Amsterdam – Art, Architecture, History & Cheese

We spent 6 nights in Amsterdam – once again to meet up with friends. After a week of 85+ degree weather in San Sebastian, we found it ironic that it was 99 degrees when we landed in Amsterdam. Thankfully, that didn’t last long and the remainder of our trip ranged from cool and rainy to reasonably warm and sunny.

There are 3 “can’t miss” sights in Amsterdam and we hit them all. First, the Rijksmuseum, where you can see works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, plus so much more. The museum does a terrific job of marrying the history of the Netherlands with the art and other artifacts. They even have a small section of Asian art.

This picture is actually of two things: in the front, a statue of Buddah; behind two 14th century Japanese temple-guardian statues. These statues are placed at a temple entrance to ward off evil, but also to convey knowledge to those who enter the temple. We thought they were very cool.

In addition, the gardens of the Rijksmuseum have a fun fountain that turns on and off at random. You can walk in the fountain, you simply must time your entrance and exit well.

The second can't miss sight in Amsterdam is the Van Gogh Museum, which has a good-sized collection but was so crowded that we didn’t feel we could enjoy the art, especially because many of Van Gogh’s works are not very large. In our opinion, the museum could be designed better to create a better flow.

Finally, the Anne Frank House, which is designed well and, despite the crowds, highly effective at educating the public about a tragic story. It is compelling to be in the same place that the Frank family spent 2 years hidden away.

In addition to these well-known sites, we really enjoyed a morning canal cruise, learning about how the houses along the canals are intentionally slanted outward to allow for ease in hoisting goods to the top floors. Large furniture is still brought in in the same way exotic imported spices were in the 17^th Century. The architecture is beautiful, and the entire central canal district is a UNESCO heritage site. Each house is more charming than the next.

You’ll notice that some of the buildings in the second photo appear to be “dancing” – over the years, these have shifted on their pilings due to poor maintenance. But they have been reinforced, if not realigned.

While it was a grey morning, at least our canal cruise was dry.

Unlike for these people who we saw while avoiding the rain the day before our cruise:

Of course, we enjoyed the local cuisine, including the cheese. The cheese shops are ubiquitous and full of lots of different flavors of cheeses:

We had a cheese and wine lunch at Fromagerie Abraham Kef, which was fabulous and brought back memories of our favorite fromagerie in Paris, which unfortunately closed due to the impact of Covid.

The local sweet that we did not really try (other than a packaged version) was stroopwafels (syrup waffles), which the Dutch eat all the time. Stroopwafels are similar in concept to an Oreo, but instead of cookies with icing in the middle, they are waffles with a syrup filler. Watching them being made was mesmerizing and the smell was intoxicating.

We would highly recommend Amsterdam. It is a great contrast with Paris – a totally different feel, but also, surprisingly to us, more expensive. Every museum we visited charged more than the Louvre, which seemed a bit out of line. Nonetheless, we would definitely return.

More Dutch experiences to come,

Shana & Jeff

Breakfast in Amsterdam, Lunch in Paris, Dinner in San Sebastian

Thanks to the Europoean train system, the title of this post describes our July 25 return trip from Amsterdam (much more about our trip to come).

We began our day with an early (6:30 am) breakfast at our hotel in Amsterdam, after which we grabbed a metro to the Central Train Station. Public transportation in Amsterdam is easy to navigate, but it is a bit expensive, and has a somewhat odd payment system that requires tapping in and out either at the entrance and exit of a metro station, or on a tram/bus. Nonetheless, we were able to use the system to get around the city and to travel to Delft.

Our train from Amsterdam to Paris left on time (8:15 am) and seemed to be going fine, although the wifi was slower than we are used to on the French TGV. On arriving in Brussels, we experienced a 30-minute delay, and also had to deal with a large number of passengers who appeared to have boarded the train without tickets. The train officials did a poor job of communicating, but this delay put us into Paris at around 12:05 pm instead of 11:35 am.

Fortunately, we know Paris very well, and were able to quickly exit the train and make our way to the Gare du Nord metro stop since our train to Hendaye would be leaving as usual from Gare Montparnasse in the south of the city. A relatively quick 18-minute ride later, we were at Montparnasse and were able to find a nearby bistro for an excellent lunch, including wine (of course).

