Mommy-Daughter Date

It was an afternoon with the Dutch Masters at the Rijks.

Abby and I stole away for an afternoon to visit one of my favorite haunts in Amsterdam (if you can call a world class museum one's haunt).  We stopped to discuss important works and sketch them.  And, of course, to eat Dutch apple pie following all of our deep thoughts.

Abby's still life of one the most recognized paintings at the Rijks is missing . . . and after just having read The Goldfinch I'm hyper attuned to the idea of missing "masterpieces."  However, I'm so excited to post her work when it turns up.  And it will turn up.

Room 2.6.

Abby couldn't wait to show me Hendrick Avercamp's Winter Landscape, which apparently she had discussed at school, for indeed, she taught me a thing or two.  The painting captures people out having fun on a frozen river or canal near a village in 17th-century Holland.  You may recall that the 17th-century is the Dutch Golden Age of painting.  If you ever make it to Amsterdam, it is worth taking a 1/2 day and touring the second floor of the Rijks where all of the 17th-century art is on display.

 Here are some of the fun details she pointed out, moving from left to right:

1. In the bottom left corner a dog feeds on the carcass of a horse that frozen to death.
2. If you remain on the left side of painting, but move slightly toward top, you can make out an upended boat.  The old boat has been converted into an outhouse, and if look even closer you can see someones buttocks while they take care of business.  Abby thinks this is a hoot.  Laughed herself silly.  Later I learned that there's another man near the tree who is also answering nature's call.
3. In this same area, there is man in the red shirt (in front of the building), who is dipping a bucket through a hole in the ice to gather water.  Abby didn't know why he was getting water, but we investigated and learned that the building behind him has sign that says "Half Moon Brewery," and that the man is drawing water to brew beer.
4. Moving to the right of the man in red, toward the center of the painting, there is a man holding what looks like a hockey stick or golf club.  He is playing "Kolven," which is a precursor of golf and super popular in 17th-cenutry Holland.  It was easily played on ice.
5. In the foreground a man is hauling a load of wheat.  Abby couldn't believe he could carry something so heavy while ice skating.  The significance of this man is that Avercamp includes people from all walks of life in his paintings.  There are well dressed ladies and fancy horse drawn sleds, but there also workers and commoners.  
6. Toward the top right, near the orange-ish building, you can spot a man who has fallen through the ice. 

It was so much fun to view this painting through a 6-year old's eyes, and to share a piece of Holland with her.

Here's the inspiration for Abby's missing masterpiece, Balthasar van der Ast's, Still Life with Flowers (1625-1630):

Room 2.6.

2/3 of the Way

8 miles in the rain at Amsterdamsebos. I'm 2/3 of the way to my goal:  the Paris Semi on March 8. 

Vondelpark Loop 2015

And around the horn we go again!  We doubled the fun just like last year by sharing the event with the dear Frtisch Family.

Speaking of Tulips

Last Saturday, we kicked off tulip season in Holland by taking part in the National Tulip Day celebration. 

I hope this is a good sign that I've started things off right, and that this year, I will have same opportunities to tiptoe through the tulips like I did last spring when I joined friends for three unforgettable experiences during the peak bloom. Albeit they were in very different settings, but with one common denominator:  tulips!

DAY ONE:  The girls and I rented bikes and cycled our way around the Bloembollenroute (flower bulb route), the most intimate and dizzying way to see the tulips fields.  This area of Holland is only thirty minutes west of Amsterdam, near the sand dunes that run along the coast.  The sandy soil is perfect for growing tulips.  The bike paths are easy and obviously flat (this is Holland, after all) and very well marked. 

The color explodes throughout a twenty-five mile loop between The Hague and Haarlem, which we were able to bike at a leisurely pace, stopping for a picnic lunch in one of the fields, and swinging by the beach for a sweeping view of the North Sea.  We even made it back to Amsterdam in plenty of time to pick up all our kids from school. 

National Geogrpaphic featured the Bloembollenroute as a "drive of a lifetime."

DAY TWO:  Kuekenhof Gardens is situated smack dab in the middle of the the Bloembollenroute, but it couldn't be more different from farmer's fields I biked through earlier in the week. 

The historic park in Lisse is only open eight weeks a year and gets over 800,000 visitors from around the world.  More than seven million bulbs are planted in countless formal gardens, each year according to a new central theme.  Can't wait for  to celebrate 150 years of Van Gogh . . . this year's theme!

Tulips and cheese, of course.

MIFFY!!!

DAY THREE: This time, we got together with good friends and biked about 40 miles round-trip along the Amstel River to a darling little bulb garden for kids where they painted their own pots and picked the bulbs to fill them.