South to North

And so, bringing my June travels to an end, Bronwyn and I travelled north to Amsterdam and London. After Venice came Lyon for some much needed rest and tv catching up and from there, sadly, Lise flew home. Sad also was the weather when we arrived in Amsterdam - cold, windy and rainswept. As you can see however, it did clear up by the end of our stay. The day we left it was positively warm!

Lovely canal at sunset:

We saw lots and lots of art in Amsterdam (seeing a pattern here?), going to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. I really like the VVG museum; it's well laid out, comprehensive and mainly, I really like Van Gogh. The timing was also good because just a week before we'd watched the recent Doctor Who episode with Vincent.

Cutest car ever!
We also did a day trip to Den Haag (the Hague) and Haarlem for more art. In Haarlem we went to the Grotekerk (St Bavo's) which has one of the greatest organs in the world. Both Mozart (at 10 years old) and Handel have played it. They were having a concert that evening and while we were walking around, the organist began practicing. It was a little surreal because you can't see the man playing, and the sound is so grand that it doesn't seem to come from the organ itself but just fills the entire church, as though one moment there is nothing and then next, everywhere is music.
Speaking of churches, this was a stained glass window that I really liked from the Nieuwekerk in Amsterdam:
We had very very good food in Amsterdam - from the rijstafel, a traditional Dutch/Indonesian cuisine, to Peruvian tapas, to typical homecooked Dutch fare. The latter was at the restaurant Moeder's (seen below). Anyone planning to go to Amsterdam, plan to go to Moeder's. On a very empty stomach. All over the walls, as you can see, are photos of people's mothers. Bronwyn told me that if you bring a picture of your mother with you, they'll still put it up. Sadly I did not know this in time to immortalize my mom on a restaurant wall.

The Dutch will put anything on a bike:

Finally we went to London! And I hardly took any photos so here's one at Trafalgar Square of Nelson's ship for the Battle of Trafalgar in a bottle.
What mostly occupied our time in London was seeing old friends, looking at old books and seeing shows. After all that art, I got some of my own back, dragging people to see Billy Elliot and less-dragging them to see The 39 Steps. Yes, those are the shows I saw in London last time.
The old book part involved the British Library (yes again) but this time, Gawain and the Green Knight was on display too! I had been disappointed not to see it in January and now I need be no longer! I could see both Gawain and Beowulf in the same case! Swoon!

But most importantly, in London, I saw the roundest football in the world. Adidas has spent god knows how much money and time to create the roundest football ever. They're using it in the World Cup. It can be yours for only 70 pounds. And I held one. It was thrilling.