Every so often my partner and I take a day off. We find an inexpensive hotel for the evening and then paste an activity onto the beginning and end of the stay. Those of you who have been here for a while have read some of the threads that I have posted. A few days ago; back when it was so hot, the time was right for another diem to be carpe’ed. This time it would be a trip down south (where it was even hotter than up here...please don’t ask me to support this with a logical explanation). To escape the heat, we went to where it was even hotter. Right then, let us not be muddled with logic or reason and then perhaps we can enjoy the trip and venues for what they are. I do not like complicated. Are we on the same page here? Let’s get stuck in-- Oké then, went to bed early the night before, in anticipation of an early brekkie at Mickey D’s—a good begin. There are almost no customers, as this breakfast phenomenon is not really known here. Never mind, the trip had begun. Music blasting, singing-along...we looked in the rear-view mirrors for the last glimpse our West-Friesian landscape for a couple of days. With one hand on our chests, we waved and broke into Vera Lynn’s memorable song— “We'll meet again, Don't know where, Don't know when But I know we'll meet again some sunny day”.... You know this one, right? For a case of goose bumps, listen to this one: Our theatrical exit was soon forgotten as we took the small roads, looking and stopping now and then to behold the verdant pastoral landscapes. With only an occasional time-check, we proceeded. We did not want to arrive too early, in the heat of the day...annnnnd we wanted to have time to do some window-shopping and eat at a restaurant in the town after the activity. I must say, our anticipation was growing as we drove ever closer. It was an activity that we have seen on the Internet, of course...but never seen “live”, as it were. It is time to reveal the name of the city—Arnhem, of “Bridge Too Far” fame. I had already downloaded the addy of the parking garage for the TomTom that I wanted and a handy map showing the trajectory of the art walk. Arnhem is such a calm and nice-feeling town to be in. It has a WW2 past that many know of, but also a history before that. We would not be doing a historical walk this time, but rather a visualization of this: All you guys know of these right? I mean they occur in many cities...now here--3-D street art. The theme was the upcoming Olympics. An interesting one is this one. First I will show one of these 3-D street paintings, and follow it with how the painting looks from another angle. The painting: Pretty good, eh? Now look at it from another angle. It is difficult to imagine that it is the same painting.: In fact one can only properly view them from one angle; otherwise they look completely distorted, as you can see here. We had the map to see where the locations were...there was a logical route outlined in pink, but of course we march to our own tune and visited the various paintings that were scattered over the city in our own fashion, using the map as a sort of guide-line (I have already said that I do not want to be confused by logic, you recall). Oh dear... Well, our walk took us by the museum early on and there, we cut down the escarpment from the higher street to a path alongside the river. We followed this, and went under the bridge and curled back up into town where there were more paintings to see. This was one of our favs. There were some folks that we would see again and again at the paintings. I liked taking foto’s of folks posing on the paintings because it gave them even more of a 3-D effect. I had taken a foto of this one with a person sitting on the edge, but the sun was not right and their shadow was cast at a different angle as the painted shadowing in the picture. Too bad. My bride liked this elderly soccer scene and freshly entitled it, “Plum Season”. We chuckled till our sides hurt. It was all quite nice and when we had seen it all, we went window shopping and selected a small restaurant. Cosy and romantic. Thereafter it was then to head off to the hotel in another city. I had wanted to stay at this hotel for some time, so I was looking forward to it.I was not disappointed. This time we had a ground floor (usually the more inexpensive rooms are on the top floors), with a terrace looking out onto a huge, grassy courtyard with enormous trees planted casually here and there--beech and oaks. Around the periphery were some flower beds. It was really quiet and restful to sit there. We hauled the tablets out after the shower and sat and chatted, read and tabletted until past dark. This hotel included breakfast the following morning, and that is always something that we look for in a hotel. Sometimes we cannot get that, and take food with us to make our own. So then mates, what were the plans for the following day then? First of all we had looked for a place to do a little hiking. Not ideal on such a hot day, but there were big trees and there were small lakes. The TomTom found the isolated location which we wanted. There was a tall tower where one could look out over the area. Not very exciting because the trees were leafed-out and so it was one great green expanse—not interesting enough to photograph, but nice to see after the climb. The tower was 12 to 15 meters high, I