Amsterdam

In retrospect, the best time to visit the Anne Frank house probably wasn't right after wandering through the red-light district, where the brothels display their "wares" in the windows -- and right before coming across a big gay dance party at the Homomonument, complete with drag queens, just across the street.  That's a lot for a brain to process all in one evening.  But overall, our long weekend in Amsterdam was a great getaway.

Instead of flying, we took the train -- Eurostar to Brussels and then an Intercity train to Amsterdam.  It was a very easy trip and only took 7 hours, from the time we left our house to when we checked into our hotel.  Much less stressful than flying!

We arrived at Amsterdam's Centraal Station, which is a beautiful brick building.

Amsterdam Centraal Station

We stayed at the Convent Hotel, which was just a 10-minute walk from the train station.  The facade is the only part that remains from a 13th-century convent, but the hotel, which fills 3 or 4 adjacent buildings, is fairly standard inside...

The Convent Hotel

Except for this notice that was in our room.

Never seen this in a hotel room before!

We managed to cram a lot into our 3 1/2 days there.  Here are some highlights...

The Rijksmuseum is undergoing a major renovation, but they have a small display of "highlights" from their massive collection.

Rijksmuseum

Doll house

wood cabinet: sunflowers are from the natural wood grain

Delft violin

Still Life With Flowers

Rembrandt self-portrait

Vermeer: Woman in Blue Reading a Letter

China display

My favorite piece on display was this clock, which was about 7 feet tall and appeared to have a very bored man trapped inside.

Every 60 seconds, he would erase the hands on the clock...

...and redraw them to indicate the correct time.

We particularly enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum.

Van Gogh Museum

They don't allow photography inside, but they did have this neat installation in the courtyard where river rocks had been carefully arranged to resemble Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Reaper.  It reminded me of the living wall at the National Gallery from last summer.

Wheatfield with Reaper in stones

The concert hall

Does this look like another photo of the train station?  Well, it's actually the Rijksmuseum, which was designed by the same architect.  They sort of face one another from opposite sides of the city center.

Another view of the Rijksmuseum

Coincidentally, my friend Marianna from the AWC was also in Amsterdam for the weekend with her husband, so the four of us went out for Indonesian food one evening.  Marianna was born in Amsterdam and speaks Dutch, which was a pleasant surprise for our waitress.  Most people speak English in Amsterdam, but they still appreciate hearing their native tongue.  I also discovered that Marianna's husband grew up in central California and attended the same university where my parents both taught.  Small world!  We ordered the rijsttaffel (rice table), where they bring you rice and about a dozen different dishes to sample.  The food was delicious! 

Feasting on Indonesian rijsttaffel

We took one of the many canal boat tours to see the city from a different perspective.

Canal boats in front of the train station

NEMO science museum

Dutch West India Company warehouse

Hermitage Museum

The Skinny Bridge

Dam Square is the central plaza in the old part of the city.

National Monument/pigeon perch

Royal Palace

As we searched for a place to eat lunch, we came across an organic farmer's market in the Nieuwmarkt a few blocks away.

Cheesy bicycle

Veggies

Yarn

Flowers

We ended up eating in the Waag, a building that dates back to the 15th century and was once a gate to the city.  It's also been a weighing house, a guildhall, a fencing hall, a fire station, and a museum, among other things, but now it houses a nice cafe, where the chandeliers have real candles.

the Waag

Our walking tour took us through the red-light district, which is right in the center of the city.

The red-light district

Josh tries to look casual as he gets a closer look
at the Erotic Museum

Since prostitution is legal in Amsterdam, the brothels rent their street-level windows out for the ladies to display their wares and entice customers.  It is very strange to walk through a historic district and see a 14th-century church on one side of the street and a row of windows filled with unattractive women in their underwear in the other.  We ducked into the Old Church to get away from the seediness.

The Old Church

Church interior

organ

ship in the window

The church was lovely, despite being stripped of most of its interior decor in the 16th century.  