After lunch, we were in well-trodden territory: boarding our 2:06 train to Hendaye, storing our luggage and settling in for the 4 hour, 45 minute ride. We were surprised by an unusual stop at another Paris station, but then it was the direct, high-speed trip to Bourdeax; followed by the slow, meandering trip through the south of the country to the Spanish boarder. Fortunately, we arrived on time at 6:52, which allowed us to catch the 7:03 Topo train to San Sebastian (our third local metro system of the day) and make it home before 8 pm, just in time for a casual dinner.

It was a long day of travel, but it still beats flying in my opinion.

Hasta luego,

Jeff and Shana

Time Flies

Today, July 23, is the fifth anniversary of our arrival in Spain! Yes, we have come a long way from our arrival in Madrid with nothing more than what you see in this photo:

Also, and this seems a bit crazy in retrospect, when we arrived, we only had a place to stay for seven nights: two in Madrid and five more in San Sebastian. Somehow, in just over a week, despite barely speaking Spanish, we managed to find a place to live both for the month of August, and a permanent place starting September 1 (where we continue to live).

We are also currently celebrating that the Spanish government approved our application for permanent residency, so we are no longer living on a temporary visa that needs renewal from time to time. We know we will be able to remain here as long as we want.

Now, we are planning our "big trip" that will see us give up our apartment and travel for five months (October through February) before returning to San Sebastian. We'll see how much stuff we've accumulated since arriving with those 5 duffle bags, 2 carry-on bags and 2 backpacks. Much more about that to come.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana 

Visiting Madrid During the NATO Police State

From Barcelona we headed to Madrid to meet dear friends. We enjoyed playing “tour guide” for David Wise and Judy Krinitz, the rabbi who married us 26 years ago and his wife. They were on their way to Israel and did a stopover in Madrid to meet up. Alas, none of us knew at the time we planned our visit that the NATO summit would be taking place in Madrid at the same time.

We made the most of it by making a few adjustments to the plan. David and Judy didn’t get to visit the Royal Palace because it was being used for “official purposes,” but we did sneak in a visit to the Prado the day they arrived before it was closed for two full days for a NATO event. While they didn’t get the same tour of the Prado as the Biden family did, we did our best to show them the highlights in their jet lagged state.

Madrid turned into a literal police state overnight, with a huge deployment of law enforcement personnel. Locals were encouraged to work from home, stay off the roads, and use public transportation. There must have been staff from an official delegation at David and Judy’s hotel because they set up a metal detector and had armed guards in the lobby. You don’t normally see guns in Spain – many police don’t even carry them – it was a bit of a shock to the system.

Our adventures included Madrid classics, such as Retiro Park, a flamenco show, and the famous bar on Plaza Mayor covered with bullfighting paraphernalia. Of course, we had to get a photo in front of one of Madrid’s Tim Horton’s as David is Canadian. (Yes, there’s more than one!)

We did a day trip to Toledo, which was a lot easier than our trip in 2007 when we didn’t speak much Spanish. The entire city is a UNESCO heritage site and has some of the best-preserved Jewish sites in Spain. Toledo’s streets are super narrow and not built for car traffic, so we had to step into doorways several times as cars passed us, which we found amusing enough for a silly selfie squeezed into the limited space available.

The city gates and train station are terrific examples of how classically beautiful Toledo is:

After David and Judy left, we had one more day, and based on an article in The Guardian we went to see a photography exhibit at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando featuring photos by two women photographers taken during the Spanish Civil War. The history of how the photos were smuggled out of Spain and found decades later in Amsterdam was more interesting than the photos themselves, but we learned a lot about the anarchist movement in Spain during the mid-1930s. There was also a viola-piano concert that day featuring the debut of new compositions. Most of the composers were there to hear the performance, which was very special.

We had our fill of art, history, and music while in Madrid. We then came home for 18 nights – the longest stint in our place since April – but we’re headed to Amsterdam soon, to meet friends, of course.

Hasta luego,

Shana and Jeff

Cava Tasting

Given that our friend David is as much a fan of wine as we are (maybe more), of course we had to do some sort of wine tour from Barcelona. We chose a tour that actually allowed us to combine tasting cava (Spanish sparkling wine) and regular wine. After about an hour bus ride we arrived at Pere Ventura.

