Grand and Glorious Curmudgeon

We had to be down at the lobby to catch a shuttle to the airport at 5:30am. The hotel prepared a bagged breakfast with a continental breakfast for us to take to the airport. At the Schiphol Airport there was no lines at 5:45am and we journeyed to the Lufthansa desk to check in. At that hour of the morning there was only one person working the desk, so we waited in line for about 40 minutes to get checked in and my luggage checked through to Denver for customs.

We got to the gate with time to spare and soon loaded the A320 (like a 727) for the 45-minute flight to Frankfurt. They did manage to serve a breakfast on the flight, granola, yogurt, a breakfast bar and an apple. Then we arrived a Frankfurt.

Frankfurt was again terrible, 1-star, would not recommend. Again, we got caught up in their failing fingerprint, facial recognition passport control. It still wasn’t working. We were again in a long line 9f people waiting to go through passport control. They took a group of us back through the airport to get in another line for passport control, and then a gentleman took a group of us back to the original line. We only had a 2-hour layover this time, so we were somewhat stressed.

We finally got up near the front of the line, and I saw what the problem was. Whether it was one person, or a family group. When they got to the window and handed over their passports, they had to wait while the system processed through the non-existent fingerprint scan, the lights for the photo facial scan went on and off, and after a few minutes the system timed out, and the police could stamp the passports. One person took 3-4 minutes, a family group of 6, took 15-20 minutes. We were going to gate Z-18, so after we got through passport control, we hustled up some stairs and finally arrived at gate Z-18 with about 10 minutes to spare.

After taking some deep invigorating breaths we waited while they boarded the elderly, the families with small children, active duty, etc., etc. We were in boarding group 1, so after about 10 minutes we “boarded”. What boarding meant was that we went down two flights of stairs to the tarmac level and exited doors leading to busses. We were just about the last to board the busses, and we pulled out and drove halfway back to Amsterdam (it seemed) and pulled up next to the aircraft.

Just like our trip in, the United aircraft was standing on the tarmac. There we sat for 15-20 minutes while the ground crew scurried around prepping the aircraft. After a while they opened the doors, and since I was in the doorway, I stepped down and got immediately yelled at by the security guys to get back on the bus.

We stood there another 10 minutes or so, but at least the doors were open for some ventilation. The security guys then gestured for us to come down and enter the plane. I think I was the second guy up the steps and stepped into the first-class cabin. I found my seat and settled in.

After about another 45 minutes or so, be finally closed up and began to taxi. We eventually took off and began to climb out.

On the airline they had Aperol Spritz in a bottle. Just as satisfying. It was a long 10-hour flight, I got a satisfying lunch (beef short ribs, potatoes, and an ice cream sundae for dessert; a nap; and got to watch Wicked: For Good. But of course, traveling Westbound, we gained 8 hours for traveling 10.5 hours so we landed shortly after noon.

We cleared customs by going upstairs (to avoid mingling with domestic passengers) and trekking a long way back to the international arrivals area. It was a long hike, but it strung us out, so we encountered customs officials a few at a time. They processed us through their photo-id system, and we arrived a baggage collection point. After 15 or so minutes the bags started coming out of the carousel. We eventually got my bag and headed out to the exit area, got asked a perfunctory “Anything to declare?” and were released into the concourse. I decided not to recheck my bag since the flight to Casper will let you gate-check the bag, so we hustled down to the train to go to concourse B. We got to the United Club (free for international travel) where I had an hour to kill before mu flight.

With about a half hour before takeoff, I wandered down to B-62, down at the small gates at the end of the terminal. I sat down and boarded the flight and relaxed on board. We had a maintenance issue with a big orange light on the dash that was illuminated. After trying for 15 or 20 minutes the maintenance guy decided to shut down the plane completely and restart it. (The old shut down and restart it ploy.) We took off about a half hour late, but made up most of the time on the flight.

