BUSY WEEKEND
This past weekend was quite busy for us. Every few months all day train tickets go on sale. You can buy as many as you want, and they are good for a 2-3 months. We have done this before. Usually a real bargain. The deal for 14 euro per person allows you to go anywhere in the Netherlands. Get off and on trains as your heart desires for the day. This particular ticket was only good on the weekends, which is no big deal for us. Our plan was to go to Den Haag (The Hague), Leiden, and Haarlem before returning to Amsterdam. The trip to Den Haag only takes about 50 minutes, and Leiden and Haarlem takes even less time. So off we go.
We had been to The Hague in the summer. They have 2 great museums, one of which has been closed for renovations and continues to be closed. The masters from that museum (The Mauritshuis) are on temporary display at The Gemeentemuseum. We just wanted to go back and roam around this great museum. I think we saw 5 paintings from our list. Ray just verified that for me. We missed 2, one of which is on tour and we hope to see it in Atlanta when we get home. It is the famous Vermeer "Girl with the Pearl Earring." We will get 2 hits when we see this one. One for our 1001 and one for our Vermeer List. Yippee.
We wanted to go back to the Peace Palace, but the bus didn't stop there. It looked like people were able to walk onto the grounds. Last summer, we couldn't get in at all. It is an impressive building. The Hague is a beautiful city. Near the Peace Palace are many of the Embassies. All very lovely large mansions.
Back to the train station for the short trip to Leiden. Been there before also about 5 years ago. It is a large university town. I think they have a law school, medical school as well as undergraduate and graduate schools. I won't go into detail here, cause Ray took tons of pictures and explains our adventure here. They have a large market twice a week and it was booming on Saturday. Lots of stalls with everything from great smelling food stalls to folks selling bicycle parts.
The day flew by and we made the decision to have some refreshment in Leiden and head for home rather then go to Haarlem. Haarlem is only about a 20 minute train ride from Amsterdam and we have been there twice. We will return at some other time. Frans Hals museum there.
We have 2 more of these cheap day tickets and our next trip will be to Rotterdam and Delft, we think.
So, on Sunday we made a spur of the moment decision to try to get to the ballet if we got back from church in time. We (I) wanted to see a performance at the Muziektheater Amsterdam. It is where the National Ballet of the Netherlands perform and where our friend Jim was a percussionist with the Holland Symfonia. It is about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. Romeo and Juliet was the program of the day. The theater is smallish and it appears every seat is good. We were very lucky to get seats in the handicap section, so we had miles of leg room. Had great snacks at intermission, and the lobby area of the theater is very large. A really pleasant place. Lots of little girls all dressed up in their best outfits. So glad we went. It helped to know the story line.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
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