Amsterdam is a charming city, with its distinctive architecture, canals, and museums, but it definitely has a seedy side.  In addition to all the "coffee bars," where customers can smoke marijuana, and the red-light district, we saw a few things that made us laugh or do a double-take.  It is clearly also a popular destination for stag and hen (bachelor/bachelorette) parties, especially where the groom is made to walk around the city in a ridiculous costume.  We saw a banana, a frog, and a penis, among others.

Make sure you have a 'safe word'

Uh, I don't think that guy's playing golf

Odd place to stop and feed your kid a snack

Twinkies?

Bar on wheels: when you can drink AND drive

Line for Anne Frank House

We had heard the lines for the Anne Frank house were shorter in the evenings, so we headed over there after making our way out of the red-light district.

Anne Frank House

We still had to wait in line, but we were treated to strawberries while we waited, along with loud techno music coming from the nearby plaza.

Strawberries!

We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but it was an incredible experience to go inside the cramped apartment hidden behind her father's office where Anne and 7 other people hid for two years.  I remember reading her diary in junior high school, when I was about the same age as she was when she wrote it.  It was a very simple, but powerfully moving, memorial to Anne and everyone else who lost their lives simply because they were Jewish. 

When we came out of the museum, we could still hear loud, pulsating music coming from the other side of a nearby church, so we went to investigate.

The Western Church

It turned out to be a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Homomonument, complete with beer tents, techno music, and drag queens.

Gay dance party at the Homomonument

Although this was a rather jarring contrast to the somber Anne Frank house, it was a reminder that Jews weren't the only people persecuted by the Nazis.  The monument was dedicated in 1987 as a memorial to the gays and lesbians who also suffered at their hands.  It was designed so that one point of the larger triangle formed by the monument points towards the Anne Frank house.

Flowers left at the Homomonument

For dinner, we went to a Dutch pancake house, which serves huge crepe-like pancakes with sweet and savory fillings.  We had American-style pancakes for breakfast at the hotel, but that didn't stop us from eating pancakes for dinner AND dessert!  Yum!

Pancakes!

I am always on the lookout for beautiful Art Nouveau architecture, and Amsterdam did not disappoint.

Amazing Art Deco/Nouveau theater

Interior detail

American Hotel

Hotel dining room

Astoria building

Former photography studio. Now a Japanese restaurant.

The last stop on our tour was the Begijnhof, a secluded courtyard surrounded by traditional Dutch houses which was once a convent of sorts, and even today is only inhabited by women.  You're not allowed to take photos inside, but it seems like it would be a lovely place to live.

Begijnhof gate

There are only two entrances to the courtyard, both of which are a bit hard to find, despite their ornate surroundings.

Begijnhof doorway

We also spent a day at the Keukenhof gardens, but that will have to wait for another blog post.  I took about 100 photos!  I'll leave you with a little teaser...

Tulips!

I suspect Josh would enjoy living in Amsterdam. Why? Because people ride bikes everywhere? Sure. Because of all the water and boats? Certainly. Because drugs and prostitution are legal? Not so much. But mostly because you can eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert!

Stormy Weather

The view never changes - rain, wind, and dandelions

For a country that seems to enjoy talking about the weather, England doesn't actually get much of it.  Basically, it's either raining, or not raining.  Snow is a rarity, as are thunderstorms, hot, sunny days, and any other kind of extreme weather.  I've found the climate here to be similar to Seattle's in that regard.  When it does rain, it's generally in the form of scattered showers or a light mist, not torrential downpours.  However, the last few weeks have given us plenty to talk about.  Or rather, to complain about...

Our first month in London, April 2011, was the warmest April on record.  It was a glorious string of warm, sunny days with temperatures in the 70's.  As I spent my first few weeks here exploring the city, I found every inch of green space filled with Londoners soaking up the rays.  After a rather chilly, rainy summer, and comically short daylight hours in the winter, I understood why many locals take vitamin D supplements and suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder -- and take every opportunity to go out in the sun.  I was looking forward to another gorgeous April like the one we had last year.  Not even close. 

