Amsterdam

Today Jess and I went and explored Amsterdam. It's such a strange place. Beautiful, but it seems like its become some strange playground for Brits and Americans. Weird.

It is a beautiful city though, particularly around all the canals. And there are bikes everywhere!
Look at this cool house boat! I'd live there.

After wandering for a bit we went to the Anne Frank museum - you go through the actual rooms where she and her family hid. It was amazing. Really really good. The original diary is there too. And there are video interviews with her father and other people who knew her. It was good, but there were so many people. And lots of unsupervised children rushing around being silly - which felt really wrong. It is a must do though I reckon.

I know what I want for my next birthday.

Our next stop was to find ourselves some dutch pancakes - Poffertjes. Oh my god they were so good. AMAZING. I think it was the butter in combination with the epic amounts of sugar... drooool.Oh man they were so good.

Then we went wandering again and found the flower market.
and a flea market. and a second had book sale. and a cool postcard shop. and some other cool things.
This find was more disturbing than anything else.... burger vending machine....???

Jess found a clog.

We had some food and a Heineken. Needed a rest after walking through the most tacky and traumatising streets ever. Yeah - Amsterdam is a weird place. Where its assumed you speak English, and where young British dickheads come to party. Strange strange strange.

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Visa and Van Gogh

Arrived in Amsterdam today.

The supermarket didn't take any type of debit or credit card. This was a huge supermarket. Jess and I were super confused. Still are.... hmmm. Maybe Amsterdam doesn't like us.



We also went to the Van Gogh museum. That was cool. Packed with people, but cool.
My 10 year old self was obsessed with Van Gogh for a bit. It was awesome. Saw the sunflowers.
---------------------->

Its a lot bigger than I imagined.

And the boots, and the crows in the field... and lots of other cool ones. It was really well done. And explained the different phases of his life and the painting he did in these phases. I like him a lot.

Tomorrow is a big day filled with tulips, canals, clogs and pancakes! Woohooo

Biking in Belgium

Today Jess and I rented bikes and decided to bike to the coast. That's maybe 20kms away.
We made it there alright. And back. No injuries. Except sore hands and sore bums. There were a few near death experiences; often related to our confusion about which side of the road we were supposed to be on. And a ferocious head wind on the way home did its best to stop us - but we persevered!
Not the nicest beach really... give us some grass and a pohutukawa any day.
Jess on the way home; grumpy face.

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In Bruges: Day One

To the continent!

First stop: BRUGES. C'est incroyable! I don't know how to say that in Flemish...
Jess and I walked around, climbed the Belfry, went on a canal tour, ate yummy Belgian things and generally had a wonderful time. And that's just day one.

It was a big day - and I think the story is best told visually.

Things we saw:
The BelfryViews from the Belfry.

A really cute antique post card shop. The man inside was lovely.

Buskers - awesome violin/trumpet instrument.
Dipping my toes in a canal.
Michelangelo statue of a woman and child inside a beautiful church.
Jess on the canal tour.
Me on the canal tour.

The canal tour boat guide was Flemish and he presented the tour in several languages. As it turns out in Flemish 'r's are rolled. So when he spoke English he really rolled his 'r's. Like really really rolled them. " And to yourrrrr rrrrright is a fourrrrrr starrrrrrr rrrrrrestaurant."
Sheep!
It really is the most beautiful place.

The things we ate:
Belgian Waffle
Belgian fries with mayo ('french' fries were invented in Belgium!)
Num num num - Belgian chocolate.


Niki and canal.
Niki and windmill.

Excellent day.

