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qSorry! They WILL come! The text provides necessary "scaffolding", and I needed to get that in place before I start adorning it. The photos take a lot of time to prepare, too, in many cases. Sorry! Patience!
My usual airport taxi picked up at my home at a civilized 7:30 am. Easy journey, Finished with immigration and bag claim by 13:25 local, an hour ahead of the UK. Took some well spent time at airport to "case joint" in respect of my plans for Sunday, sort out best answer for public transport access while in Amsterdam. (There was a "all you want" ticket which was inexpensive, and suited my wants well.) The provisions for public transport were excellent. Very tasty snack at patisserie en route to hotel. Even with time taken in planning, snacking, buying a concert ticket (see below) I was at my hotel by 3:40 in the afternoon.
My room in Amsterdam was definately "economy". Clean, adequate, but below grade and small... so I can pat my back on being thrifty, and I got lucky in that I didn't choose a hotel that was inexpensive for the wrong reasons! AND the location was good: A quiet side street, but convenient to what I wanted to do, and transit lines. Ta da! A good start!
Took a little time to "settle in", and then, with a concert to look forward to (see next), went out and found a bite to eat.
En route to hotel had passed the Amsterdam Concertgebhouw. Ironic, really: This trip happened when it did because Billy Elliot has been playing in The Hague, but that production is coming to an end. My support of Billy started by chance. I'd had a tedious day in London interviewing people, looking for a new accountant. En route to go home, I passed a theatre, just as, en route to Billy, The Hague, I passed the Concertgebhouw. The conversation in both cases... "Is there a show tonight? When? Do you have tickets?". Answers: "Yes/ Suitable Time/ Yes"... so I went to a superb concert (Two pieces of Bach, one of Brahms) in a beautiful, world famous concert hall, on the first night of my trip, totally unplanned!
Concert began 8:15. Was very agreeable. A nice end to The First Day.
It is easy to forget that the Netherlands was once a major world power, had a vast empire. And with such a history usually comes a fabulous museum full of treasures.
"Up and out" easily in the morning, in good time for my "timed entry" to the museum. Grabbed a nice croissant and local best shot at tea en route; quite adequate for wants... had planned a "big" lunch to break up the day at the museum.
Detail from "Landscape With Two Oaks, Jan van Goyen, oil on canvas, 1641. Overall, the painting is perhaps 90cm wide, and these figures about 7cm high... a very small detail. (Make this window 32cm wide, and the figures will be about the size that they are in real life.)
The last time I was in Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum was in the midst of a MANY (10?) year complete overhaul. There was one room to visit, with "the best of" all jammed together. Marvelous objects. Not the ideal environment. So, I had long wanted to return to Amsterdam, to see the Rijksmuseum.
I knew that the museum was a full day's "work"... to scratch the surface, and had done my trip planning on that basis. I also knew that my brain would seize up, and indulged myself with a very good lunch in a fancy restaurant attached to the museum in the middle of the day. (The image shows just one of several courses.)
I was rather clever, if I do say so myself! I'd even "cased" elements of "the joint", to be sure all would go smoothly.
(Photo from web, and I went to daytime matinee... but you get the idea!)
Amsterdam is north of Schipol, and Schipol is north of The Hague.
I was seeing the 14:00 matinee of Billy on Sunday, having slept in Amsterdam on Saturday/ Sunday night.
Sunday morning: Easily out door at 8:20... the new time, the clock's having gone back overnight.
Easy public transport journey to Schipol. Left most of my bags and baggage in the 24 hours lockers provided there. (The existance of which I'd checked on Friday.)
The beast... griffon?... was part of a big fountain in the courtyard of the Binnenhof, the former palace now the seat of the government of the Netherlands. It has numerous claims to fame... I commend the Wikipedia article on the Binnenhof to you. On a quiet Sunday morning, it was a pleasant place to stroll. No barricades or obtrusive "security".
Onward, still easy public transport, to The Hague. A bit of enjoyable sight-seeing and a nice lunch. (Weather was good for the entire trip... well... good were I was.) Not a drop of rain. Many days cloudy, but no rain, and easy to deal with temperatures.)
The theatre where Billy was being performed was to the east of central Haag, and I confess: I cheated and used a taxi for that leg. About a 15 minute journey. No big deal.
Kids had fun trying to do "the Billy leap"... you can see it in the poster behind them... in front of the big letters outside the theatre. Some were pretty good at it! (Similar letters spell out "Amsterdam" in front of the Rijksmuseum, and are good for photos... and for clambering over. Maybe the Netherlands has limits on the misery the lawyers and clipboard wielders may inflict.)
Billy was.... (I stopped there, 'cause I want to try to say a bit about Prague and Berlin before Christmas). Billy was NOT the WHOLE reason for the trip... but I enjoyed the show enough that it could have been the whole trip's justification.
Now, cunning Baldrick had a hotel room at the ariport for Sunday/ Monday night. (Hence having to take my bags with me from Amsterday, Sunday morning.)
Now thoroughly trusting of the public transport in the Netherlands, I accepted fate's hint, on my (bus) journey back to the heart of The Hague, when there was a stop right outside of the restaurant where I'd had the nice lunch. Had a nice dinner, then an easy journey to my airport hotel room, to bed at a sensible hour after a splendid day. (Arrived hotel 21:55)
Which brings us to the end of the Amsterdam/ The Hague part of the story!
The Billy performance will, in due course, get its own page. But, before I misplace it, here is the end of my web session buying my ticket.
Now... at first I reconciled myself to the fact that a theatre putting on a musical in Dutch might reasonable skip providing an English version of its booking page. I do concede that maybe not a lot of non-Dutch speakers purchased tickets.
But then the Deutsche Oper website got me thinking. I bought a ticket there, in English, for "Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg"... which was performed in German. (It did turn out to be the Tannhäuser I had in mind, thankfully. (Wikipedia was helpful both in putting my mind at rest in that point, and giving me half a chance of half understanding the "plot" of the story... such as it was! I did enjoy the evening, but I'm not sure that Wagner will quite replace Billy when the latter... sniff... closes... as one day it must, history warns me. I am in semi-mourning as I write this, as the splendid Dutch production has only a handful of performances left, and indeed, baring a twisted ankle, some of the kids know they are "done"... Waaa.... But London is going strong still, hurrah!!!!!!!
Woulda, coulda, shoulda... I saw a poster for a new museum, near the zoo: Micropia... looked good... maybe next time! (And if you are ever in Amsterdam, do visit the Ann Frank house (Very well "done". All "Disney" eschewed), and get a tour of one of the diamond houses with mini course in diamond grading. Did these on an previous visit to Amsterdam, thanks to an excellent tour director.)
Next was the Czech Republic: Prague.
Or, to return to the main index, you can probably just close this tab (or window)... if you came here from my Netherlands/ Czech Republic/ Germany trip's main index page. If not, just click on that link.
I have done a "menu" for you of links to reports with photos on trips to other destinations. (It will open in a new window or tab.)
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