Mike and Jan met me at the gate and off we went. We stopped for a quick meal at the Smokehouse. I only had a cup of green chili, since I was working on my third or fourth meal of the day. With that, we drove home in the early afternoon. I unpacked, separated out my dirty clothes, almost all of them except for a couple of shorts and t-shirts. I managed to stay awake until about 7:30 pm and then I crashed. After a couple of brief head breaks, I finally failed open about 5:30 am after 10 hours. I got up made some coffee & Kahula and started on yesterday’s blog. Later this morning (Sunday) I started a big load of laundry and finished off this page of the blog.

I am so glad I blogged daily, so I can go back are review each day, since my memory tends to bleed them together. Big old churches that run from the 10th through the 16th century, Roman ruins from the 1st through the 5th centuries, damage from WWII bombings that range from virtually nothing to complete restoration of ruins.

As a reminder, Kate’s Google album of all 871 pictures is available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7

The Rijks Museum, while housing great works, is a work of art itself. The stained glass illustrating great Dutch artists, and paintings in the vaults and landings themselves are works of art.

The audio accompaniment talks about the cheeses, the fruits including the apple peel sliding off the table and the silver plate balanced on the edge of the table. We did the highlights tour which described about 5% of the collection. There is a Rijks Museum app in the app store on the iPhone App Store. under Rijksmuseum.

There was accompanying text for each work, giving background and author. Note the number at the bottom which allows you to find the individual work in the Rijks Museum app.

Rembrandt was apparently the go-to guy for a group portrait of your organization to hang in your clubhouse.

In one room they had ship paintings, with a fully rigged model that was built by the shipwrights who built the original ship. This was from the high point of the Dutch power when Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the local Indian population for 60 guilders of trade goods founding New Amsterdam.

A couple of Rubenesque nudes.

This is a painting of the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo by Pieneman. It is the largest picture in the Rijks Museum.

After the Museum tour we grabbed a light lunch at the cafe just outside. You can see the Rijks Museum out the windows behind Kate. I was continuing my attraction to Aperol Spritz.

Being old hands at the tram system, we walked out the back of the Rijks Museum and across one bridge to catch the Number 1 tram a couple of stops to the cross street, walked a block up to the stop to catch the Number 4 train three stops and walked 3 or 4 blocks back to the hotel.

I took a brief nap and then it was time to pack. We organized our baggage and set the alram for about 4:40am to meet downstairs at 5:30am.

Today we woke up and started museum day. We got up and had a wonderful breakfast (pre-paid as part of the package), As we were now old hands at riding the trams, we rode the number 12 across town to the Van Gogh Museum. Kate had arranged a tour at 9:30am, but of course we arrived early at 8:30am or so.

While we waited a line started forming so Kate went up to the guy organizing it to check.

It turns out we needed to go to the other building for the group (of 2) tours. We went around front to the other building and eventually got in. Our tour guide met us and our group, and we started the guided tour.

This was near the middle of the 10-year career of Vincent Van Gogh, and he was practicing to be a portrait painter and did a large number of self-portraits. The other side of the picture was from an early part of his career.

This was typical Dutch Art at the time, dark (reflecting the gloomy weather) and a still life. Vincent’s younger brother Theo was the one who got him into painting, working as an art dealer in Paris. It was he who encouraged and supported him through his short tragic life.

Vincent finished up his Dutch paintings with “The Potato Eaters”, a poor family next door that grew and could only afford to eat potatoes. Notice the misshapen features that made the people resemble the subject. Vincent was very proud of this, much later remarking it was his favorite painting, but when he sent it to Theo to sell, Theo said you have to come to France where they are doing things with colors and pointillism and all kinds of stuff.

Vincet moved to Paris and although he still didn’t sell, he began to do colors. He didn’t have the patience for pointillism; he adapted a version by painting with short strokes. Look at the first picture again and notice the short strokes that defined the pictures.

In the meantime, his brother Theo got married and had a son that they named Vincent after his uncle. This cheered him up immensely, although his mood was often dark. He painted “Almond Blossoms” for his nephew.

Notice that it was painted from the view of a child, lying on the ground looking up.

We also stopped by the Yellow Exhibit in the adjoining display space so Kate could see her favorite “Sunflowers”.

He continued to descend into mental illness and while in the south of France with Paul Gauguin and he eventually sliced off an ear.

