Schipol, returning home

We had to sleep at the Sheraton located right by Schipol airport since our plane departed very early in the morning. After a stop in Frankfurt we travelled to Montreal and then to Fredericton.

We arrived in Fredericton under a heat wave, hot and humid, quite different from what we left in Holland.

Van Gogh

The last entertainment was a visit to van Gogh (Pronounce it Gohh) Museum in Amsterdam. Very nice. Van Gogh's life was quite interesting. He started painting when he was already an adult and without any formal education. At the end he became one of the most influential painters of his generation, laying the foundations for modern painting.

To enjoy his partings, one has to look them from far away.

Van Gogh was also mentally ill at the end of his life and he ended up dying of self-inflicted wounds as a consequence of shooting himself at the chest.

Van Gogh dreamt of having an atelier where other painters could work together. Gaugin joined him and spend a few months there. Gaugin later left after van Gogh threatened him with a razor blade. In the process, a frustrated van Gogh cut part of his ear off.

What can I say: van Gogh was a genius.

Van Gogh is great-grand-uncle of Theo van Gogh.

Dutch Scenes: train and tram

Public transportation in Holland is composed of trains, trams and buses. I think that trains and trams are the most popular of them. They work in an interconnected way and can take you almost everywhere. They are totally reliable except when they brake down. One exemple was when we had to go to Schipol station, located right at the airport, to take a plane to Munich. The train ahead of us broke down and blocked the track. This fact delayed our trip in 2 hours and we missed the plane.

The first picture shows a train in Delft station. The second picture shows a tram at Amsterdam Central station.

Dutch scenes: boat houses

I was told that at one point there was a shortage of housing in Holland, what left the government to allow boat houses. They are essentially floating trailers, some quite long and nice. They are docked and connected to the land by means of pipes and wires for water and sewage and electricity. I am not sure if there is still shortage of housing today, but the fact is that there are boat houses everywhere. In the upper picture, a boat house in Amsterdam. In the bottom, boat houses in Leiden.

Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and Bruckner

A dream come true. That is how I describe watching the Orchestra of the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam perfoming Bruckner's Fifth Symphony.

Late in the 1970's I used to listen to the nightly radio show of classical music broadcast by Radio Jornal do Brasil. Among my favourites were the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler played by the Orchestra of the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. What fantastic music coming from a far-away place that inspired my imagination. That made the whole experience even more special.

The theatre's acoustics is phenomenal, which just highlights the excellent orchestra. And, sitting at the podium, I could see how the conductor, maestro Herbert Blomstedt, had the orchestra in his hands, allowing him explore Bruckner's mastery of harmony and polyphony taking advantage of the contrasts of the different instrumental groups.

I was also very lucky to chat with conductor Blomstedt at the end of the concert.

Overall, an unforgetable afternoon.

By the way, refreshments were served at the end of this Sunday concert, including wine.

Anna Frank

We visited Anna Frank House, after strolling around the streets of Amsterdam from the Central Station as far as the museum. It is quite an emotional experience to visit this museum and revisit the life of this young lady who was killed by the Nazis after hiding for nearly 3 years along with her family in the achterhuis, the hidden rooms of her father's office. All member of her family were also killed except her father who ended up alive at the end of the war. Her father, Otto Frank, went on to publish Anna's diaries, which turned out to be a best seller, The Diary of a Young Girl. He latter founded the Anna Frank House to raise awareness of the horrors of the Holocaust and the dangers of a continuous anti-Semitism.

Dutch Scenes: the leaning buildings of Amsterdam

Amsterdam has a very unique architecture: several of its buildings are of, say, irregular shape. Makes me wonder if any builder from Pisa got a job there.