reckon. The tower was at the highest point of the area, so getting down to the path around the lakes was a bit of a scramble. I do not know how far we hiked, but it was mostly in the shade, so that wasn’t too bad. The shaded views of the sunny lake was a pleasing contrast...the path was interesting-looking and sort of middley-worldely, if you know what I mean. All during the hike, we saw loads of poo...large piles of it here and there. There was a lot on the path as well as off in the woods. There are herds of wild horses that are kept in this nature preserve. They can be unpredictable and when we saw a herd through the trees; in the distance, it seemed a good time to retrace our steps...time was ticking and we had a second thing to visit this afternoon anyway. Now then, this last place that we visited was a sand sculpture exhibition. It was partially indoors and outdoors. I have seen a number of these, but never one that was indoors.The subject was Rien Poortvliet, who was a unique artist here. He specialized in nature painting and of course his most memorable book called, “De Kabouter”. Kabouters are sort of like gnomes. He wrote a definitive book describing all aspects of these beings. Like many families here, we have a copy in-house. Years ago, they were so popular that they were printed in foreign languages. http://www.rienpoortvlietmuseum.nl/index.php/english The exhibition featured certain moments in some of his other stories, ...some Kabouter scenes. This one though, is outside the sand sculptures, inside the Kabouter ones were not all that impressive, I didn't think. Outside, there was also a small peddle-driven monorail that was enjoyed by kids and adults alike: ...and finally a group of sand sculptures of “sayings”, where you could take a clipboard with a form on it and the idea was to guess and write down what saying you thought each one represented. The sculptures were numbered--this first one was number 40. At the end of the path, you could turn these forms in, in hopes of winning a prize.They were fairly easy to recognize. Can you guess what this one is? In Dutch it is, “hanging on the lips”. There is a similar English saying—“Hanging on their every word”, both meaning listening intently and carefully to every word uttered. And this one: He who laughs last, laughs hardest/loudest. You can see that there is a long line of people, and he is at the end of the line...the last one, then. Well, that was the trip and what a good one it was. We returned home over the “Bird Dike”, tired and content-- a good kind of tired. The road took its usual westward bend as we came off the dike...and we could drive the last Km’s into the reddening sunset which covered our West-Friesian landscape in a pinky-orange blanket. We were home again, jiggedy-jog.
You always have the most interesting trips!! I am always coming up with a song to fit an occasion, that's a good one.
ISLAND-- Thanks for your enthusiastic reaction. Ta TONI-- I am glad that you liked this account. Glad you liked the tune also...it is one that is sung after the Royal Concert each year here, as the King departs. I am well chuffed that you liked this "trip thread", RADDANG. It was such a good one this time. It is nice to take a break from time to time.
What a wonderful trip!! So much to see and do, despite the heat. I love street art and those sand sculptures are magnificent. I'm so glad we were able to share your experiences with you through your photographs. Thank you.
What a lovely trip for you and your bride! Between your pictures, and explanation's of each, it was almost like being there!
That is also a great reply, 2OF. I am so delighted that you felt as if you were along. Thank you for your very nice words.
Hi sjoerd. Sounds like you enjoyed yourselves immensely and saw much. Note you mentioned Arnhem - I have visited much of Holland - loved it all and the people - can understand your enthusiasm. As it happens I have a son - Dutch wife and family live in Utrecht. That is my favourite place - a wonderful City - just did so love to wander round it . Ref the song - remember it well - have VL's book of the same title as song. Syd.
The 3D art work is absolutely amazing, as are the sand sculptures! I can image the time it took to create such amazing pieces! The first photo was beautiful too, and reminded me about a cousin I have in Germany, that is well known for his Windmill Restoration projects. They are beautiful.
Thanks for your comments, SYD-- I am glad that you enjoyed this thread. It was a good trip. RE: the VL song. Many folks have sung that one over the years. As I have mentioned earlier, everyone sings it as the King floats away after a certain yearly concert. It is all very nice. Cheers NETTY-- I am glad that you liked the thread and I am glad that it stirred some memories for you. Windmill restoration is such a technical and specialized job. I can imagine that when the job is done that the repairer would feel an immense feeling of accomplishment.
What a great trip! And a great write up! I can't believe the three dimensional art! Take me along the next time you go!
Thanks Cayu. That street art really was something special and when you were standing next to it the images were so abstract that you could barely make out what it was. As for coming with me next time...well, you have only to be here.
