Queen's Day '12 Amsterdam/Vondelpark

Above, a game thought up by some children. A painting of our Queen with the words 'This will be hard to swallow, your Majesty...' For 50 ct. one had three chances of throwing a ball into Beatrixs' mouth.

This is my second Queen's Day in Amsterdam. We spent the morning walking through the 'Free Trade-Market Vondelpark" and in the afternoon, we joined our friends on their boat for a CRAZY trip through the canals. It was good to see that most people were wearing something orange (Royal House of Orange) and many had gone through great effort to get noticed in the crowds.
Vondelpark
The Dutch are known as 'trades(wo)men'. Tell a Dutchie how good he/she looks in a particular piece of clothing and he/she will not reply by saying: "thank you" instead, you'll hear a somewhat proud: "I 'got' it for only ... Euros". On Queen's Day, you'll find tens of thousands of people selling old or weird stuff, all along the streets of Amsterdam. The life of wheelin' and dealin' is taught to our children from the day they are born and, on Q.day, the whole of the Vondelpark is especially reserved for them so they can practice their skills.
The place is packed with children who've all thought of thousands of different ways of convincing or emotionally blackmailing grown ups into parting with their money (this too, is taught by their parents).

How to draw......

......ATTENTION

Bric a brac for sale.

Tear jerker

Playing Dutch Anthem

Art, Antiques & Design (+ entoforms??) fair, Rosmalen

I was running low on 'Art-Input'....this..is...not a good thing (and 'my fella' will second that). Therefore, a rather hasty decision was made to visit the AFSH (for Dutch info click on: Fair).
This year it took place at its new location: the Autotron, Rosmalen. Not too far to drive, easy to find, with ample parking. There was a good mix of old and new on offer. I really liked the relaxed/friendly atmosphere, which made it easy to talk to the gallery owners and there was plenty of space for everyone browsing around. All in all a wonderful day, which ended with loud singing in the car, on the way back.
My favourite, were these wire mesh sculptures which cast perfect, 'photographic' shadows, by Randy Cooper. Beautifully made by hand, not machine. For more info click on: SCULPTURES. And then there were.........

 

.....Entoforms
This was something I'd not yet seen before. Teamwork between an artist and his computer produced these strange looking creatures, called 'entoforms'. Through DNA specifications given to the computer, it then designs and 'grows' following generations. Each specimen can be formed with the use of a 3D printer. This little one's called Natalie Portman. I wonder what her offspring will look like?

Dutch bulbs (at groundlevel)/Keukenhof

Because it was a beautiful day, we decided to have a look at the bulbs up close this time, and went to the Keukenhof. Thousands of others had the same idea, but Keukenhof was big enough to fit all of us in, without it getting too crowded.

There are quite a few pavilions with different shows on and all around there are typical Dutch 'goodies' on offer ranging from colourfull clogs to freshly made 'Stroopwafels' (Syrup waffles). We enjoyed the walk through the park, being enveloped by the amazing scent of, mostly, tulips and hiacynths, best. All in all, I was more impressed than I thought I'd be. Here's the link: KEUKENHOF

Dutch bulbs from above

My friend Caroline was over from England and she really wanted to see the bulbs in bloom. Through some friends, I was able to arrange a flight over the fields of bulbs, with pilot Ferdinand at the helm, and keep it all secret, till the last day. We went, we saw and we loved every minute of it. What a fantastic way of seeing more of Holland and... The Bulbs...(sounds like the title of a horror film.) We even landed on the Island 'Texel' for lunch and both of us were allowed to do a bit of 'piloting'...COOL!
We ended the day by having an evening meal at 'Nogal Wiedus' in Huisduinen, with its fantastic view. My oh my, is this country flat or what???

Bulb fields from above

Den Helder

Cal at helm

Hoorn

Leaving Texel

Nogal Wiedus

Typical IJsselmeer scene

Eye film museum

Eye museum, from the ferry

On the fifth of April, the new Eye film museum opened her doors to the public. We were there with a group of friends to check out the place and see 'Intouchables' (2nd time for some of us, and even better than 1st time!!)  I really liked the building and set up with 'arena-like hall' but could have done without the very bright lights changing from pink to green to blue, which 'outshone' the cool 'cluster-lamps' in the restaurant/bar area. There's a large terrace, overlooking the water and the City which will be a nice place to have a drink or meal, during summer. To get to the museum, we took the ferry (5 min.) from Central Station and then it's a 2 min. walk. During the crossing, they played loud, cool, film music which was Fun and several people (ahum) could not stop themselves from 'dancing to the beat'. There's a lot the place has to offer so check out the site, click on: EYE.

'blue light-view'

Easter?

Lovely lunch at Rosarium, Amsterdam

Thanks to one, teenie, weenie, faulty point on a railway track, all train traffic in the West of Holland had come to a screeching halt. This (unexpectedly) left us with a beautiful, sunny 'day off', last thursday. We made good use of  this, by having lunch at the Rosarium in the Amstelpark (for my review click on:Me-me-linkfood.Amsterdam).

and then continued on to Cinecenter to watch the funniest film I've seen in a very long time, click on: INTOUCHABLES. Honestly, at times, I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so much, despite the serious subject. It's a 'feel-good-film' and I advise everyone to see it.