Wonderful Weesp

 We are back home, returned a couple of days ago. We spent the last night in Vinkeveen where we had picked up and now returned our boat. The marina is filled with many boats that are permanently docked there, and what seemed like an equal number of LeBoat boat rentals. Ours, the Cirrus B, is the smallest boat they rent, which sleeps two comfortably and would work  for a family with a couple of kids.  

On our travels and at the dock we marvelled at the larger boats which hold from 4 passengers to up to 12, with multiple cabins and bathrooms. I don't think I'd enjoy being in such close quarters with so many others, nor do I think Loring would be comfortable navigating a much larger boat. Although he did well with ours, he did express a certain amount of nervousness especially while navigating locks and docking the boat, especially when he needed to back in. 

Cruising along the canals was wonderful, the experience onboard as delightful as the places we visited. It is amusing that some of the places we went are much more accessible by car or public transportation than be boat. But that was fine. We didn't even mind crusing some canals several times when the bridges weren't working and we were stuck for several days between two locations that we went back and forth between.

I regret that we didn't get to many of the places we had intended to visit, including Delft and Leiden. Amsterdam had been tentative from the start because from what I read it's overrun with tourists. (like us, I know.)  I wouldn't have minded spending a day there, especially to visit either the Rijkmuseum or the Van Gogh. But I also don't much regret not going there. 

We did visit Gouda, but by bus from our mooring in Maarssen if I am remembering right, and also the town of Oudekerk, which had been on our route but we might not have visited otherwise. Gouda is a popular tourist stop, and as you probably know, famous for its cheese. They have a weekly cheese market, which we weren't there for. I understand it involves some slapping as a form of bidding on or paying for the large rounds of cheese. I suppose I should look that up. But I don't mind that we werent there for the market. I did write more about Gouda in a previous post. 

Oudework was a treat, especially since we had no expectations of what we'd find there.

We also went to Utrecht by bus on another day, which we probably would have done anyway. Only electric boats are allowe into the city. 

And Weesp was a delight which we might not have discovered if not for the bridge closure situation. I had looked at it breifly before we left home, mostly as a possible last night and also a jumping board for a day trip to Amsterdam. It's pretty close to both. But I hadn't really looked into what there was to do there. So that was another unexpected treat.

Our passage along the Vespe river, much wider than the canals, had given us a bit of trepidation because of its size and also the amount of traffic, including a large number of huge barges. But in fact it was quite interesting,  and surprisingly relaxing,  although nowhere as scenic as the canals, . Most interesting were the many barges, to which of course we had to cede the right of way. It was hard to imagine someone piloting a boat so large, where it didn't seem like the pilot could even see over the length of the boat from the back. It wasn't clear how many crew members were on board. But some of them had cars aboard. I imagine their voyages were long. I wonder where they travelled to and from. Some were clearly fuel tankers;  it wasn't possible to discern what most others carried. 

It's hard to know what we missed by not going to many of the towns we'd planned to. I would have liked to visit them, but who knows if we would have enjoyed them more than the ones we did spend time in. We didn't see much of Utrecht when we went in for the day, but did enjoy the museum and the Miffy artist's exhibit. Who remembers Miffy and all the cute little books by Dick Bruna? I hadn't known that he was Dutch, but it was interesting to learn about him and see his recreated studio. There was also a Miffy Museum across the street, which we didn't make it to.  

One thing we did not see much of was art. There are an amazing number of artists that were Dutch, Vermeer, Van Gogh,  Hals, Rembrandt, Mondrian, many others some of whom were known to me, and many others who were not. I would certainly have  liked to see the Girl With the Pearl Earring and some of the others. Including a number of woman artists who hadn't received the attention they deserved until more recent times. Of course we saw replicas of all the Bosch paintings and much more about him including the parade and his house. That brings to my mind the question of how important it is to see the original vs. an excellent reproduction, or even an enhanced copy via modern technology. What makes it important to see the originals at all? Is it anything more than an item to check off a so called bucket list?  I don't have an answer, Let me know if you do. 

What we did gain via the extreme heat that limited our travels was to visit some interesting and less touristed towns that we might not otherwise discovered or spent much time in. Those include Maarsson, Breukelin, Oudewater, and Weesp. 

I've written previously about some of those towns. But let me tell you about Weesp, our last stop before returning to the lake and Vinkeveen. Weesp is a short distance from Amsterdam, so I would recommend it as a possible base if you are visiting the area. It is a charming and scenic town, with a number of shops and restaurants. But what really made the town for us were two sites that Loring discovered via Google maps. That often seems to identify places that other sources don't. 

First was the town museum. It is located on the second floor of the town hall which is still in use. A woman at the museum told us it's a popular site for weddings. We didn't get to see the hall, but another employee showed us the former prison cells located on the lower level.  The museum itself is small, just a couple of rooms. But sometimes these small museums are hidden treasures. Weesp was apparently famous for two things, its painted pottery and the renowned Van Houten chocolate company. The pottery preceeded the more famous Delft pottery that came later. They had a number of examples, somewhat different from any pottery that I am familiar with. Some pieces had tiny insects painted onto the bucolic scenes. A temporary exhibit featured a modern potter with some of her pieces interspersed with the antique ones. 

Best of all, in my opinion, was the room devoted to Van Houten chocolate. The walls were lined with gorgeous deco posters advertising the product, and the middle of the room was glass cases filled with other company paraphenalia, including tins and boxes and all kinds of accoutremens related to the company's products. It was visually stunning and just the kind of display that has great appeal to me. I took a lot of pictures. I'll post a few on facebook.

Our final stop in Weesp was at the Weesper Automaten Kabinet. It was described on Google as currently only open to rent for parties.  We decided to walk by, as it was not out of our way in the small town center, We thought we might be able to peer in the window. We came up to the window but before we could try to look in a man came to the door. It was the owner. He was happy to let us in. We wandered through the several rooms in absolute wonder. Ever inch of space was covered, mostly with antique arcade games. He told us this was actually just a small part of his collection. There were also pinball machines, old claw machines, carousel animals, much more. We were both in total awe. He told us that all the machines were in working condition. He had a few of them running and would probably operated more if we had asked. He also told us that this was where he lived and the room we were in was his living room. I wonder what his bedroom looks like.  I never got his name. 

I am tempted to have a party there, maybe a destination significant anniversary party. Not that I would expect anyone I know to make a trip there. But if you do happen to be in the Netherlands, I highly suggest you make an effort to go to Weesp and try to schedule a visit to the Kabinet. 

What I am going to suggest to our nephew and niece-to-be, who are planning to get married in December,  is that they go there for their honeymoon. They are both pinball addicts and would absolutely love this place. They could also visit Breukelin on their trip, the original town for which Brooklyn NY is named. They live in  New York's  Brooklyn. Or maybe they could just forgo their current plans to get married in New York and get married at the Weesp  town hall with the party at the Kabinet. Aaron and Ilana, if you are reading this, I know there are klezmer bands in the Netherlands! I am kidding about changing the wedding plans, but not about the honeymoon suggestion!

Well, this seems as good a place to end this Netherlands saga as any. If I think of anything more that I haven't described, I will add another post. In the meantime, I will post this and then post a last round of pictures on facebook. 

We arrive by boat in Maarsden (sorry, this one's out of order because I updated it. It goes earlier in the trip after the first couple of posts.)

Writing from the town of Maarsden, a small and charming place. We arrived yesterday afternoon after boating for a couple of hours from the mooring just outside of Vinkeveen, where we'd gotten the boat and our training the day before. There are moorings all over the place, some with services, others without. 

I am going to backtrack and describe some of the other things we did in den Bosch, our first location, before hopefully catching up to where we are now, on our third day out from Vinkeveen.  