It has been cold, rainy, and windy for the entire month.  We've already received 165% of the normal rainfall for April, and we still have two more days to go.  Today's forecast: more of the same...

Wet and windy this morning, with rain heavy and persistent at times, possibly leading to some localised flooding. Strong northeasterly winds will ease through the day.   High 55, low 48 (F).

Over the past few weeks, we've had hail, thunder & lightning, heavy rain, and gusty winds.  I'm still wearing my winter coat, and I suspect my umbrella will give up the ghost soon after being inverted by the wind so many times.  At Mah Jongg on Friday I saw a couple AWC friends who had just returned from trips home, and both of them wished aloud that they hadn't come back to London.  Who can blame them?  Josh and I both have mild colds, so we've had very little motivation to leave the house this weekend.  Sure, there are plenty of museums and other indoor attractions to enjoy, but even the half-mile walk to the station seems daunting in this weather.  Do I sound depressed?  I'm not, really.  But I'm having a hard time believing it's almost May -- or that we're still suffering from a drought.

My aunt & uncle are coming to visit in a couple weeks, so I really hope the weather improves by the time they arrive.  In the meantime, maybe we should take advantage of this quality time holed up indoors to plan a trip to someplace warm and sunny...  The Sahara?  Death Valley?  Sounds lovely!

Member of the Board

Tuesday morning I found myself sitting in the bar at the Royal Thames Yacht Club -- a club which has been in existence longer than the United States of America -- discussing champagne with two members of the Functions staff. 

How did I end up there?  Well, that requires a bit of back story.  As I have mentioned before, I joined the American Women's Club of London (AWC) last summer, a few months after we moved here.  I have enjoyed participating in a variety of activities with the club -- day trips, London walking tours, theater and movie outings, learning Mah Jongg -- as well as the instant social network it provided me with, which has made a big difference in adjusting to life in another country.  Back in February, I was approached by a couple members of the nominating committee who asked if I would be interested in serving on the club's Board of Directors.

I was both honored and surprised by this, since I had only been a member of the club for about 6 months at this point, but due to the transient nature of the AWC's membership, it makes more sense to recruit relative newcomers rather than those who are likely to be moving back to the States or on to their next assignment before their term is up.   In fact, the position I was asked to take on was already vacant as the previous Board member had recently moved to Ireland.  After giving it some thought, I agreed to do it.  After all, I hadn't had much luck finding a job, and here was an opportunity to do something productive that would still allow me the flexibility to travel and make the most of my time in London -- and in fact encourage and enable me to do so.

So I was officially welcomed to the Board as the new Director of Programs in February, and gradually transitioned into the role over the past couple months.  What does the Director of Programs do?  In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, she's in charge of planning the AWC's monthly meetings, which includes booking venues, lining up interesting speakers, coordinating vendors, and making post-meeting lunch arrangements. 

The club President, who had also been Director of Programs in the past, had been filling in after my predecessor moved away, and our schedules and geographical disparity (she lives in North London, I live in SW London) kept us from finding time to meet so she could hand things over to me.  We eventually just had to do it by phone, after she forwarded on about 100 emails.  Two hours after our phone meeting, the speaker for the May meeting canceled on me.  Not the most auspicious beginning!  Fortunately, we regularly get emails from people who would like to give talks or presentations to our group -- often authors promoting a new book or a business owner with a primarily female clientele (party planner, etiquette expert, yoga instructor, cooking class instructor, breast cancer specialist, etc) -- so at least I already had a list of other options to consider.

One of the items I was tasked with at my first Board meeting was to compare room rental, equipment, and catering rates at the two venues where we normally hold our meetings: the Lansdowne Club in Mayfair, and the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge.  This is when I discovered that not only had our regular contact in the Functions department at the RTYC been "made redundant" (laid off), but the person I was directed to in his place was on her very first day on the job.  Strike two!   Hence the in-person meeting with the new Functions staff, which went fairly well...

