This is my next door neighbour in Amsterdam...so walked over for a concert. Your ticket includes a drink, coat check and a tram return ticket home...the Hall was packed. The acoustics were perfection. My friend Dale Barltrop from the VSO is here in August. Wish I could be here to enjoy perfection and perfection!
Tried to get to this Museum when it opened In May after 10 years of renovations....stunning and worth the trip to Amsterdam!
Here are the highlights....
THIS is the largest painting ...Waterloo
And of course....
,Designed for The House of Orange
LOVE this Jan Mankes...
A rather interesting chess set for the Nazi era!
And....if you stayed with this...The WombTomb!!!
Standing on the site of the former Seeelinck Conservatory of Music this magnificent Neo-Gothic building was originally built at the end of 19th Century and recently turned into a visually stunning contemporary hotel located in the heart of the Amsterdam museum district with infused historical architecture and modern design by Piero Lissoni.
Soon to open is a sister hotel the Lutetia in Rive Gauche, Paris...If this bar is anywhere close to what is to come...bye bye George V with its attitude!
Service impeccable, and had to have a Dutch treat called "bitter balls". ....fabulous!
Now this is an innovative entrance...yes that would be violins...
As this is a trip that is full of pleasure...I guess I will not complain that this is the FIRST of THREE staircases to my darling apartment next to the Van Gogh Museum..A day with only joy to see these amazing works (from over 800...the collection here is approximately 270).....some of them I had never seen in previous exhibitions.
That would be shhhhhh! In anglaise... One of the best of this city's street murals as done by Jeff Aérosol in 2011 at the Centre Pompidou.
Stunning day here today! Out on my daily discovery walk in this beautiful city when the MOST unexpected thing happened as I reached the Left Bank ......
An elegant elderly Parisian woman collapsed right in front of me and it was clear she was having/had a heart attack. Three young French students and I sprung into action en francais. I started CPR, and they kept people away, called the ambulance who arrived eventually and took over. I was later called by her family who told me again en francais I had probably saved her life. Think I made friends today?
Can not ever remember when I lived next to a monastery...but do now. The Priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs was around in 1060 then well outside the walls of Paris (thus des champs in the fields) and was used as a prison during the French Revolution. Now the Museum of Arts and Crafts Musée Arts et Métiers that few have visited...a find!
Did you ever read The Piano Shop on The Left Bank? One of my favourite books and I would say a must read...For me it is now the Violin Shop on the Right Bank with the perfect neighbour who greets me every day when he looks up from crafting violins and cellos. We decided he would be the Stradivarius of the future. His virgin cello is almost finished but imagine the thrill of a private recital as he played Elgar!
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