Between parade viewings, we visited several other local sites. First, the Bosch museum. Sadly, most of Bosch's original paintings are not in den Bosch or even in the Netherlands. His most famous work, the Garden of Earthly Delights, is in El Prado in Madrid. As are several other of his paintings. But this museum has high quality reproductions, in accurate size. In a way, it is better to be able to view all of them in one setting, even though they aren't the originals. There are some short films, other works inspired by Bosch, and a pretty amazing clock that operates once an hour. It's not old, created in 2010, with Bosch as inspiration. There are little figures that come out of a door in a procession, and then exit throught another door. Then other naked bodies emerge in a different space and dive into what seems to be the mouths of demons. Very Boschesque. The clock face has all kinds of dials and symbols to indicate night and days, the day of the year, astrological symbol, more. You can peer into the back of the clock to see the intricate gears and workings. 

We also went to visit Bosch's house, where he'd grown up, and took a self guided tour with video stations in each room. It's pretty small, and they only let a few people at a time, which was fine. I asked where the inhabitants had slept. The man answered that they don't know for sure, can only guess. There is an elevator which I took advantage of, because the steps are pretty steep. But I did walk down the staircase that was original and hence where Bosch himself had trod. There was one small alcove above the entryway that had two lifesize figures, and I guessed that was where some of the family, maybe the parents, had slept. One of thehistorical novels I've been reading that takes place in the 17th century, a little after Bosch's time, talks about box beds. I am guessing the ones at his house may be that. I'll have to check.

We left den Bosch for Vinkeveen by private car, about an hour's drive. Distances between places here are very short by car. But much longer by boat via the canals on the leisurely boat trip we are taking. 

Eating and reading

We are coming to the end of our Dutch sojourn. Tonight we are back on the lake at Vinkeveen. At the other side of the lake is the marina where LeBoat, the rental company, is located. We plan to stay here tonite, very close to where we spent our first night out of Vinkeveen. And tomorrow night we will stay at the marina, pack up, and catch a taxi to the airport in the morning. 

All in all it's been a great trip, despite the issues with the extreme heat that totally changed our plans. But before I catch up, a little about what we ate and what we've read. We've done a lot of both. 

Whenever we travel we try to find literature that takes place in or reflects the places we are visiting. There's a lot of historic novels that take place in the Netherlands. We tried to pick a few. Most of them seem to take place in the 17th century, and most seem to feature a young woman and a painting or paintings. Maybe it's what I'll call the Pearl Earring Girl effect. You probably remember either the book or the movie or both. I loved the book, but it's also the only time I can think of that I found the movie even better. It was either Scarlett Johanssen's first film  or at least the one that first made her famous. About the famous Vermeer painting, the Girl With the Pearl Earring. It's in the Riksmuseum in Amsterdam. We never made it into Amsterdam, and I didn't really intend to, although I would like to have spent at least part of a day there to see either the Rijks or the Van Gogh museum. But it sounds so crowded and overtouristed that it wasn't high on my list. 

The books I read set here were A History of the Netherlands in Thirty Objects, a clever approach to the culture, Midnight Blue, about a young woman who becomes a painter of the famous blue pottery Delft and other places are famous for. Next, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, which takes places in modern times and the 17th century and involves the forgery of a painting. Loring is reading that now, as I write. I am currently reading a book about three teenage women who defied the Nazis called Three Ordinary Girls. I haven't read any Holocaust related books in a long time. So far this one is intriguing, because it depicts the country from the viewpoint of non Jewish citizens. And it is frighteningly similar to current events in our own country. 

I had read the Miniaturist a few years ago and recommended it to Loring. And we saw an elaborate dollhouse at the Utrecht museum that may well have been its inspiration. 

He started another 17th century romance that was so cringeworthy a romance that he soon gave it up, and I didn't even look at it. I think that one was The Colorist.  

And we both read a book called The Dutch Waterways which was descriptive of exactly what it says. 

I have probably left out one or two. 

Now, on to food. We have largely eaten and cooked on the boat, which has been great fun. We've shopped at supermarkets at several places along the way. For the first three days we were in a hotel in den Bosch, so ate in restaurants. Breakfasts were in cafes, mostly pastries and cappuccinos for me,  breakfasty sandwiches and coffee for Loring. On our boat journey, we didn't eat often in restaurants, just once in a while for lunch. Onboard, it was either granola with yogurt and bananas or bakery bread and eggs cooked on our stove. For lunches or dinners we often had bread or crackers with cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes, and either smoked salmon (more smoked than lox) and prosciutto or something similar. Our dinners onboard were most often pasta with spinach and cheese, which is what we will have tonite. This is like a dream come true for me. It is rare and startling for Loring to concede and even recommend pasta, whereas I can eat it endlessly. We've had both fresh and dried pasta, and found the dried in shapes we don't have at home. We've bought frozen spinach which here comes in adorable little cubes. And either packaged or fresh cheese or cheese sauce. I'm getting hungry as I write. 

Many have their own specialty sweets. In den Bosch it is Boschbollen, which I've previously posted photos of and maybe described too. It's a ball of pastry filled with cream and covered in chocolate. Incredibly good. Yesterday in a different town I saw them in a bakery and ordered one. It was good but not nearly as good as the ones in den Bosch. Only the top was covered in chocolate and the pastry wasn't nearly as good as in the town they are named for. Aren't I erudite? Or is it snobbish?

OUr refrigerator is filled with the things I've mentioned. We have gouda cheese from Gouda, which I have to confess we don't like as much as the cheese we got in the supermarket. Then again   there were at least a couple dozen varieties the the Gouda cheese store, so maybe we just didn't choose the right one. Even though we tried almost every one. In Gouda, in additon to cheese, they are famous for a pastry called sirupwafel, two waffle cookies with a caramel filling in between. I may have already written about them in a previous post. We have some of those, as well as delicious chocolate cookies that I am hoping to take some home of. 

I previously mentioned bitterballen, which are a kind of bar food, and really good. Yesterday I ordered a lunch of croquettes which were basically bitterballen in a different elongated shape. 

There are foods I remember from my visits here over fifty years ago, mostly for their names. There's the rijstaffel and nasi and bami goreng. They are all Indonesian-Dutch foods, from the time that the Netherlands colonized Indonesia. The rijstaffel is a spread of about 20 small dishes with rice. The nasi and bami are rice and noodle dishes, although I can't remember which is which. I would like to have tried them again on this trip, but Loring isn't as big on either noodles or rice( except for our onboard pasta/spinach/cheese concoctions.)

And then there's jenever, which is a gin-like alcohol that I am drinking right now as I write.   I have been drinking it with club soda most every night. I think I remember it originally from Belgium rather than here, but am not sure. 

Loring has tried to order his usual martini when wev'e been in restaurants, but they seem to only be familiar with it as a mixed drink it a can, and don't know how to makea it. Oh well. Beer and jenever will do.

I will stop now and cook our typical (to us) pasta dinner. 

No Experience Needed, No License Required

 

That's the slogan of LeBoat, the company we've rented our boat from. It's a large company, with locations in a number of countries, France, Scotland,  Canada, a few more. I wonder if the no license part is true in all the countries. 

Our boat is the smallest they have, the Cirrus B. It's great for two, or a family with a couple of kids. They have a number of larger boats, some of which we've seen in our travels. I'm not sure I'd recommend the trip to  someone with no experience. Loring has some, with smaller day boats like the Boston whaler we had in the Bahamas, and the one his family had in New Hampshire. That one was about half the length of this one, and much easier to manouever. Here you need to be able to navigate through bridges, and locks, and it's not so easy to dock either. And I am of little use, can barely toss the ropes ashore and only if we are very close to the dock. I am a happy passenger but not a very helpful boater. Luckily there has often been someone on shore, another boater or someone personing the lock, to help. 

