Thunderstorms and other news

We have been thwarted by the weather. As I write this the heavy dark clouds are rolling in and the first drops of the day have started. The first stage of our Amsterdam trip was perfect. The last part has seen some wild weather. Wet, windy and cold. Throw in a number of spectacular thunderstorms with streaks of lightning and you get the idea gentle touring was off the cards. We had a few plans to adventure further out of Amsterdam and to try a few walks and bike rides but the horizontal, torrential downpours paid heed to that. 

So what have we done? Well we have enjoyed our wonderful apartment overlooking the Noordermarket. We have met and had some insightful discussions with local Dutch residents-one of the benefits of staying in a more local neighbourhood- and have spent time in some very comfortable cafes, restaurants and bars-that Amsterdam has in abundance. As well as getting out and about when the rain was manageable. And we are compiling a to do list to post here on what we consider essential Amsterdam activities. We again went to the excellent organic market across the street and bought produce for a home cooked dinner and multiple other meals. The berries are sweet and full of flavour. We acquainted one of the sellers with the idea of an apple turnover-he said to us it was a new English word for him.

One of the finds was a Hofje right in the downtown next to a giant Espirit store. A hofje is a Dutch word for a courtyard with almshouses around it. They have existed since the Middle Ages. There are Hofjes spread out all over inner Amsterdam and we have spent time exploring them. This hofje-Begijnhof- dates to the mid 1300’s and was built to house single women doing good deeds who did not want to become nuns. This particular one has had a varied history. Originally catholic it was ceded to the Church of England and now there is a Church of Scotland Chapel. It had become run down by the 1980’s and was rejuvenated and the houses are again rented to single women. It is an oasis in the city. When you enter the gates the sounds of the city disappear. You don’t realize there are as many green spaces in Amsterdam from the street. Many are hidden behind facades or houses. Another we visited is only a few doors up from us-Het van Brienenhofje-the almshouses were originally to house the poor. The buildings surrounding the courtyard housed a brewery until the late 18th century; the courtyard's namesake converted them into almshouses in 1804.We visited the Museum Van Loon. This is a traditional Grand Canal house, complete with formal garden and coachhouse. It was built in 1671 together with the identical twin house on the parcel next to it by the architect Adriaen Dortsman for one of the original founders of the Dutch East India Company. On the top of the façade, four figure sculptures were placed, representing Mars, Minerva, Vulcan, and Ceres, personifications of war, justice, fire, and agriculture – four sources of the owner’s wealth. Interestingly the houses on either side are still used. Some have been converted to apartments or businesses. The spaces in the house are enormous. Double height ceilings, ornate plasterwork and patterned walls. The upkeep on these properties must be prodigious.

We were fortunate to find an arch to shelter under as another deluge struck. Our portable umbrellas were not up to the task.

Another tip from a friend had us looking in the Frozen Fountain-a design store on Prinsengracht. The work is again clever, innovative and technically excellent. Because of the limitations in space the Dutch designers create the most interesting space saving devices. It was a cornucopia of beautiful products. The shop also had the steepest staircase. Furniture, textiles, and home wares.

 

For dinner we wandered up to Rozengracht and went to Long Pura an Indonesian restaurant. One of the specialties of Dutch Indonesian restaurants is rijstaffel-rice table. This is a selection of dishes with rice on a slim warming tray. We had eight dishes along with rice and a cold vegetable salad.

Dutch mayonaisse

The morning was a full kaleidoscope of Amsterdam weather. Dark ominous clouds, following by a thunderstorm, resplendent with the full array of lightning and pouring rain. The previous days have been warm and sunny-perfect for further exploration. We are still astounded by the breadth of entertainment available from our apartment. From the window we can see 3 bar/café/restaurants. On the corner is another bar that even has padded platforms for you to lounge about on. One block away is Haarlemmer Dijk where there are supermarkets and every type of specialty store. A wonderful florist-with a fine selection of glassware. Walking or even better cycling here is superb.

Café Thijssen is a local brown bar. It is in the Jordaan district and is 3 minutes walk away. There are seats inside, outside and in the strip between the roads. We began with an excellent latte. We decided to walk to the Rijksmuseum, which is to the south of the city. We walked along the Prinsengracht canal, the same as where we are absed. This is a long canal. The Prinsengracht, Keizersgracht and Herengracht have all been included as world heritage sites. The Rijksmuseum is in a Neo Gothic 1876 designed building-currently being restored. We are fortunate that as well as the standing exhibition, there is a Degas exhibition of self portraits influenced by Rembrandt. There was also an exhibition by Dick Bruna a Dutch graphic designer and illustrator who used pen, ink and collage for his book designs. The Degas etchings and paintings were beautiful-much more intimate than any other work we have seen of his. The Dutch masters really knew it all about light, composition and form. If you need to understand the use of light, spend a few hours here and you will be better informed. The museum was busy but not intolerably so. The queues can be quite something to get into the major galleries. The Anne Frank House always has block long queues. The highlights of course include The Rembrandt Nightwatch and Vermeer’s The Kitchen Maid. There was some extraordinary cabinetwork on display, and an amazing dollhouse, as well as the Delft ceramics.