After checking in and out of asylums, he entered a period of frenetic activity and in the last 10 weeks of his life he painted over 70 paintings. He then shot himself in the chest with a revolver, but the shot was deflected by a rib and missed all of his vital organs. Theo rushed to his side the next day and they talked before Vincent died following day.

Unfortunately, his brother Theo died the following year leaving his wife and child with over 800 works of dubious value. But she was a canny businesswoman and she, and later her son Vincent, began to publicize and sell his paintings. It was she who established Vincent Van Gogh as a famous artist.

The real hero of the story of Vincent Van Gogh is Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger.

Her son, named Vincent after his uncle, continued the process of promoting and selling Van Gogh’s works. On 2 June 1973 Vincent Van Gogh attended the opening and passed ownership of all remaining paintings to the museum which has the most paintings remaining.

My favorite painting was long ago (1941) sold to MOMA in New York is “Starry Night“.

It was about 11:15am when we finished up with Van Gogh and decided to walk over to the adjacent (kind of) Rijks Museum. Last night Kate had gotten two admittances for 12:00 noon (for 25 Euros apiece).

But I will continue this in another post since this is getting long. Stay tuned.

We left Cologne about 10:15pm and turned back downriver. We had a view of the Cathedral at night. See Kate’s pictures at https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7 for the view. We sailed downriver and awaked at dawn (about 7:00am) having left the Rhien and entered the Waal river. In the Netherlands we finally got to see Genuine Dutch Windmills.

Just kidding.

This area is set up to show visitors how the windmills work’ The area is nominally about 6 feet below sea level. There were once nearly 6,000 windmills in the Netherlands. Most of the work is now done by pumps. The area we were in was known as Kinderdijk, or Child’s dike.

It was named after the child found after a flood (not an uncommon occurrence) with the cat balancing the cradle. Knowing cats, I am sure the cat was expecting if the water didn’t go down then it had dinner for the rest of the week.

The first floor had the kitchen, dining room and parent’s bedroom. It also had the pump room and the doors in and out.

The third floor had space for storage and the fourth floor had running gear for the windmill. The Fourth floor was on rollers and could be rotated around to keep the windmill facing the wind.

The large green and white wheel was how the keeper could rotate the windmill, usually several times a day.

After the tour, including a visit to a pumping station, we boarded the tender ferry for the ride back upriver to the ship. Our disembarkation is scheduled at 8:00am tomorrow morning. We will go to the hotel to meet our tour guide for the walking tour of Amsterdam.

I left you last time looking at the outside of the nave of the transept. As promised here is the inside view:

It is definitely modern, almost a pixelated version of traditional stained glass. It replaced the windows destroyed by the bombings.

More traditional stained glass that was stored in the basement during the war. There were a number of theories of how the Cathedral survived the bombings, primarily that the ornate buttresses and open windows provided a baffling effect that mitigated the effects of the blast. Also, the deep foundations (reputedly as deep as the towers were tall) and hard and soft stone foundations allowed the building to sway slightly. Of course, the residence’s beliefs are that God love’s us and protected the Cathedral.

Coming out of the Treasury side room was a low side nave with Zacharias painted on the arch. Little ornate touches amongst the grandeur of the Cathedral.

One of the treasures of the Cathedral was the golden casket with the remains of the Magi. They were supposedly discovered by Emperess Helena, Constantine’s mother (whose adherence to archeologic evidence is suspect).

The floors are incredibly ornate throughout the Cathedral.

If you squint all the way up past the altar you can see the Magi’s golden casket. Also, if you look up and to the center you can see the Organ pipes tucked into the wall.

A close-up view of the organ to give you a sense of the scale of the Cathedral. If you want more pictures of the Cathedral, please go to Kate’s website at https://photos.app.goo.gl/SFQh7Ypfb1WZgcDx7

After the Cathedral we took a small “train” through town that dropped us off at the Chocolate Factory..

If you want a detailed look at the insides, see Kate’s website above. I will leave you with a look at the gift shop.

From the Chocolate Factory, it was just a short walk up the river side to the ships. This is when Kate walked over the bridge to get the shots that opened the Cologne page. This is our last stop in Germany, next stop is the Netherlands.