And I feel like the slogan, written on the side of the boat, brands us as newcomers. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. 

We are now docked in Breukelin, have been here overnight. It's the original town for which Brooklyn New York was named.  It's another charming little town, with a number of restaurants, at least half of them with Asian cuisine.   We did find one with more Dutch style food, which included a lot of steak dishes, so not exactly local cuisine. Had a nice meal of a steak salad, sauteed vegetables, mushrooms, and fries. It's actually the first time we've had fries here, although they are very popular, served in a paper cone on the street. They eat them with mayonnaise, which is the way I eat them at home too. I think the Dutch spelling is frietes. Did you know that French fries is a misnomer, because they actually originated in Belgium?  And who remembers when our over patriotic government renamed them Freedom Fries after France refused to support the Iraq war?  

Breukelin also has a number of shops, most of them women's clothing, shoe stores, etc. Outside one shoe store was a rack of Dutch souvenirs, almost entirely miniature wooden shoes. But I spied a magnet that had both Breukelin names, and bought it for Aaron and Ilana who live in Brooklyn. Do you think anyone else has ever given a refrigerator magnet as a wedding present? There are also several barber and hair salons, which seems to be the case in evert town. And wellness spas seem common too.

We will soon leave Breukelin for Weesp, which will probably be our last stop before returning to Vinkeveen and returning the boat on our last night. I think we have three nights left. It's hard to keep track.  Loring had plotted out our route back to Vinkeveen from Weesp, before he called the leBoat office this morning to reserve a taxi back to the airport. Lucky he asked them about the route, because they told him that the planned route was impassable because of weeds, and that there was an X on the map they gave us to indicate that. The online app he's mostly been using  doesn't indicate that, although it's got lots of information. So it's certainly a good thing the subject came up or we'd have been in for a very long and frustrating last day. Of course, who knows what's in store for us for the next few days. One thing we've learned on this trip is to be very flexible. Although I doubt that the recent heat wave has been much of a problem, if any, in the past. 

 

Life on the water

We are now anchored in Nieuwegein for the night, after spending one more night at the marina. We have basically been backtracking our original route, where we had intended to do a circle clockwise from where we started and will return in Winkeveen, outside Amsterdam. But that has all been changed by the bridges not being in operation. So we spent several days back and forth between the marina and Montfoord, and now do not have enough time to continue through Delft, Leiden, Haarlem, possibly Amsterdam and a couple of other stops we'd had in mind if there was time. 

Our new plan: up to Breuklin tomorrow, then Weesp, maybe a foray or two by bus or train to Leiden and perhaps another place. Weesp is between Amsterdam and Vinkeveen, where we have to return the boat and then head to the airport and home. We haven't hit half the places we'd hoped to, and have spent more time in a couple than we'd have liked to. The marina isn't in the town and isn't particularly aesthetic. Then again, we'd not have experienced the wedding at the marina between the Dutch man and the woman from Cameroon. Or the teens  jumping from the bridge in the extreme heat. Or Loring jumping off the boat to swim, as he did daily in the heat, while the wedding goers posing for pictures on the bridge looked when they heard the splash. 

I haven't written much about life on the boat. It's been quite enjoyable, wherever we've been. There's a quiet calm about travelling on the water. Loring, who's responsible for steering, getting us under bridges and through locks, probably wouldn't agree about the calmness. I get to just sit on the bow or up top with Loring and watch the scenes go by.  It's been fascinating to see the homes go by as we motor along. Even the parts we've travelled a few times between the bridges we couldn't pass thru have been enjoyable to observe repeatedly. There's a fair amount of bird life along the canals, mostly ducks of various kinds, some geese, and at the marina, two beautiful black swans. And other songbirds in the trees that I hear more than see. 

The homes, in town and along the canals, are for the most part aesthetically pleasing. They seem to follow a fairly traditional form, although some are more modern with lots of glass and starker designs. It's hard for me to discern from what time period they are. In den Bosch some buildings were so well kept that I assumed they were modern in traditional style. Until I saw the dates, in some cases from the 17th century. They have either been incredibly well kept or restored. 

Everyone waves. People on other boats, people on shore walking their dogs or sitting on their decks. Today a women waved to me from inside her second floor window as we tooled along on the canal. 

 Bicycles. They are the predominant mode of transportation, and you see them everywhere. Sitting in a cafe there's a constant parade of people pedalling by. Some are electric, most are not, many have only one gear. And many of them are carrying more than one passenger. There are many families on bikes, often with a child in back, even more often a bucket in front with one or a couple of children. And lots of fairly young kids riding on their own. And people our age. There are also people riding electric mobility scooters or trikes. They are many more than you'd see at home, and they blend in more with all the other vehicles on wheels. 

And there are many less cars. In some city streets they are not allowed at all, or only delivery trucks and maybe residents are.  There are bike paths everywhere, and walkers need to stay clear of the bicylists. 

When we pass through a bridge and I see the bike and car traffic waiting, I wonder if people are frustrated by being held up by us, like we are by a train at home. Or maybe they just accept it as a natural part of their lives. 

I find living on a boat very appealing. Everything is compact but there is space for everything. We have a double bed and several cabinets in the bedroom at the rear. Then there's the bathroom and several closets and cabinets. Near the front is the kitchen and living area. There's a table and enough seating for at least four, and two cushioned benches that convert into beds that would work great for children. Sink, refrigerator, stove, even an oven. There's a surprising amount of space for clothes, food, etc.  More than in your typical hotel room by far. It's a pleasure to have your possessions with you and not have to cart them from location to location. And there's room fore and aft to sit as well as up above where the steering wheel is. There's a second wheel inside for bad weather, but we haven't had to use it. I imagine that RVers must feel the same kind of pleasure and satisfaction in bringing your accomodations along with you. But to me this seems more appealing because you are on the water, and in a scenic setting.

I'll stop here for today. Time to start a new book. As always, we try to choose literature appropriate to where we are travelling. This time, we have several historical novels, all set in the 17th century. I'm getting a bit tired of those, will try next a novel called the Black Tulip, by  Dumas, author of The Three Muskateers. Don't know if I'll get into it, we'll see. I'll try to write some more about what we've been reading in a future post. 

Stranded!

 Well, nothing has gone quite according to plan on our adventure. As I've said earlier on, the extreme heatwave here has affected our travels seriously. On any trip on the canals here, you are limited by the height of your boat and the height of the multiple bridges you need to pass under or through. Small day boats can pass under many of them. We are neither the smallest nor anywhere near the largest on the waters. At every bridge below the very largest, on the highways, the height is listed on the waterways app, Waterkaarten. Unless there is a person at the bridge full time, one needs to telephone on arrival to request the bridge to open. It's fun, up to a certain point. ( of course I can easily say that as I am not the one piloting the boat. Some bridges will then automatically open. At others you need to wait for the bridge person to come. More than once we've had the same person arrive on bicycle, then move up to open the next bridge.  There are light signals to indicate one can go under if you can clear the bridge, red and green to indicate the bridge is about to open, then green when it's okay to go through. This is complicated by tahe fact that when you call you get a recording naming a number of bridges and which number to push for each bridge. All in Dutch, of course. But we are getting better at understanding the numbers and the names of the bridges. 

All of this is just prelude to what has left us seriously stranded for days. The bridge that would ha²ve let us pass beyond Monfoort and continue on our journey has been inoperable for days due to the extreme heat. So have many other bridges been. So we basically tooled back and forth between Monfoort and  the marina at IJsselstein where there is electricity, showers, water to refillll our tank, and a pumpout for the waste tank, all important. We are not really using electricity for much, except the refrigerator, but it wouldn't be fun to not have cold drinks, especially during the heat wave. And we do have other food requiring refrigeration, like yogurt, cheese, butter. 