Manchester

So - Wednesday was our Manchester day. We started by taking the bus and then the tram out to Salford Quays to go to the Lowry and the Imperial War Museum. It was noon pretty much already.
We spent ages at the Lowry. It was so cool. I really love Lowry and all his stuff. The exhibition started with a really well done video that talked about Lowry and his life and his work - it was very successful at contextualising the exhibition and explaining the idea of Lowry's art as one big extensive self portrait.
His pencil stuff in particular was amazing.
Then we went to the Imperial War Museum which is across the river. That was AMAZING. I love museums! and this one was spectacular. First of all there was an incredible exhibition of Don McCullin's life work as a war photographer. It was really well done with explanations of the politics behind each war he covered, as well as videos and audio clips of Don talking about his work.
The we went into the main exhibition. MIND BLOWING. Its a purpose built space that has all these silos, and walls were in places that meant lots of large white surfaces at different angles around the room - all high up - that images could be projected onto. As we walked in we were told that a video was about to start. And we at first were really confused and didn't know where to look but then it started all around us. The video was about children at war starting with the British evacuation in the 40s right through to children in the middle east being trained for war. And all of this was communicated by projected images around the space and audio of children talking about their experiences. It was so effective. Really really cool. We were blown away. The displays in each silo were really well done too. Some about women and war, others about ANZACs, others about the Irish War, others about refugees. I highly highly recommend this museum to anyone planning to visit Manchester. We were really impressed.

By the time we got back into the city it was nearly 4 and we hadn't eaten. So we went to the Northern Quarter - which as it turns out is the hip part of Manchester now - and had some food in Dry Bar. Dry Bar is owned by Peter Cook (of New Order) and is notorious - Liam Gallagher has a life ban from the place. Awesome.
While we were in there Jess pointed out that ALL the Manchester boys look like members of Oasis. Consequently nearly every time any boy walked into the bar we would start giggling. They really really do.It was a cool bit of town. We didn't really have much time in the actual city at all. So may need to come back at some point to explore properly.

Then we went to meet Pete and Rose for a drink in the city. And a bar that used to be a bank. It was cool. Then we went and had dinner at a noodle house. As Pete said - the best of British cuisine. Haha.
Awfully taken photo sorry, but that's Jess, Rose, Pete and their daughters Heather and Rachel.
After a delicious dinner we went back into Salford to the pub.
Woohoo! Salford!

The Kings Arms. I hear my parents know it well.It was a really cool bar. I remembered being there as a child. Its cooler now. Lots of cool nik naks everywhere. Apparently the new owner likes junk shopping.The bench on the right is the very spot where 25 years ago my father drunkenly passed out after an England v NZ test match. Awesome. History!

Trip to Manchester was really good. Another day to explore the city would have been nice, but we had lots of fun. And once again excellent hospitality. It was cool seeing where Dad came from. CANT BELIEVE YOU NEVER SAW THE SMITHS OR JOY DIVISION LIVE!
Jess and I feel like we have seen lots of different parts of Britain now. Its been really really good.

More soon.

Liverpool

(Written on the 25th of May)

Today Jess and I went on a day trip to Liverpool. More red brick terraced houses. Lots in fact. And another city that clearly at the height of the industrial revolution was very rich. Lots of big old flash buildings - although many were destroyed by the war.

We started off at Albert Dock. It was a lovely part of an otherwise rather run down city. That’s also where the Beatles museum is. Pretty much out main reason for going to Liverpool was this museum.

The only let down was the abundance of small children there at the time. Unfortunate. But otherwise it was cool. I'm a sucker for an effective museum display. And this one was really good. And I do love the Beatles. So yes, happy girl.

Got me a souvenir.

While there we also went to the Liverpool Tate gallery aaand a cool wartime house museum thing.

We then went hunting for a Banksy we knew was near Chinatown. We found it! Its supposed to be a rat with a paint roller but the roller has been painted over. Awesome.

Success!!

Then we had lunch in Chinatown. Yum yum.

We found this cool old church that although is intact on the outside - the inside was completely destroyed by the war.

After lunch we just kind of wandered around the city a bit. We went to look for the Cavern on Mathew St - the famous venue in which the Beatles played 292 times. We found it - IT WAS AWFUL. It was full of cap and fanny pack wearing American tourists and there was some dude singing Lennon covers. Cringe! Jess and I literally ran away. It really was foul. There's a Lennon statue outside and a brick wall of fame. Generally - ridiculous. The picture is of the replica in the Beatles museum. Much nicer.

After that traumatic experience we needed a pint.

Then we decided to go find Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields.

Epic epic adventure. Well, only because we are a bit stupid and the map was inaccurate and a bus was 20 mins late.

Long story short we only made it to Penny Lane. And here is the evidence:

We had a lovely day out. Lots of Beatles fun.