Then she answered me repeatedly in English when addressed in Dutch (which annoys me anyway!) So go to the Slot, but avoid Figi.
It was a nice day, a great bike ride, (and my legs still hurt now on Tuesday!) and a fantastic new artistic discovery.
Last night we went to the Rijksmuseum and just missed out on their picnic in the garden. You can buy a combi ticket for entry to the museum and a picnic basket but you have to ring ahead and reserve the basket. The music was fantastic but we were late so opted to go into the museum instead of sitting in the garden and listening. The next picnic in the garden is next week Friday, but next Friday I'll be in Heidelberg.
Another garden event is the Opera in the Garden at the Museum van Loon. My colleague was going on Thursday night when the weather was glorious. It is apparently sold out for tonight and tomorrow night, but what a lovely concept. The opera was Il Segreto di Susanna.
Earlier this week we went to Sal Gorda, a tapas bar in Amsterdam Zuid. It was good enough, but nowhere near fantastic. The food that was fresh was great but sadly, out of a choice of about 12 dishes only three were freshly made. The olives were nice, so was the bread, but the chicken wings in aioli were appalling and the meatballs in tomato sauce flavourless. The patatas bravas were good, but the sauce was far from spicy. The service was ok, made better by a very bouncy 20 year old and it was lovely sitting outside. I think if they paid more attention to not letting the food dry out before serving it they'd be much more successful.
Not in the evening, but also out - I went with the ex and kids to see Wall-E, which surprisingly has such glowing reviews all over the place. I found it to be long, and long-windedly moralistic. I enjoyed the message in an Inconvenient Truth. I suppose I'm just sick of kids' movies having to have a moral - can't they just be entertaining? Presto, the short film that's coupled with Wall-E was infinitely more entertaining.
I did a little motivational exercise recently where you make a 'tree' with the centre as what you want to achieve, like 'recapture happy moments' then with 'branches' off it for 'past', 'present', 'future considered' and 'future not considered'. I had forgotten how happy lying on the grass in the park made me feel, so I spent Thursday evening lying on the grass in the park. Perfect.
Making chilli beans on ciabatta for dinner. Watch this space.