So our plan changed out of necessity. The distances by road here are actually much shorter, though not as scenic or pleasant. So we took busses from Montfoord to different towns on two days, to Ouldewater one day, and to Gouda on another. Gouda, the famous cheese town, had been on our itinerary. We would probably just have passed through Oudewater on our original plan. It is actually a quite pleasant town, lots of typical architecture, small canals, and a history of witches that the town capitalizes on, of course. The people immediately reacted when we mentioned we were from the city next to Salem, MA. The man noticed Loring's t shirt from the Salem film festival, which Loring hadn't even realized he was wearing.  The small museum was originally a weighing house, and the original large scale was still there. 

It turns out that Oudewater was known for its tolerance, and that women accused of witchcraft went there to prove their innocence by being weighed. Witches were supposed to be very light in weight, which enabled them to fly. If you were heavy enough you weren't a witch and would be issued a certificate to say so. Now, visitors can get on the scale to be weighed and are then issued a certificate to say they weren't a witch. So we both now are certified as free of witchiness. It was all done with equal measures of seriousness and tongue-in-cheekness. 

I tried to explain there are people in Salem and elsewhere today that consider themselves witches, or Wiccans, but that they use their powers for good. I don't think they really believed me. And in the back of my mind I kept hearing Glinda's question of "are you a good witch or a bad witch?"

Gouda, our next destination by bus, was a little beyond Oudewater, but only about a half hour from Montfoord. It's a tourist town, for sure, with lots of cheese shops and also siropwafels,  the other food for which the town is famous. They are waffle cookies with a caramel like layer sandwiched between two cookies. At about 10am the town was remarkably quiet, but within an hour or two many more people were on the streets, both visitors and locals. Thursdays are the days when the cheese market takes place, and I am sure it's much more crowded then. From what I've seen and read it's somewhat of a ritualistic and touristic event, but also a real market that has been taking place for centuries. There's some kind of slapping that goes along with people purchasing the huge cheese wheels, which I haven't quite figured out. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad that we missed the market day. 

Gouda has a church that is the longest church in the country, 123  meters and lined with impressive stained glass windows  ranging from the 16th century up to nearly the present. One from 1945 depicted concentration camp survivors in one panel of a window depicting victory. Another one showed the defeat of tyranny in a much older century. During WWII the panels of the old windows were dissassembled, stored in wooden crates in various places, and reinstalled after the war. The church had originally been Catholic, but then became Protestant, and still is. I don't know how common that is, I hadn't heard about anything like that before. But then there's a lot about religion that I don't understand. I'll have to check with AI. 

We had bought a combined ticket for the church and the town museum, as the person at the church had suggested. But when we got to the museum, we discovered that it's closed on Mondays. Luckily the church was just around the corner, so we went back. The woman was apologetic and they promptly refunded our money. I think she was new and/or didn't realize the museum was closed that day. Too bad, as I realized later that the museum has a wonderful tile collection. The town of Delft, which I'd hoped to  go to, is famous for its blue and white tile and ceramics. But in fact it was also produced in Gouda, and, I think, a few other nearby towns.

Just as we were strolling through town and Loring mentioned that he didn't mind sitting and reading when we didn't have a particular agenda, I spotted a second hand clothing store. I mean literally at the same moment. So, he spent probably a half hour sitting and reading while I found several appealing and very reasonable pieces of clothing. One from the three euro bin, which I am wearing right now. 

Hot days on the water

 We a

re currently anchored at a marina in IJstellstein, where we spent last night. This was not in the plan, tentative though it's been. The day before we'd left Maarssen for Montfoord, going under and through numerous bridges and a lock or two. We spent the night there, in a charming smalll town, stocked up on groceriess, cooked dinner on the boat. But....

Well the heat wave that's hit Europe has created the highest temperatures ever recorded in the Netherlands. One effect that has directly affected us is that the low bridge in the town, which we would need opened to pass through, is stuck closed due to the heat. Yesterday it hit 100 F. So we decided to backtrack an hour or so to where we are now.

The bridge is still closed, as are many others. It's good that we've been somewhat flexible in our plans, and do not have a set series of destinations. But there are towns that we definitely want to visit, including Gouda, Delft, and Leiden. Gouda, famous for its cheese (the correct pronunciation is Chowda, with a gutteral ch, or just Howda for those of us who can't do the gutteral sound. It doesn't exist in English, but does in Hebrew and other languages like Arabic.) That's probably why I can pronounce it and Loring and most Americans can't. By the way, this sound is also the proper pronunciation of van Gogh, with end sound the same gutteral. So if you want to impress people, or, more likely, amuse them try pronouncing the cheese or the painter with the hard ch sound next time the subject comes up. 

So here we are at this marina, not sure there even is a town here. One good thing is that they have showers here, and toilets, and a restaurant. We do have a shower, or at least a showerhead, onboard, but we haven't yet used it. It seems that it will flood the entire bathroom, which probably isn't a terrible thing. But with the heat, I've just been having Loring dump buckets of water from the canal over my head. And he has just been jumping in the water at every opportunity. I would probably go in the water too if I had a way to get out. The bottom rung on our boat's ladder is too high for me, nearly too high for Loring to hoist himself out. 

One source of entertainment while we've been docked here is watching people jump from  the bridge. This is one of the high ones that many, but not all boats can pass under. It's about 15 feet high. Every bridge's height is indicated on the boating app, and also every boat's height is written on it. Ours is about 8 and a half feet at the height of the upper deck and steering wheel. All afternoon yesterday a group of teenagers, mostly boys, jumped repeatedly into the water. Once, the adults staying in the camper right next to us(there are folks camping here as well as boaters) people probably in their 30s, jumped in as well. They are here in two campers, a younger and and an older couple, I am guessing the parents of one of the younger one. 

I wonder how much people normally jump in or even just go in the water, and how much is due to the extreme heat. 

And there's a fairly constant parade of boats in the canal, of all sizes. Some with couples, some with families, some with groups of young adults and lots of beer. Everyone is very friendly, nearly everyone waves or says hi as they pass by. There are periodically people on paddleboards. But we've seen nearly no one in a kayak or a canoe. 

Everyone we've come across is Dutch. They speak to us in Dutch, which makes me glad that we don't stick out as tourists.  And everyone speaks English, very good English.

Our boat is labelled on the side, with their slogan of No license necessary, no experience necessary. Which does make me feel branded as a novice. 

Today we will go back to Monfoort, on our original path, although we don't think the bridge is open. There's no practical other route by boat to Gouda. Most likely we will stay there again tonight, and with luck the bridge will be open tomorrow. The heat is finally supposed to subside by then. We are wondering if there will be a backup of boats waiting to go through. 

Alternately, there's the land route. If necessary we could go by bus or uber from Montfoord to Gouda.  But that takes all the fun out of it. 

Two delightful days in Marssen.

 We tied up in the center of the town. Both sides of the canal were lined with beautiful and meticulously maintained houses, and some estates. Our Other boats were on either side of us. Most everyone we've met, on the streets, in shops, on the water, are Dutch. But the folks docked next to us, in a boat much bigger than ours, were American. We asked where they were from, and they said Florida, and New York. But they had sold their house to buy the boat, and spent several months of the year on it.  When we came back from dinner, in a cafe on the other side of the canal, they invited us aboard for a drink. But I was exhausted and begged out. The next morning they were gone. I would have loved to know more about their lifestyle, where they spent the rest of the year, where they left the boat when they weren't on it, etc. But never got to ask. Oh well. 

They were one of the very few Americans we've run into.