For lunch we found a shop a block from the Rijksmuseum which is part bottle shop, part deli, part corner shop. The sandwiches were all made with fresh bread and produce and there was an abundance of different cheeses. The shop had a wall of Australian and New Zealand wines to compliment the wines of Spain, Italy, France and Germany. You could even buy your muesli and fruit here. It is always appreciated how you can find good food everywhere.   

On the way to Vondel Park we found ourselves in the very upmarket retail district on Van Baekerstraat. Here is the Concertgebouw, the Neo Dutch Renaissance concert hall. The buildings in this area alert you to the riches that have passed through Amsterdam. All the major international and luxury brands are located here. And one brilliant cigar store, with the best selection of cigars, cutters, holders and humidors you could imagine.


Vondel Park is something to behold. Built along an English park style in 1865 it is immense. Over 100 species of plants and 120 species of trees. Vondel Park is surrounded by free standing and enormous terrace houses, many with their own access to the waterways. The day was warm and sunny and the park was filled with a coterie of people from Dutch mums and children, cyclists, sunbathers, runners, and of course students lounging and smoking. There are numerous restaurants and cafes inside the park to sit, read and while away an afternoon. The Eye Film Institute is at 3 Vondel Park. They are showing a Jack Nicholson retrospective over a month. The cinema is everything a cinema should be. It also houses the largest collection of films in the Netherlands.

We staggered the long walk back with stops at brown bars and Hofjes to quieten the screaming feet. And a stop at Shirdak. Shirdak was recommended by a friend. The proprietor works collaboratively with Central Asian nomad culture and sells a variety of hand made clothing and design ware on a free trade basis. The pieces on display were quite magical, although I was vetoed from a quite superlative hat purchase.

 

On the others side of the design fence we found Moooi. The Moooi store was a haven of contemporary Dutch design and featured an array of lighting, furniture and design ware.

And last but not least, we found a restaurant called Toscanini, housed in a building that had previously been a coach house a wheelchair manufacturer and a warehouse. It is incredibly popular and we were able to get a booking for 10pm. The restaurant is on Lindengracht that is all of 5 minutes walk from our apartment. The luxury of walking to restaurants and bars is still fresh. The restaurant had an open kitchen and again charming and friendly waiters. We were surrounded by the beautiful. The food and wine were a perfect end to the day.

Amsterdam continues

Today was our first day of inclement weather. Steady rain and a low fog. It gave us time to catch up on some of the more mundane travel jobs. As the light cleared a little we ventured out onto Prinsengracht-destination Kaffe de Hoek that I had seen on my meanderings. Kaffe de Hoek is a small unassuming place that has the best meatball sandwiches possible-and freshly squeezed juice. Today was a day of both high and low art. We started with the nine streets (De 9 Straatjes)-a buzzing shopping area between the canals. It even has its own blog.

We started in a search for coffee and ended 4 hours later miles down the Keitzersgracht. There is an array of shopping in the nine little streets that invites inspection. One place we dropped in-Property Of-had a most friendly proprietor and we chatted about living in Amsterdam, what made it special, what do people do here etc. He even made us coffee on his spectacular Dutch built espresso machine. He gave us tips of off the path things to do, one of which he gave us a map of. Like a treasure map. It was a list of all the Hofjes in Jordaan, all conveniently placed on a map. We carefully stored this for further exploring.

Denham is another find-great for all the hipsters. Again great subterranean shop in a beautiful canal house. Great jeans and coats.

We wandered past the most amazing wood store. After just renovating the studio and spending a lot of time in looking at different wood flooring it was a delight to see such beautiful timber available for flooring. Some of the boards on display were 30-40 centimetres wide. The owner said the timbers we were looking at were 300 years old. Much of the timber on display is reclaimed. No shortage of choice. He said one of the biggest supplies they ever sourced came from the Australian wharves being destroyed. They purchased one million cubic feet.

There was a cavernous, dark room. Peering in I recognized some Steve McCurry photographs on display. The book was an enormous XL coffee table publication of his most extraordinary images. Welcome to Mendo bookstore, which is also a graphic design agency. There were photography, fashion, architecture, design and graphic books in this most intriguing of interiors.

