Amsterdam Day 3

Up again in good time to walk again to the museum plein and the Van Gogh museum.  The David Hockney and Van Gogh exhibition was an eye opener.  I appreciated the Hockney’s much more after seeing the two side by side and seeing an excellent short film and hearing a very good lecture.  Quite a morning!

We went next door to state art museum for lunch in the cafe  - avocado salad for me and cheese toastie for Peter.  We couldn’t quite face another gallery so we looked round the bookshop and then wandered back to the flat.

We had an early booking at the du Behamel restaurant so the restaurant was empty when we arrived but very soon filled up.  The same art nouveau decor, very good service and an excellent meal.

Went to bed around midnight and regretted the espressos we had to finish the meal.  I was woken at 3.30am by talking, probably from the flat next door and above us.  It was particularly loud in the bathroom which has a big ceiling light in it.  I shut the bathroom door and that helped a bit but I lay furiously awake and heard them leave at 5.30am with more loud talking and door slamming!  Grr! My Fitbit tells me I had 3.45 hours sleep.  Peter was oblivious!

Amsterdam Day 2

We got up in good time to walk to the Rijksmuseum in time for our entry to the Rembrandt

Two beggars 

exhibition and a coffee before hand in the elegant cafe.  The exhibition was very crowded and so many people had phones and cameras out snapping everything in sight that you had to watch out for people barging into you or poking a phone in your eye!  However the etchings were wonderful and a real treat.   I restricted myself to one picture and one to amuse Abe and Saul of Peter and playmobil people.

We ran into football supporters on our way back but they were very good natured, despite carrying large quantities of beer.

We walked back along Prinsengracht and found a North African restaurant we remembered from a previous visit and had a bowl each of cous cous with three vegetable sides followed by mint tea.  Delicious!  Then back to the apartment for a siesta/rest and a cup of tea in the garden before the arduous task of choosing a restaurant.

We walked from the flat to Brouwersgracht to find the restaurant that went down in family history as the location of one of Simon’s best jokes.  We were there with Ros and Brian and Rupert and Simon. We can’t remember where Eliot was! And we can’t remember the punchline! Anyway, the restaurant was De Behamel and it was still there.  Sadly they had no tables so we booked for Friday night and went instead to a busy and friendly Italian.

Tourists posing with football fans!

Peter 

Amsterdam Day 1

Here we are again on a short city break.  This time in Amsterdam for 4 nights.  Our Airbnb apartment is on Leliegracht , an attractive street near the centre.  The apartment is at the back of the building and has its own garden, which is a great plus as the sun is shining.

We arrived before the lady who was letting us in, so we had lunch in a vegan restaurant two doors away and fell into conversation with an American couple who complained how hard it is to be vegan in the states - and gluten free! We commiserated - half heartedly!

Then our host came and showed us round the apartment.  First job after unpacking was to head for the supermarket for basic breakfast supplies and a wander round the neighbourhood.  We also bought a new map and a bottle of wine, another basic supply!

sitting room

Garden 

Sitting room

In the evening we ate on our way to the Concertgebouw at a steak restaurant called Venus and Adonis, served by two delightful staff.  We had to run the gauntlet of policemen and mounted police preparing for a huge turnout to celebrate the winners of the Dutch football tournament.  The open space outside the concert hall was filled with toilets and pissoirs. Never seen so many!

The concert was a recital by a trio with a mixed programme some parts of which was more enjoyable than others.   We had excellent seats in the front row of the balcony. 

We took the tram home and had some difficulty in paying for the tickets and knowing where to get off. The vegan Americans were also on the tram!

I had a bad night as I was too cold and had to resort to putting the light on to find a blanket and fiddle with the heating. 

Halesworth, Suffolk

Not quite Cadiz - no sign of a tapas bar - but an alternative outing from Southwold where we retired to console ourselves for the lack of a short break in the sun.   No sun in Southwold though, just high winds and rain at regular intervals.   Hence the outing to Halesworth, which we decided, when we got there, we had never been to before.

Plenty of eating places, a smattering of interesting shops, a large church in need of repair, a pedestrianised high road and many interesting and attractive buildings.

We stopped at Focus Organics for coffee and a browse round their well stocked foodie shelves and alternative therapies.   Then on round the town and up to the church which was announcing a free concert at 12.30 with the possibility of buying a picnic lunch from 12.00.  We thought we'd give it a try and filled in the time before 12.00 with a tour of an antique shop.  The lunch on offer was home made sandwiches, sausage rolls and cake.  We had sandwiches (excellently fresh), a sausage roll each (warm) and two teas.   The concert started at 12.30.  Baroque music played by an enthusiastic but amateur group.  Proceeds of the retiring collection going to repair and adapt the church for more community use.  They have grand plans to which we made a contribution.   The experience was very enjoyable, even if the playing wasn't always great. 

Interesting carved shop front.  Menu looked good too!

High street

Coffee stop

Off to browse

Tuning up

Market Square

The church

Off to Cadiz....and back again in one day!

Doing the crossword in the airport lounge...

Today started at 4.00am.

Still jet lagged from Tokyo we struggled into a taxi first thing this morning and set off for the airport in Norwich to catch the 6.15am flight.   It didn't go until about 7.30 which meant that we missed our flight to Madrid!   We went to the lounge and got into a 2hr long queue (yes, TWO HOURS!) to talk to an assistant about re-booking.   High winds had caused disruption at Amsterdam and a great many people had their plans disrupted.   There were no seats on any flight to Madrid until the following afternoon and that would mean that we had to stay the night in Amsterdam and then stay another night in Madrid as we would miss the last train from Madrid to Cadiz!    A chapter of accidents.