Our dinner at the cafe had been more appetizers than dinner, all fried foods, as the waiter had explained . He said most restaurants were  closed Mondays and Tuesdays, because there wasn't enough business. And they only served the fried foods. I had a limoncello spritz, and Loring has been drinking gin and tonic because they don't seem to be familiar with martinis except as a canned pre mixed drink, which they didn't have.

Our full day in Marrssen we actually spent in Utrecht. It's a two bus ride from Marrssen, which we managed to mostly handle. You needed to pay by credit card and use a different card for each person. I am not sure why. And you need to check out when you leave or you are subject to a fine. Thexdrivers were very accommodating when our second card, an amex, didn't work, and just waved us thru, and then we snuck thru the exit gate together. 

Utrecht is the Dutch town I spent time in over 50 years ago. I don't think I ever went beyond the beautiful old city. I remember being able see the famous Dom tower from my friends ' house. What we saw of the old town is still beautiful.  We mostly spent our time at the Central Museum. We are in the middle of a heat wave. More about that later. And so our goal was to spend as much time as possible in an air condoned environment. 

i

Floating visions

 That's what they call the event. Floating Visions: Bosch reimagined.

And this year's theme is Powered by Defects. Ok. And some exerpts from the program:

"Defects can be found everywhere, poverty, unrisen cakes, badly dressed carnival goers, long term illness."

 I get the point but it's a rather odd conglamoration of examples. Of which those are only a few. 

The first float are the heralds announcing the parade.  And the defects in all of our lives. We of course didn't understand anything. 

Then, the SOS float. The designers collected bottles from patients and staff at a local hospital, and a

 "wish creature" announces  their wishes from a vessel filled with seaweed-like sculptures.

Apparently in Bosch's time sailors in danger would throw bottles with their final cries for help.

I will try to describe a few more of the floats, the ones I liked the best.

Meerklank is a floating barrel with open ends with four people in black black aboard, walking forward to keep the barrel rolling, It represents moving forward despite flaws, partly submerged and having to move forward to keep from sinking. This one was Loring's favorite, and one  we didn't need to understand any language to appreciate.

Perhaps my favorite was called The lazy curious innovative human. Three women are on individual small platforms linked to one another, drawn by a fourth person in a small float in front. Each has white kitelike wings. They are all different, one is on a ladder. It's quite elegant. The program explains that they are taking on the invincible force of graity, and in doing so lay bare the flaws we all possess. Sometimes it's better not to know the explanation! 

Another elegant float was called Als verlangen dansen. I will have to look up the translation. It was created by a woman intrigued by dancing from childhood, but who suffered an injury at the age of twelve. Now she wants to keep dancing., this time with other women who want to dance despite being burned out, being pregnant, etc. It was another visually appealing one. A half dozen dancers in a variety of black and red attire, on a triangular float intersected by a number of barres.   The float is motored by another half dozen women in the water, all wearing red bathing caps. And two of them perform synchronized swimming moves ahead of the float.

The last one I'll describe is De fanfare van oliedom. "we are all addicted to oil."  " this depicts and sets to music our addictive complacency...and insatiablel greed with a boisterous orchestra." The float is set upon oil drums, with others atop it played as drums. and musicians wearing oil  can funnels as hats, everything painted a bright blue. This float was powered by several people pedaling.  "They hammer their message to the quays. Will it be hellilsh noise or heavenly music?" 

The parade takes an hour. We watched it once in our purchased grandstand seats, and then two days later from an embankment on the other side of the river and further down, giving us a different perspective. 

It was low key and I'd guess almost entirely local and other Dutch people.  I'm glad we finally did it. 

We are now on our boat, docked along a spit of land not too far from where we embarked. We had a lesson from the staff and were on our way. I'll describe the first part of our boat trip as well as the other things we did between the two parades we attended, in my next post. 

First nights in the Netherlands

Our complimentary charcuterie board which i think they call a plank.

 We are in the town of den Bosch in the Netherlands, home of the 17th century painter Hieronymous Bosch. You may be familar with his work. He is best known for his depiction of his cleverly  grotesque scenes of hell and demons, especially the Garden of Earthly Delights tryptich . Until now I thought the town was named for him. It's actually the other way around, as I found out on a visit to his home this morning.  His family name was different. He took the name den Bosch, "from Bosch" which the museum video mentioned was a clever bit of marketing, so that people would know where to find him. 

Let me explain the motivation for this trip. Several years ago I saw a video on fb of the Bosch parade. It was a parade of floats on the river Dommnel in town,  inspired by Bosch's work. In the back of my mind I thought, some day I'd like to go to that. I thought that was four or five years ago, until fb showed me I had posted a video of the parade ten years ago. I guess my concept of time these days  is not very accurate. 

So, seeking inspiration for our next travels, I saw the dates of this year's parade were in late June,just the time I was looking to go. And so, we built a trip based on this funky little parade.  It happens four or five times over the period of three days, a few in the afternoon and a few at 8pm. I decided we should go twice, once in the evening and once in the afternoon. The parade itself is free, but for better viewing you can buy tickets at two different locations along the route. Which I did. 

I;m not sure how  many of the attendees are local and how many from afar. The majority of the people we've seen at the parade and in town are Dutch speaking. We've heard English sporadically, but most of it not Americans. Many visitors speak English, but as a second language, and it's the default language for foreigners. And almost all Dutch people speak good English, in some cases flawless. 

For our trip, the parade was the inspiration, but not the main focus. We decided to rent a boat for two weeks, and will embark on that part of our adventure tomorrow. I had looked for boat trips online, but not bike and barge trips or cruises. I eventuallly came upon sites where you could rent a boat to drive yourselves, and for which you needed neither a license or any experience. 

And so tomorrow we begin the next part of our adventure. We will travel to Vinkeveen, the home base of the Le Boat company, from which we will be renting our Cirrus Two cabin cruiser. After an hour long training we will be off on our own for two weeks, boating to wherever we would like. They provide some potential itineraries, routes and places to stop along the way. But there is no set itinerary. We have some tentative plans of places we would like to visit, but will improvise as we go. I am excited but also a bit nervous; have never done anything like this before. 

So let me tell you about our stay here in den Bosch and the parade. We are at the Golden Tulip Hotel in the center of the old town. It's a charming town and a nice hotel. One problem, however, When we went to check in, they told us that there was a problem with the air conditioning  in the old part of the hotel. It had been broken for a couple of days. They gave us a choice, either the room we'd reserved,which had a view of the main plaza and a small balcony, or another room with air conditioning in the newer part. Oh, and did I mention that we are here in the middle of a hear wave?! It's been in the 90s when typical temperatures are in the 70s.  So, as you might have guessed, we took the air conditioned room. To compensate they gave us a voucher for two drinks and a charcuterie board in the hotel restaurant. And after I asked they said they would also give us a partial refund for the less expensive room. The charcuterie board was impressive, including not just the meats and cheese but also shrimp tempura and fried wontons and some other treats.  As the price on the menu for that was over $25, and then the drinks about $10 each, i guess that was a pretty nice compensation. 

The first night we went to the parade and sat in the grandstand seats we had purchased. One thing, though. We had envisioned a night time performance. But the parade was aat 8pm, and it doesn't get dark until about 10pm. 

The parade was delightful and low key. It's certaninly not a major event in the country, which was fine. I am not sure that all the locals are even aware of it. When we were waiting for the train here from the Amsterdam airport we asked a man on the platform if the train we wanted would be on the track we thought it would be. He said he was also going to den Bosch. I asked if he was going to the parade, and he said no, he was going home.  I don't think he even knew what I was referring to.

So, to the parade. In fact it was unnecessary to buy tickets, although it was nice to sit in the grandstand in seats with backs. The seating was sold out, for all the performances, so I was glad we had purchased them in advance. There were about 17 floats, all lof them except the very last one from the Netherlands. The last one was from France according to the program. The theme this year was "Powered by Defects" although I am not sure anyone would have gleaned that without reading the program. The program describes each float and what it represents in detail, and will attempt to summarize the gist of it in my next post.

