Amsterdam 13th May

Early to Van Goch Museum for entry at 0900. Distinctly unfriendly staff outside keeping the mob at bay. They have an elaborate system of tapes and stands they put away each evening and out in the morning. Presumably it would be stolen if left out overnight..
Once in and, we were first to the pictures, it was a little disappointing. The exhibition was didactic with comparisons with other paintings and emphasis on early works, all very worthy. However there were very few of the great paintings. The Kroller Muller Museum is much better. In 1976 we visited the predecessor to this museum and I think saw more Van Goch paintings. Kristin remembers seeing and enjoying many drawings. These are now considered too fragile to exhibit. I did see one superb sea painting whic I will put on display when I can. This was certainly painted on site as there are traces of sand in the paint surface. Beside it there was a better known painting of fishing boats drawn up on the beach. This was painted in the studio and is lifeless in comparison with the other. We were done with the gallery after about an hour and looking for something else to do.
We walked north and explored some of the southern canal belt, had a light lunch and looked at the great houses on the "golden bend". These are now offices etc. and sterile, while the smaller less glamourous houses on other canals have much more life and interest. We walked north and much enjoyed the Beguinage with the protestant church stripped from the beguines by the anticatholic movement in Holland. Then on to Dam Square and tried to look ad the Oudkirke but resented the idea of paying for the privilege of entering it and so went home for the afternoon by tram.

Amsterdam Monday 12th May

We .did indeed go out into the rain last night looking for food in Jordaan. This area has relly appealed to us even in bad weather and we ate well in "Cuisine Flamande" before getting back to the hotel and eventually figuring out how to buy and print out tickets for the Rijksmuseum. Armed with these we went by tram to said museum and had only a small queue to worry about for the 9am opening. The place is a nightmare for lack of informative signs including emergency exits, it's difficult to find cloakroom toilets and cafe. Thecafe itself has a very limited menu and is far too small. However there is a god free map available and we had the onour gallery very uncrowded for a while though the Nightwatch gallery filled up immediately. We liked the hanging scheme with lots of Nightwatches close together. Rembendts is much the best painting but some of the sitters might have felt agrieved. It also has a faint air of smoke and flames suggesting the people might actually get out and fight.The main 1600-1650 gallery floor is wonderful with so many great pictures. The 1700-1900 floor less so but still worthwhile. We were there for 3 2/3 hours including light lunch.After lunch we returned to the main floor to see the Vermeers we had missed before. There was at least one I have not seen before but the experience was unhappy. We were full already with pictures and the crowds made it difficult to see any of them clearly. Fairly exhausted we went back to the hotel to snooze though I made a side trip to survey a LIDL - not very different from the UK.
We returned to the Jordaan for a Thai meal - very good cooking and had again slight trouble with the return tram. The authorities are digging up track under the running trams and so access is difficult and temporary stops frankly dangerous on a half metre wide strip of raised concrete between cars and bicycles - both rabid.
However we made it home with tickets for Van Goch at 9am tomorrow.

Amsterdam Report

We left home on 9th May in high winds and made a relatively easy run to Dover. Even the M25 was flowing well though there were idiots aplenty. I had great anxieties over the fridge which does not work in the car unless the engine is running - very clever people Mercedes. By the time we got to Veurne almost 30 miles driving) we were pretty tired. The ferry had been OK and did not have trouble with the weather c. force 7 with long streaks down the waves but no small boats were to be seen. The Old House was lovely so we quickly went out for a beer and to consider options for supper. The sun was shining but the wind was very strong. We opted for Oogappell and Kristin had langoustines and then lobster while I had fish soup (inferior to Sonja's) and tournedos rossini. We went to bed happy and got up next day to wind and much rain. The breakfast was good - smoked salmon and scrambled eggs but then we had to get on the road to Amsterdam. The Belgian Mway was murderous, heavy traffic and much standing water mainly due to wear with long waterfilled grooves in the road. When we hit one of these the car tried to slew round. In addition passing lorries was actively dangerous as the spray thrown up was almost opaque. Even worse was on car/caravan combination that behaved like an upsidedown waterfall - presumably emptying both longtitudinal grooves.
Dutc Mways were much better with less standing water and fewer lorries. Again we got to our hotel (Golden Tulip west) exhausted.
We had a snack lunch in the hotel bar, good food but slow service and very noisy Dutch group nearby. We rested till 5 pm. and went off by trqam to the Jordaan finding our supper at a Basque restaurant with pinchos, razor shell clams and tuna and duck liver brochettes - all very nice. Our homeward tram journey led us astray because of a route diversion but we were helped by a very nice local and got home eventually.
12th May today we set off initially to get a tram (not running) then by taxi and passed a hi lift lorry repairing the overhead cable so the lack of tram was explained. We were late at the VanGoch museum so abandoned it for theModern Art Museum with several good exhibitions plus lots of early 20th C art. We returned tired in the tram and continuing wind and rain expecting to sally forth again to the Jordaan which is a lovely neighbourhood.