The name "cava" is derived from the word for wine cellar or caves used to age the wine. Cava is produced in the same way that champagne is, so we did not learn a great deal on the tour that we didn't already know, but the Pere Ventura caves were impressive, holding around 3 million bottles, piled floor to ceiling throughout. 

After the tour, of course there was a tasting, which came with small bites of food for each cava (although it paled by comparison to the food offerings at our wine tastings in Sicily). Pere Ventura produces several levels of cava and is a slick operation. There were terrific explanations of the different levels of cava and how each would match with a different food or meal.

After the cava tour and tasting, we drove a few minutes to the Can Bas cellars, which are owned by Pere Ventura for the second part of the tour. There, we rode 4-wheel-drive vehicles to get a brief tour of the (extensive) vineyards. Given the sun and heat, it was nice that  the winery even provided us with hats. It was a friendly and fun group -- with Americans, Brazilians, and even a couple from Estonia.

As you can see, the vineyards are lovely and it was interesting learning about the different plots and how the age of the vines impacts the wines they can make from those grapes.

After our safari (hah!) we did a tour of the Can Bas winery, the most interesting part of which was learning that the winery ages some of its wines in clay amforas, a vessel used in Greek and Roman times to store and transport wine.

The wine aged in the amforas is mostly used to blend with wine aged in oak barrels (like normal), but they do have a wine that is entirely aged in amforas. Unfortunately, that wine is basically impossible to obtain because there is so little of it, so we did not get to try it.

The tasting of the Can Bas wines was in a lovely room, but we all agreed that the wines were not as good as the cavas of Pere Ventura.

Overall, it was a very nice wine-tasting tour, and the true sign of success was that a number of our compatriots slept during the hour-or-so ride back to Barcelona (wish we had gotten a picture). We spent the time talking to an American couple, of which the wife was born in the Azores. The Azores are islands in the middle of the Atlantic that belong to Portugal. They were kind of on our list of places to visit, but after talking to her, they moved way up. Sounds like a really beautiful and relaxing place.

Hasta pronto,

Jeff and Shana

New Adventures in Barcelona

We hadn’t been to Barcelona since NYE 2019, so when our friend and former neighbor David Kamm suggested it as a place to meet up during his 40-day European sojourn, we were game.

We hopped on a very early morning train, which was not an ideal way to spend my birthday. As much as we like to travel by train, we’ve decided that Spanish trains could use some improvement. First, unlike the French trains, most of them lack wi-fi. Second, although Spaniards have a reputation for being noisy, we normally don’t find this to be true or bothersome, except for on trains. The Spaniards don’t seem to understand that the train is not your living room or office, so they are constantly talking on the phone or using their “outside” voices. It makes us crazy.

We stayed in a new part of town for us, away from the center, and found Barcelona’s metro, bus and tram system to be convenient and easy to use. But we still walked a ton. We explored the Gothic quarter on a free tour, where we heard some fascinating mythical tales about the various gargoyles on the cathedral. Can you spot the unicorn and the elephant?

We went back to the Miro Foundation to see a special exhibit about Joan’s close connection to his family. Having recently gone through our storage facility and disposed of so many mementos, it was fascinating to see Miro's wedding place card/menu with handwritten notes by the bride and groom ,together with their wedding photo. If you’re a famous artist, these things get displayed in a museum in a special exhibit. If you’re a normal person, eventually they get thrown away. (Actually, we weren’t that ruthless, we still have various wedding memorabilia!)

Miro had a fondness for setting aside works for his wife, daughter, and grandchildren. Unlike Picasso, he signed the back of his paintings and would then add a notation for the family member. To show this practice, the museum had the works set into special frames away from the wall.

The Constellation series, which Miro did as WWII broke out, was apparently a turning point in his career. This piece, which Joan gave to his wife Pilar, is the only one of the series that remains in Europe.

These pieces were done much later, in 1976, and set aside for specific grandchildren.

As always, the views from the Montjuic area are fabulous.

We spent a few hours at the Maritime Museum, which is located where the royal shipyards existed for centuries. There is a full-size replica of the Royal Galley from the battle of Lepanto in 1571, along with many other historical items, and others that are just entertaining.

Barcelona never disappoints. We enjoyed several good meals and bottles of wine with David.

More on the wine in the next post.

Hasta pronto,

Shana & Jeff