Fiestas and Siestas and the Fabian family artisans

 Back at home now, after a pretty uneventful trip back. With one exception. While at the Mexico City airport between flights, a woman came over to me saying, "Joanna? Joanna Liss?"  It took a couple of seconds before I recognized her. It was Natalie Jordan from EF, where I had worked with au pairs and families for a number of years. I see her posts on fb periodically, and knew that she was now a vice president of EF, and the director of the Au Pair program. I was very impressed that she recognized and remembered me. I can't even remember how many years it's been. Loring took a picture of us which she posted on fb. It got a lot of likes. Mostly from people that know her, of course. She knows a lot of people. But I recognized a few names. 

First I wanted to describe our encounter with Norberto Fabian. In the Oaxaca region there are various villages, where people specialize in a particular craft. Some are are weavers. One village has potters who work with black clay.   It is similar to what I found years ago in Peru, certain areas where people made textiles, others where they carved gourds, a city that I stayed in where they made small alter type scenes made out of potato clay.  I am not sure which of these crafts are continuing to be produced by younger generations, but it seems in Oaxaca that they are. You see the alejibres in all the craft shops in the city. 

Our connection with the Fabian  family dates back seven or eight years. We had Norberto and his father Ventura do a presentation at our house for one of our salons. I had arranged it with Nina Hasan, a Boston area woman who had made a short film about the Venturas a while back. She brings the Venturas every year around Day of the Dead and they do presentations at one of the Harvard Museum and elsewhere, aknd sell their creations. We did the same at our house.  Fabian died a few years ago. Norberto now does the carving and his wife does the painting. 

I had assumed they wouldn't be hard to find in the village, but I was wrong. The town was indeed replete with studios of alejibre makers, with signs on their doors. But no evidence of the Fabians. I stopped at one place and asked the person. I assumed everyone would know each other.  Finally, as we were walking around, a man on a motorcycle with a young girl on the back pulled up and asked if he could help us. I told him who we were looking for. He said right away, he's my friend. He pointed us in the right direction and said it was a blue door, and that he'd let Norberto know we were coming. And said he had a studio too, and he hoped we would come visit him afterward. His name was Benito. We walked down the street but saw several blue doors and no sign with the family name. Eventually a man came out from behind a blue door and waved at us. It was Norberto. There was no sign on the door or anywhere. 

Their studio was also their house, which was pretty modest. They had partly finished but unpainted figures on the ground next to a tree, and others in a wheelbarrow and a table with some figures and containers with paint.  We met his wife Blanca, and his mother, Ventura's widow.  They had bags of figures all wrapped and ready for the upcoming market in town, which I believe is weekly. They unwrapped creature after creature. And of course we bought a few, two little ones for the grandkids although they will hopefully go on a high shelf until they are older.  And Loring surprised me for choosing one for us. It happened that we both were drawn to an octopus, done largely in black and white, contrary to most of the figures which are very brightly colored. 

Norberto remembered comig to our house with his father. He continues to come up every late October to early November and do presentations at Harvard, the Museum of Science, and I think at a few other venues, artisan fairs or shops. So perhaps we'll go visit him at one of those places this winter.  Or maybe have him come to our house again, if the timing works out and if there are enough salon attendees who didn't meet him before. 

We did go by Benito's studio, which Norberto had described as "very big." And indeed it was. It was actually a huge showroom, featuring Benito's work as well as that of other members of his family. I wasn't clear on if all the artisans were relatives. There were many rooms, and Benito gave us a tour of them. Some pieces were huge, and museum quality. And very expensive, in the thousands of dollars. 

So, to return to our last days in the city of Oaxaca. We wound up staying at "Up in the Clouds" for the whole six days. It was  pretty hot a couple of the afternoons, but the other days were cooler. If we were at the room mid to late afternoon  a shower really helped alleviate the heat. And most days we took a break from our sightseeing in the afternoon, sitting in a cafe on the Zocalo in the shade, me drinking fresh squeezed lemonade, Loring a beer. It made me realize  the reason for the siesta, not just to take a break from work but to take a break from the heat of the day. Not that it's observed much anymore, where people don't usually work close to home and it isn't practical to go home midday. I guess in the countryside there are places where people are still able to take a break. But I didn't see any evidence of shops or businesses being closed in the middle of the day. Of course, that's also when I was sitting in the shade and sipping lemonade, so perhaps some did. 

As far as fiestas, it seemed that every day we were there, in the city, there was some kind of music or event. The first night, which I previously described, was the most elaborate. But the second night there was also a parade, although much smaller, that we watched from our rooftop abode. There were some large papier mache puppets as well as a brass band. It seemed to be a birthday celebration. 

And the following days and evenings there were brass bands. One day in our walks and between visits to museums we came upon at least four different bands, although we never heard any of them playing, just walking to some destinaation to play. They were wearing military style uniforms but I don't know if they were actually military, and we never discovered what the occasion was.  And then, on our last night, we went to a restaurant on the Zocalo again. We had seen them setting up a tent and stage earlier, and thought we might see some kind of show. There was no performance that night, though,  it must have been for a subsequent day. But, there was a brass band, and lots of people dancing, which was wonderful. They were mostly Mexican, and quite a variety of folks. There was a tall young man in a suit with an older woman who we guessed was his mother or even grandmother. A few very short older men very snazzily dressed and very graceful with their partners And one young couple who had their camera set up on a tripod, no doubt to be posted online before long. They were really hamming it up, rather over the top but they were having fun. It was the perfect last evening of our trip. 

Oh, and if you are wondering, I never did try the grasshoppers,  although I was tempted.  Our last restaurant had an item on the menu that was guacamole with a side of grasshoppers. I kid you not. They, and other restaurants, also had items on their menus with grasshopper sauce!  But I just didn't quite have the nerve or the stomach and didn't want to ruin my appetite for my last meal. Which was delicious, by the way. I was kind of tired of guacamole and tostados. They had crepes on the menu, which were a little thicker than the French version. And filled with chicken and in a green sauce that seemed similar to the green mole we'd had one night, but wasn't described as such on the menu. 

And that brings to an end my Mexican saga. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and I recommend your visiting, both the beach and the city. 

 

Grasshoppers and other delicacies, and all kinds of crafts and art.

 Our last night in Oaxaca and in Mexico. It has been an excellent trip. Temporarily concerned by violence in a different part of the country after the Mexican government killed a renowned narco terrorist. The State Department issued a warning to US citizens to shelter in place, a bit scary. But it only applied to some other states, not here. We wouldn't have had an inkling if we hadn't read about it online. And the warnings by US and other governments have been lifted. It of course sounded worse from afar. However, the Boston Globe's travel editor was stranded in Puerta Vallarta, where much of the violence was, not because of having to shelter but because of the blizzard at home. And he did get caught up in the violence, watching from the roof of his hotel. He said it was pretty frightening. 

 We have paced ourselves pretty well, I think, a couple of museums or activities a day, with a break midday to relax in the heat of the day at a shady cafe in the Zocalo, the main park, and watch the parade of people stroll by. A good number of gringos. but many more locals and Mexican tourists. Tons of street vendors selling everything from blankets to embroidered blouses to carved wooden spoons and bracelets. There and in the street markets we know that a large percentage of goods is actually from China. There are stores with finer quality expensive crafts and goods. 

Today we visited two smaller art  museums, both quite interesting. They are both located in lovely old houses, not sure of vintage, could be 19th century, but possibly a century or two earlier. Two stories high, with a courtyard in the middle. One had three enormous trees growing up through the courtyard, with a mural covering two walls behind it. I am not sure if it was a temporary or permanent exhibit, in any case, quite striking. Except for the three large garbage bags in one corner. You would think museum administrators would know better. 