After much research by laptop and discussion we decided to abandon the trip entirely and have standby tickets to return to Norwich on the afternoon flight and are booked on to the evening flight if that doesn't work.   Amazingly it looks as though they will be able to prevent our luggage going to Madrid and it may arrive back in Norwich before us!

Fortunately, our host in Cadiz has accepted a rebooking, so now we are going in September!   Perhaps we will be luckier! 😎😎

Tokyo Reflections

Toilet options

I suppose everyone knows about the toilets in Japan, but they took me by surprise.  This one provided front washing, back washing with options for water pressure, and drying.  Many have music options or flushing sounds to cover your embarassment.  Almost all have heated seats!  There's a button to call for help.  And everywhere, even the public toilets in stations, was spotless. And there are loos everywhere.

Streets are clean and people use the pavements in an orderly fashion, mainly walking on the left.   There is strict discipline at crossing with no-one making a move until the green man shows. Parks were also clean. 

Cars stop for anyone on an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing.  The metro is well signposted in English and there is information in English inside the carriages announcing the next stop. Platforms are well signposted with maps indicating exits.  Again, no litter.   They have the equivalent of the Oyster card called Pasmo.  No one gave up their seat to us on the metro despite our white hair.

Shops are awash with assistants, particularly department stores.  You are bowed at and greeted at every turn.  I thought of John Lewis where it takes a long time to track down an assitant these days.

People in shops and restaurants are polite and friendly.  Many do their best to speak English or go and fetch someone who can.

There's a huge variety of types of Japanese cooking, but not always easy to tell which restaurants are doing what.   Many don't have menus on display in English or plastic replicas.  English versions of the menu tend to show less than what's actually on offer - you don't find out what the specials are for example.    Japanese restaurants don't provide napkins.  Sometimes there are wrapped wet wipes for cleaning up before the meal, which can be used at the end.

On the two days it rained we noticed the huge number of umbrellas moving in tides up and down the streets.  Outside shops and restaurants were stands with plastic bags (long for standard brollies and smaller and squarer for folding umbrellas) and you got a very dusty reception if you failed to wrap your umbrellas before taking it in with you or leaving it on the rack.  Outside museums were large umbrella 'lockers'...rows of holders into which you locked your umbrella, taking the key inside with you.

POSTSCRIPT

KLM postcard

When we boarded the KLM flight from Narita Airport to return to Amsterdam we found a post card on the seat addressed to us both.  This was followed by effusive greetings from 2 of the cabin staff, two glasses of champagne, our meals served before other people's and a posh bag of travel items presented by the Chief Purser!   We were mystified!  Turns out the KLM system said it was my birthday!

Tokyo: Day 5

Today Peter went to his meeting as the respresentative of the Royal Society - the one that paid for the trip!  It was called Science 20 and was attended by delegates from scientific instutions around the world.   They agreed a statement on plastic waste in the oceans.   Peter was amused to find himself seated behind a Union Jack.  In the afternoon the key participants were taken to the residence of Shinzo Abe, the Japanese Prime Minister, where they were rehearsed three times before Mr. Abe appeared and received the statement.  Here they are (left) lined up behind him.  Peter is giving his arm to a German colleague who had difficulty standing for any length of time and, despite requests from Peter, no one from the organising group felt empowered to fetch a chair.  It wasn't in the programme.   There was also a photo of everyone seated and they received instructions about putting clenched fists on their knees.   You can see from the shot that many could not keep up this conformity.

Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister and Peter (right)

Delegates in a row

The delegate from Saudi Arabia

 

In the evening there was a reception at the Paul Baucuse restaurant in the Art Gallery we had visited on our first day.   The buffet food was western and included roast potatoes.   Peter was in seventh heaven!

Rather blurred line up at the reception

Making spoons - sent this to Abe the Whittler!

There were several speeches and the delegate from Saudi Arabia, which will host the next meeting, told everyone what a young and forward looking country it now is.  ??

While Peter was representing his country, I went to explore an exhibition of Japanese artifacts which turned out to be very near our hotel.   Unfortunately they had changed their opening time to accommodate a group of young men filming and I was an hour early.   Rather than go off somewhere else, I whiled away some time in a nearby coffee shop and then returned.   There were some fine things on display, ceramics, laquer ware, carving, wood work etc but all quite expensive and not quite the large ramen bowls I was looking for.   I was in two minds about going back to the Ginza shopping area and going to a couple of department stores or exploring another area of the city which was described as off-beat, full of small boutiques etc.  It was two stops away on the metro and turned out to be a bit disappointing.   Not quite the boutiques I had in mind.  It turned out that the department stores were the best place to buy bowls, but I discovered this too late.

My solo lunch stop

I was looking at a restaurant menu (or rather peering at the plastic replicas in the window) when a Japanese looking woman with long grey hair and an impeccable English/American accent advised me not to go to that restaurant!   She told me about somewhere much better just nearby and took me there.   She would have ushered me across the road, but I felt that if I didn't fancy it when I got there she might be disappointed.  The restaurant she pointed out was open but there was no menu outside and no indication of what type of food they were offering but it looked like an interesting building (albeit under a flyover) and I went in.  Turned out to be very traditional with middle aged waitresses in kimonos and was basically a noodle restaurant.   I had soba noodles in soup with chicken on top and a tray of things to add to the soup - onion, sesame, and a couple of unidentifiable things.  It was very good! 

I did a little more wandering around after lunch and was taken by photos in a window and the sight of men rounding up bikes parked on the pavement and hurling them into the back of a lorry.   At least two had child seats on the back! 

Bike round up

Mom and Pop and Twins

And that was the end of the trip.