We walked along the Keizersgracht admiring the magnificent houses-all part of the golden age of the Netherlands. Many are still single houses, 4 or 5 stories high. Along the way we saw a crowd formed and they were watching the canal being dredged. On a barge were the remains of hundreds of bicycles, prams, tyres, engines and trolleys dropped into the canals. Amsterdam is like two cities, one block can be teeming with throngs of tourists, chains, junk stores, fast food restaurants and one street across it is quieter, local and unique.

We went to Foam, one of the most beautiful photographic galleries. It is in a spectacular canal house and has been completely modernized and converted into an enormous gallery space. We were fortunate that the Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn was having an exhibition of his latest work. His photographs were all portraits and were lith printed-about 1 metre square. Corbjin is the director of feature films such as Control (2007) and The American (2010). He has worked with countless musicians and actors and has been the 'house photographer' for bands such as U2 and Depeche Mode. It was a fantastic exhibition in a most extraordinary space. The back of the canal house is a glassed wall overlooking a huge formal garden replete with 3 metre brick walls. The upper stories are opened using industrial skylights and galvanized steel staircases. There were two other exhibitions on-Misha de Ridder-a series of images and multimedia from the arctic and Showroom girls by William Popelier-a series of images found by accident. He found 91 photographs and two films made by two girls on a publicly accessible computer. This was the start of a long-running project in which Popelier researched the role of photography on the internet and in social media. He was able to track them down via the electronic world.

The walk back was a bit torturous after such a long walk as we were at 1013 Prinsengracht and needed to get to 79.

In the evening, there was a most spectacular thunderstorm, pelting rain and wild wind. We watched it from the comfort of our host’s front room drinking beer and wine and looking over the canal. Later, upon the invitation of our wonderfully hospitable hosts, we ventured into the red light district to eat and for a voyeuristic moment. Our tour around this historic district included an impossibly narrow lane, only one metre wide, and on each side the girls were displaying themselves in their windows with curtains and a bed behind. There was a lot of negotiation going on. After a tasty Thai dinner, we finished at an historic bar called the monkey bar drinking cognac-the bar was originally part of a hotel and used by sailors for hundreds of years. There is never a shortage of things to do in Amsterdam.

So many things done and so many things to remember. Pont 13 is an old ferry, (punt for English speakers) that has been turned into a restaurant bar. It is a fantastic place to eat or have a beer-and you can dock your boat right next door. It has the most impressive boiler heating system you can imagine.

Kahmann Gallery is a local fine art photographic gallery. There was an exhibition of a Dutch photographer Rutger ten Broeke on. Exquisite prints. 

 http://www.theninestreets.com/blog/

Amsterdam

A break in updating the blog. So much to see and do in Amsterdam. The weather has been impeccably behaved-it has been a wet summer so far. Beautiful days and nights. The trip from Hong Kong to Amsterdam was uneventful except for the transit at Heathrow. It will be quite something to see how they manage the Olympics when they had so much trouble with a couple of flights. Everything interminably slow and tedious. By contrast, getting through passport control in Amsterdam was efficient, polite and humane. It was a long day of travel.

The first impression of our apartment was relief. It is beautifully appointed and in a superb location on Prinsengracht canal in the west of the city. We overlook the canal from the 3^rd floor and across to the market square, bars and bell tower. The streets teem with people-we are in an area rich in life. Bars and restaurants are all in close proximity.

First morning awoke at 3am suffering from the time difference. The market square across from the apartment was a hive of activity as the Saturday Biological Markets at Noordermarket were being set up. I guess we would call it an organic market. It was a great opportunity to supply ourselves and to see the produce. The stalls were an extravaganza of plump berries, plums, vegetables, cheeses, meats, grains and flowers. Luckily we were able to show admirable restraint. Everyone speaks Dutch to you and on realizing you are from elsewhere effortlessly slip into perfect English. The market is 50 metres from our apartment. It certainly beats the drive to the growers market at home.

The next stage of the day was to circumnavigate the city to get an idea of how it all works together. After the vertical city of Hong Kong and the hot days and nights the ground level street life and mild weather are welcome. The first safety issues we address is surviving the onslaught of cyclists. Everyone rides here. And they have right of way over everyone else. A lot of tsk tsking if anyone impedes the flow of cyclists. All this cycling must do something for the people are all impossibly good looking and healthy. Bikes are casually stacked everywhere. Apparently Holland has the highest amount of bicycles and bike thieves so most have massive chains and locks. Our meanderings took us through 5 of the major districts-Jordan, Westerdok, Nieuwe Zijde De Pijp and Oude Zijde. The streetscapes are almost unbearably picturesque and well cared for. We kept seeing the sign Hopjes-these are internal gardens and are spread throughout the Jordan district. There is no sign they exist from the street and only by opening the door and peering in do you realize they are there. It all feels like trespassing but you are welcome to look. They are paradises of quiet and green in a densely populated city. Everywhere you go you see signs for Coffeehouses, Coffeeshops and Cafes. They cater for quite a different audience. A coffee house or Koffie Huise sells coffee. A coffeeshop sells different varieties of grass and a café is like a bistro. 7 hours on the cobbles is good for the legs after the confines of modern travel.