The museums were the Museo de Arte Contemporano and the Museo de los Pintores Oaxicanos. I would recommend both of them. At the second  one, one installation was called It's Art if I Think it is. There were lengths of twine available and people could create whatever they liked, with knots or weaving or whatever. There was a silver haired woman stapling creations to the wall. I thought at first she was a visitor but later realized she was the artist. Each piece had the creator's name and where they were from. I thought it was wonderful and told her. There were also videos of various "artists" explaining what they had made.  Her name is Alison Beda. I am going to have to research her further. She is heading to NYC for another exhibition of her work. She is from Vancouver and said she hadn't had anyone from Vancouver make something yet. Our neighbors here at the hotel El Cid Leon are from Vancouver Island, so I said I'd let them know.  I hope they will go visit the museum and her. 

Also at the Museo was an installation occupying a whole large room by the French-Corsican artist Julien de Casabianca. There were all kinds of items, suitcases, small boxes, a bedframe, much more, many painted, collaged, or filled with a variety of items. I was very impressed and thought immediately of Mass MOCA with its huge spaces. I contacted them to let them know about the artist in case they weren't already familiar with his work. Wouldn't it be something if they exhibited his work sometime in the future!

Oaxaca, in addition to its art and crafts, is well known for its cuisine. And much of it is regional even within the state. We've eaten at little hole in the wall restaurants and an upscale new cuisine locale featuring produce from its own garden. And at one of the restaurants on the Zocalo on our first night here, amidst the festivities celebrating the 113th anniversary of whatever military event it was. We've had little miniature tostados topped with minced meat and sauce or cheese, chile rellenos, a number of dishes with mole sauces. There are many different  moles, dark, yellow, red, green, only some with the chocolate we know about from home. One item that is featured on many menus, and easily available in the markets, is grasshoppers! They seem to be primarily offered fried with chile and lime seasoning. But menus also mention guatarinos as a sauce. Tonight is my last chance to try them, and I haven't yet decided if I will. I am very curious, and am sure they taste good, but not sure I am mentally ready!

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Garden which is adjacent to the former convent, now impressive if overwhelming museum of culture, where the famous turquoise encrusted mosaic skull which is the most signifcant find from the Mt. Alban archeological site was found. The garden can be seen from the museum. You can only visit with a group tour, which lasts about 20 minutes. It's not so much a tour as an opportunity to visit the garden. The guide let us in with a group of about 30, led us down a path and then let us wander and take pictures for the twenty minutes. And there were other employees cautioning us if we went beyond the allowed paths. We could see just a small portion of the garden but it was quite impressive and well worth the visit. There were many types of cacti, some as tall as ten feet, maybe more. 

Well it's time to stop writing and head out to dinner. Perhaps to one of the restaurants on the Zocalo, or possibly another place we've read about. 

I will finish this blog in one last post to update to the end of our trip, and let you know whether I was brave enough to try the grasshoppers! 

We wanted to buy Max and Michel something from here as a housewarming present. They signed their papers a few days ago, while we were here. We decided on a couple of woodblock prints, or maybe lithographs or linoprints.  I can never remember the different printing processes. Many of were foods. We chose one of a lime, and one of a grasshopper. Of course we'll have to tell them that grasshoppers are food here. 

Museums, markets and archeological wonders

 This will be our third night in Oaxaca city. The room we had reserved, at the Leon el Cid Hotel right in the centro, the old city, is pretty funky. The hotel has only eight rooms. This one seems to go by several different names. On their website it's called Up in the Clouds, on booking.com it has another name, and the staff here calls it the glamping room. It's up on the roof, the third floor, up several different staircases. It has a huge bed, a loft with another bed right above it, and several sofas and chairs. The minute we arrived the staff showed us a message on google translate that said it is very hot during the day, and cold at night. There is no ac. We can switch you to another room." We looked at both rooms, decided to give Up in the Clouds a try. It was indeed very hot in the afternoon. And the room has a bunch of idiosychrocies and design problems. But the view of the city is spectacular. After the first night we decided we'd give it another try. Now it is our third day here and we are still here. The weather today is significantly cooler. Which was great for both being in our abode and also when we were out and about. It's a very walkable city, but still draining in the heat. Right now it's raining, for the first time in our entire trip. We've hardly even seen any clouds. Which is okay while we are ensconsed here, but could be a nuisance in an hour or two when we head out for dinner. 

So far we have visited three museums, two of them small and free, and the other one, the Museum of Oaxacan Culture, enormous and overwhelming. We spent a couple of hours there and don't think we saw everything, but it was enough. Loring has less of a tolerance for museum visiting than I do, but I had also had my fill. The museum is connected to the impressive   Templo de Santo Domingo Guzman church, and was once its convent. There are long hallways around a central courtyard on several floors, and many small rooms, some of which must have been the nuns' quarters. It was a little disorienting, we had trouble remembering which corridors we'd already been down.We started on the top floor, which in retrospect was a mistake. That usually works well for us in museums, but not in this one. It turns out thata the most important and impressive works were on the second floor, and by the time we got to them we were exhausted. The most important pieces were from the archeological site of Mt. Alban, which is about a half hour drive from the city. We plan to go there tomorrow. From looking at pictures and the museum this seems to be a very important site, Zapotec rather than Aztec or Mayan. And I had never heard of it until now. The most impressive finds are in the museum, the most striking of which is a skull encrusted with turquoise mosaic. But there are rooms full of pottery and stonework and much more. 

We visited the attached church first, and were lucky we did. I noticed a sign among all those reminding people that this was a religious site, not a museum, and that people needed to be respectful. And another sign, on a sandwich board, saying that the church would be closed whenever there was an event going on. I'm not sure if that included services. No sooner had a noticed the sign than a man picked it up and moved it in front of the rear door where we were standing. If we had been even five minutes later we wouldn't have been able to get in. Although we are here almost a week, so I'm sure we would have been able to visit later. But other people visiting for a shorter time period might not have been able to. 

The interior of the church was very impressive, different from any other church I can remember visiting. The walls and ceiling are all covered in gold gilt, and just glow. In various places there are images of what I assume are saints. But they are three dimensional, jutting out from the walls and ceiling. 

When we were in the museum we heard and could seen an organist playing the ubiquitous wedding march. They seemed to be practicing, perhaps checking the sound. And when we left the museum some time later, the bride and entourage were arriving and entered the church. Pretty nice for our first full day. 

The night before, from our aerie, we heard music. Out on the balcony we could see a parade, with dancers, musicians, huge papier mache figures being carried, and some people holding large balloon-like globes with writing. They said something about the 113th anniversary of something. I didn't understand the word, but when I looked it up later it was the anniversary of some military event. That's the last thing I would have expected. We did see a few jeeps and guys in uniform, but it was the least similar thing to a military parade I have ever seen. How nice. 

We left the hotel to find a restaurant, thinking we'd seen the entire event from our rooftop. Far from it. The parade ended at a nearby park. For the next hour or more there were bands playing, women and men dancing, those huge puppets, and just a generally festive atmosphere. Some people were dancing with each other, with their children, by themselves. It was a wonderful way to start our visit here. 

We eventually chose a restaurant just at the edge of the park. We tried deciphering the menu, but many items didn't translate. Loring had chile rellenos, always a favorite of ours from our days in New Mexico.They are green chile peppers, in our experience stuffed with cheese. But these were stuffed with meat. They were delicious. I had a dish that consisted of tortillas and shredded chicken in a mole sauce. I think of mole being made with chiles and spices and chocolate. But there are in fact many different mole sauces. I am guessing this one did have chocolate, from the color more than the taste. It was good but a little heavy on the sauce. 