This is not at all how I pictured myself here a year ago, but I am enjoying my new responsibilities and looking forward to meeting new people as a result.  One of the drawbacks of being part of an expat community is that you are always having to say goodbye to the new friends you have just made.  I can think of at least 10 people I've gotten to know over the past year who have subsequently either moved back to the States or on to a new assignment in another country.  On the other hand, I meet new club members at every monthly meeting and other AWC events, so there's always an opportunity to make more new friends -- and motivation to keep in touch with the old ones.  We may come from different backgrounds and disparate parts of the US, but we all share the common bond of being Americans in London, and it makes all the difference to have a group like that to share the highs and lows of this amazing adventure with.  My life here would be very different if I hadn't joined the AWC!

Saint George's Earth Day

Saturday afternoon we encountered yet another festival in Trafalgar Square.   Since Sunday was Earth Day and Monday was St. George's Day, someone seems to have come up with the brilliant idea of celebrating them both with a Garden Festival.  (Possibly due to the rather meager turnout at last year's St. George's Day festival.)  The only hitch is that Trafalgar Square is a massive, paved plaza in the middle of the city -- really the LAST place you'd expect to host a garden-related event of any kind.  The solution: cover it with AstroTurf, erect a bandstand, and bring in a few potted plants and flower boxes.  Voila!  An urban oasis.  Well, sort of...

Garden Festival in Trafalgar Square

As a nod to St. George, we did see at least one dragon, although this one seemed to be some sort of  music-making machine.

Dragon calliope

They also had people dressed as statues and trees posed in various spots around the square -- which is really no different than any other day in Trafalgar Square, except they didn't ask for money when you took their picture. 

Did she put this on her resume?

The highlight (for me), was a tent with floral creations representing London landmarks and institutions -- sort of like a mini Rose Parade.

Chelsea Physic Garden

Afternoon tea

London transport

High Street shopping

The Gherkin, Big Ben, and the London Eye

The Tower Bridge and Queen's Jubilee

I had to drag Josh out of there before he tried to eat the beautiful flower cakes, but it was a nice little detour on our way to Leicester Square to buy theater tickets.  I wonder what they'll do next year?

On a Theater Bender

In the first three and a half months of 2012, I saw one West End show and not a single movie, so I made up for it by going to two shows and two movies in the past week!

Last Wednesday, my friend Becky organized an AWC outing to a matinee of The Hunger Games.  Several of the other women who attended had read the books -- I think it was even one of the recent AWC book club selections -- and were very excited to see the movie.  I had not read the books, but I enjoyed the movie and would like to read them if they ever have any copies available in our local library.  When I asked about it, the librarian looked at me as if I had asked for a copy of the final Harry Potter book on the day it was released.  Since we already have 13 boxes full of books in storage back in DC, I'm trying not to buy more while I'm in London -- especially when there's a library within walking distance -- but I might have to make an exception.

Thursday was AWC Theatre Day, which I had missed for the past couple months, so I was eager to catch up up -- especially since it was yet another in a seemingly endless string of cold, rainy days.  I ended up going to see Blood Brothers, which was an interesting story, but I found the songs to be rather repetitive.  It got to the point where I thought if I heard them try to rhyme one more thing with "Marilyn Monroe" I was going to lose my mind.  Former Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow played the role of the narrator-- his voice reminded me of David Bowie.

Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre

On Saturday Josh and I decided to see a show together, which is something we haven't really done since we moved here -- except when his brother was visiting last summer.  We went to the half price ticket booth and got tickets for an evening performance of Long Day's Journey Into Night, a semi-autobiographical play by Eugene O'Neil.   

Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Apollo Theatre

The lead roles were played by David Suchet (aka Hercule Poirot) and Laurie Metcalf (aka Roseanne's sister), so it was interesting to see them in person after having seen them on TV (well, David Suchet at least -- I was never a big fan of Roseanne).  The acting was incredible, but the play itself was a bit depressing -- talk about a dysfunctional family! -- and nearly 3 hours long with no set or costume changes to break up the monotony of four people bickering and yelling at one another as they got progressively inebriated.  I think Josh enjoyed it more than I did because I had already seen two dark, dystopian shows that week and was in the mood for something a little more lighthearted.

Fortunately, I had an opportunity to make up for that on Sunday, when we met a few of my AWC friends and their husbands at the Soho Hotel for a screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, followed by dinner at the hotel restaurant (the Soho Hotel, that is -- not the Marigold...).  We all thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which stars every famous British actor over the age of 60 -- including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Bill Nighy -- plus Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire.  In the movie, he has a gorgeous (Indian) girlfriend named Sunaina, which is a variant of my own name, so it scored a few extra points with me!  I don't think it's been released in the US yet (nyah, nyah!), but I do recommend seeing it when it is.  It will make you laugh and cry -- but mostly laugh.

I doubt I'll be able to keep up this pace of theater-going, but I hope I'll have a chance to see some more shows and movies in the near future. 

You CAN Get There From Here, But...

After being on the "car-free diet" for just over a year, we have become pretty good at finding our way around London, England, and other parts of Europe using various combinations of buses, trams, trains, subways, boats, airplanes, and just plan walking.  For Josh, you can add cycling to the mix as well.  In fact, we have become so used to a car-free lifestyle that we rarely even take taxis anywhere, even though they are plentiful in London.

Earlier this week, Josh attended a conference/corporate retreat at a hotel in northern England located 14 miles from the nearest train station.  So did he get a ride with a co-worker?  Rent a car?  Take a taxi from the train station?  Nope.  He packed everything he needed for the 3-day conference (at which he was giving a presentation) into his panniers, slung his laptop over his shoulder, and set off on his bicycle.

Josh heads off to his 3-day conference

He rode his bike up to the train station, took it on the train with him to Chester, and then cycled the remaining 14 miles to the hotel.  That's how he rolls.

Chihuly

Wednesday I met a group of ladies at the Halcyon Gallery for a private tour of the Chihuly exhibit that had been arranged by one of the AWC members.  I've been a fan of Dale Chihuly's amazing glass creations ever since I first encountered his work at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.  I've also seen installations at other casinos, including the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the Borgata in Atlantic City, and Atlantis in the Bahamas.  When I moved to London, I immediately fell in love with the Victoria & Albert Museum when I walked in the front door and was greeted by a massive Chihuly chandelier.  But this was my first opportunity to see his work in a gallery setting.

After the receptionist took our coats and offered us glasses of water, we were greeted by Andy, who curated the exhibit.  He gave us a little background information about the evolution of Chihuly's work and even encouraged us to touch some of the pieces! 

Color study painting

Andy tells us about the "Persian" pieces on this table

Baskets

"Macchia"

These are nicknamed "The Uglies"

These purple rods are taller than I am and were blown in a studio in Finland --
the only one in the world equipped to make pieces this tall

Golden chandelier

"Ikebana"

Vault installation

Waterford crystal wall sconce

Boat full of floats

Mille Fiori garden installation

Chandelier detail

After we had seen all the Chihuly pieces, Andy took us into one of the back offices to show us some of the other art in their collection:

Andy Warhol

Monet

Degas

Dylan

Another Dylan

Who is Dylan?  Why, Bob Dylan, of course!  Yes, the singer/songwriter also dabbles in painting.

We were then brought into a lovely wood-paneled dining room where we were offered tea and coffee and each given a gift bag containing the (sizable) Chihuly exhibition catalog and invitations to preview two upcoming shows at the Halcyon Gallery.  The catalog is a gorgeous hardcover book the size of an atlas -- like one of those coffee table books that you could use as an actual coffee table.   Did I mention that this was a free tour?  Wow!

swag!

Afterwards several of us went to lunch at a nice Italian restaurant tucked away in an alley around the corner from the gallery.  What a fantastic outing!