 

We investigated dining possibilities and decided on Vlaming-a charming and highly recommended restaurant on Lindengracht. The signage is particularly engaging-eten and drinken. Which is what we did. The food was delicious and as happens so much here the staff were courteous, multilingual, funny and attractive.

Day two found us getting our gear together for a boat tour of the canals. Our hosts have a boat and have kindly offered to take us around. Many of the bridges can only be seen from the water. And you get to see into all the beautiful apartments. We tried to work out whether the Dutch are innately stylish or there is just no ugly stuff available to buy so you don’t have to make a bad decision. On Prinsengracht the houses were originally warehouses. They generally have enormous windows on the ground floor. We spent 4 hours in and out of the canals and over to the newer reclaimed areas. The old areas where the squatters used to be located have all been redeveloped. There is a mix of old and new. The amount of houseboats has increased significantly and these range from fairly functional abodes to beautiful turn of the century vessels rescued from oblivion. The further from the centre you go the bigger they get. Some were the equivalent of two to three stories. I cannot imagine Sydney council allowing you to drag an old boat into the harbour and setting it up to live in in perpetuity. We finished the day at one of the original windmills resplendent with thatch that is now a micro brewery.

Turning south from our apartment we headed to the Jordaan. This area is filled with small shops, galleries, pubs and restaurants. It makes shopping invariably interesting. And you are never far from sustenance and more eten and drinken. We ate at a little place called La Perla that sells beautifully presented woodfired pizzas. Sitting and watching the bikes and the mixture of boho, urban professionals wander or ride by. We ventured to De Reiger to inquire about a booking for dinner later in the week. No bookings taken but a great place to drink beer and sit on the pavement.

Day three and we decided on the Nine little streets for an exploration and some much needed coffee. The nine little streets are full of small shops ranging from interiors, antiques, coffee houses, coffeeshops, fashion, and bookstores. One in particular shone out-Architectura and Natura- a bookseller and publisher. The books were off course mainly on architecture and gardening and included the photographers who make the work memorable. There were so many to look at-an abundance and unfortunately no room to take any home. Everything here is so convenient. Our market is 100 metres away and is full of the freshest produce.

In the evening we went to Restaurant De Belhamel, an institution in an Art Nouveou Building on Brouwersgracht, a canal running perpendicular to Prisengracht. The food was Belgian, vast and rich. After consuming such a feast we went for a late evening stroll peering into the homes, bars and shops.

Hong Kong

This vertical city...I love it. Layer upon layer of buildings, humanity. An amazing combination of ultra modern and old world tradition. Our first night here, we arrived at our hotel in Kowloon just in time to be greeted by the nightly harbour light show. Needless to say our view is spectacular. We're on the 14th floor, which means although we get a sweeping view, we are still low enough to feel part of the landscape.

Our first night, tired but determined to stay awake, and upon the recommendation of our friend Meng, we walked around the corner to One Peking Road and rode the elevator 29 stories to Hutong, an amazing restaurant. Again, there was the dazzling Hong Kong harbour view and the restaurant beautifully decorated in massive traditional carvings and artifacts from Mainland China. Wonderful food, amazing service.

Next day we hopped on the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong island for a few hours of wandering and hunting for the Luk Yu Tea House, one of, if not the only remaining traditional tea houses in Central. The dim sum was delicious. We decide to try and find a little shrine we found on a previous trip. Marching up and up the cobbled lanes, we found it nestled in amongst the bars and shops, just as we remembered it.


We met up with our lovely ex-pat friends for dinner at The Pawn in Wan Chai on Hong Kong island. The Pawn is a gastro pub in a colonial era building that used to be a pawn shop, hence the name. More eating and drinking!! Hong Kong nightlife is pulsing. Just our kind of place.

And we're off

Welcome to brownbulldog, a collection of meanderings, inspiration and art. 


In the coming weeks we will post what we draw, paint and photograph our journey through several European destinations.


But firstly...brownbulldog. I figure we need a mascot...I've narrowed it down to three possibilities: I'm thinking we'll make this democratic by taking a vote. 


Contestant number 1: 

Contestant number 2: 

Contestant number 3:

Thoughts? Comments...I think they're all here to stay, but we'll see who wins the popularity vote.

In the meantime, Hong Kong is the first stop on our journey. Tomorrow is the day of our departure from Australia. Let's see what awaits us in this amazing city.