Last night we ate at a place recommended by someone on his blog, which gave extensive recommendations by category, from cheap eats to fancy splurges to newer fusion restaurants. It was about a ten or fifteen minute walk from our place. It was described as having some of the best authentic cooking. I was surprised when we got there, it was a small unassuming place up a flight of stairs. I'd worried that we might need reservations on a Saturday night. Not so. There were a couple of other occupied tables, of about a dozen total.  Again, it was hard to know about many of the items. I did see grasshoppers on the menu and didn't feel adventurous enough to try them. They are very common, we saw piles of them in the market today. I thought at first they were small dried red peppers. I still might give them a chance. It's funny how culturally bound our food preferences are. We still talk about the time I tried a guinea pig in Peru, where it is a delicacy. It came belly up, the entire little creature, on a plate. There was no way I wasn't going to eat it and offend the restaurant owners. However, I did once decline the offer of the eye of a sheep in Morocco, which is considered a great honor. I still feel bad about it, more than a half century later. 

Well, back to present times. The other museums we visited were the stamp museum and the textile museum, both fairly small and both free. We didn't know quite what to expect at the stamp museum, but it was free and we were walking right by.  What really interested me was a couple of rooms with art made from stamps, stamp mosaics, if you will. And there was a small room that was some kind of office, where some of the furntiture was covered with stamps. 

The textile museum had an exhibit of one artist's work, which consisted of small pieces stitched in black on what looked like off white linen. They were interesting and unusual. Nothing was described in English, and the text was too much for me to try to translate. But I did see a reference to Annie Albers, whose work I know as someone who had a great influence on elevating fiber art in the mid twentieth century. And there was also a mention of the artist having spent some time in Oakland, CA, in fairly recent years. I may try to get more info on the artist later  on. 

The rest of the museum featured incredible embroidered garments from various parts of I believe just the state of Oaxaca.  Each village has its own style and tradition.  

We continued from the textile museum to a couple of the famous markets, featuring both food and handicrafts. Along the way we stumbled upon a whole orchestra set up in a park, with chairs set up for audience and many other people standing around. It's Sunday, and the park was filled with people and families with children, many balloon sellers, several shoe shine guys, one just at the edge of the orchestra, each seemingly oblivious of the other. There was one little boy sitting in a chair beside his musician father, playing games on a cellphone as if there was no orchestra at all.  

I browsed through one of the craft markets, for at least a half hour while Loring sat on a bench conveniently located at the center of the market. He was right in front of a woman weaving something small, maybe bracelets, the entire time. When I returned she had her phone propped up  in front of her work, watching a movie I think. She was also talking with another woman who was behind her in the booth. Interesting juxtaposition.  There was also a marimba band playing right next to him for part of the time. I appreciate his good nature in letting me browse for a while. I looked at a lot of crafts, embroidered blouses for me, and wall hanging for a potential housewarming present for Max and Michel for their new house. They just signed papers a couple of days ago. I didn't buy anything, but told at least a half dozen vendors I would consider buying and might come back later. But I didn't. There are so many vendors, how do any of them make any money with so much competition. And that doesn't even include all the street vendors who walk up and down the streets and around the parks with items of various kinds, from clothing to wooden spoons to beaded necklaces, to snacks of many kinds? 

By the way, we did find the Fabian family in the alejibre village of St. Martin, on our way here from the coast. But that requires a post of its own, so I will stop here and recount that adventure in my next post. 

Bate, Bate, Chocolate

That title is from a children's chant I came across years ago and incorporated into the multilingual program I designed for young kids. It's about beating the hot chocolate, with a utensil called a molinillo./when I first got it I thought it was a musical instrument, like a rattle. And when I asked kids to guess what it was they usually guessed that too.  It's a wooden implement, similar to a whisk. I have one at home that I also used in the program. These many years later, I still remember the chant. It's like things from my own elementary school Spanish classes, like a tacky poem about the American flag that I can still recite. It starts with Roja, blanca, y azul, que bonito es mi bandera. I'll spare you the rest. 

I wonder if any of the kids I had in my program in Beverly still remember the chocolate chant, or any of the other elements of the program. I hope so. The main part of the program consisted of using familiar children's books, Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I chose them for their lyrical repititive qualities more than their renown, although that is also part of the reason they are such classics. I firmly believe in the use of music and rhythm and rhyme as a key part of language learning. I collected copies of the three books in as many languages I could find, and especially of Wild Things since the main character is named Max. I think I have it in about eight different languages, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Dutch, a few more. 

But back to Mexican chocolate. It is different from other chocolate.  It has cinnamon in it. It may have other things too. I tried to find some unsweetend chocolate in the supermarket but couldn't. All the chocolate they had was sweetened and meant for hot chocolate. They did have some eating chocolate but it was not Mexican, was brands like Lindt and Hersheys.  The reason I wanted unsweetened Mexican chocolate is because I have been making my own mocha blend at home, half coffee and half unsweeted chocolate, put thru the French press. I've become quite fond of it. 

So, I wound up getting the Mexican table chocolate (that's what they call it) a brand called Abuelita. (little grandma.) That's me, I guess. The illustration of abuelita is remarkably similar to Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire.  It comes in a large tablet, serrated into 8 sections with the letters ABUELITA .  Cute. I was dissappointed to see it's owned by Nestle, though. 

So, every morning here I've been making my mocha with a cup of coffee and a section of Abuelita heated in the microwave. But the chocolate doesn't seem to quite melt  no matter how much I stir it. Which made me think, that's why you need the molinillo. Sure enough, as I read the package more carefully it specifically says it's best to stir it with a molinillo. Only problem, that won't work with a single mug, it's too big. And there isn't one in our kitchen here anyway.  The directions are more for making a quantity, a liter I think. Or maybe it will work with one of my large mugs and  molinillo at home. I'll have to try.

I've tried nibbling at the edge of the chocolate. It's not reallly meant or good for eating as a bar. The taste is good but it's very granular. Maybe there will be some Mexican bar chocolate in the big city, Oaxaca. We are heading there tomorrow for our last week in the country. 

So, this is our last night here in Estahuite beach. It's been much like the others. Breakfast in our apartment, eggs or yogurt and granola with bananas. Except for two days when we had breakfast at one of the beach restaurants. We had lunch, our usual shrimp ceviche with guacamole and tostadas, after a couple of hours lounging on the beach and playing in the water. Then  another couple of hours on the beach, and back here late afternoon. Tonight we'll pack, play cards, and read after eating up as much of the food we have left. Crackers, cheese, more avocados, cookies, rum and soda. Will probably take some of the leftovers with us and leave what we can't use for the two women who are the caretakers/housekeepers here. 

We will drive back to Oaxaca, leaving the car at the airport and then taxi into town.  Several years ago, at one of our salons, we had two Oaxacan woodcarvers, father and son, do a demonstration of their work at our house. They brought along a bunch of their delightful animal carvings, which are known as alejibres. There are towns around Oaxaca city that each specialize in a certain kind of handicraft that has been handed down through generations. The town that the Venturas are from is right on the way to Oaxaca so we hope we can find them. The father, Fabian, has since died, but Norberto, the son, and his wife continue the tradition.  I think he still comes to Massachussetts each October to help celebrate Dia de los Muertoss, and demonstrate and sell their work. 

This should be the last post from our beach sojourn, unless something extraordinary happens tonight!  More from the city in a few days. 

Oh, here's the whole Bate Chocolate chant:

Uno dos tres, cho, uno dos tres, co, uno dos la, uno dos tres, te. 

Bate, bate, chocolate! 

(using both hands to mime the action of twirling the molinillo to mix the hot chocolate in the pot.)