Packing

We are at home, cleaning the house and packing the car. The car, a Mercedes B200, is new to us and we are continuing to find new places to store small items. A long thin aerial is hidden in the bodywork in front of the starboard rear light for example. However even with this help the car will be very full because we are transporting a new liferaft to Sweden. The old raft had been poorly serviced and could have killed us in four different ways if we had used it. It looks like no Belgian beer supplies this year - sob.
Once in Nykoping, there is a long list of work awaiting us:- service seacocks and other routine tasks, fit new aerial, rejig exhaust system, modify weather station, reduce pitch of propellor ( all of five minutes for the last item).
Once launched there is a second programme, tune mast, fit boom, sails lazy jacks, get provisions and so on before we can get off to Stockholm for the Early Music Festival starting 4th June.
On the way we are stopping in Amsterdam for five nights to visit Art Galleries. Ironically our choice of hotel is governed by car-parking charges. In central Amsterdam its 60 - 80 Euros/night. On the outskirts a more moderate 15.

Home Again

Our Slott Hotel proved to be both elegant and comfortable - out on the road to Oxelosund. The gardens were extensive with a large collection of modern sculptures which we enjoyed before resting and then going out to eat a last Suchi at Kohiro. We went to bed early and got up very early indeed. The hotel had kindly put out a packed breakfast in the fridge in the breakfst room for us so we could leave prepared for our journey. 

The drive to Halsingborg was wet, dull and fairly boring but thankfully traffic light. The ferry was crowded and snacks on board poor. Lunch was available in a separate dining room but only for those going back and forth a few times. We found our lunch very pleasantly in a real Danish Inn on the coast road to Copenhagen just north of the Lousiana art gallery. 

 

General Update

I should have explained in part 3 that we aborted our trip to Norrtalje this year because of several problems that took up time. The first was the closing of Danviks bridge at the entrance to Stockholm harbour that made the short cut through Lake Malaren unavailable. The alternative route through Myssingen is longer and less sheltered. The second was a rather prolonged stay in Stockholm seeing friend which was very enjoyable and extended because of somewhat unfavourable weather. The third was our unjustified worry about the engine. We have decided the increased noise level is most probably due to removing the waterlock at the beginning of the season as it had started to leak. The fourth was time lost because of my nose bleed and the final straw was the forecast of strong northerly winds that sent us into Stockholm.

In Stockholm we met more friends and visited a more than usually normal exhibition in the Lilyvachs Gallery next to Wasahamn. Essentially it was a run through of furnishing from William Morris onwards – interesting but casually presented with insufficient explanation. We also revisited the Hallwylska house, a wonderful example of late 19^th C. taste and a great deal of money. We also discovered next door to Hallwylska a Lebanese restaurant that does a very good buffet Dagens Lunch. We spent a lot of effort trying to take out the harbourmaster Leif and his wife to lunch or dinner as he has been very good to us for several years. However we totally failed. However we’ll try again next year.

We’d been in touch with Martin and Maria Morris and arranged to meet them at Malma Kvarn after reporting on the quality of the restaurant.

We left Wasahamn at 0600 a little later than our previous trip and had Stockholm harbour almost to ourselves – no fat ferries with hideous wakes, just two work boats and a couple of international ferries. We found the route through Baggenstaket ; lovely in the early sunlight and also deserted. We did have a scare with a very nasty rattly engine noise which Kristin tracked down as a sheet of plywood  leaning against the exhaust swan-neck! Once out into Bagensfjard we hoisted sail and had a very pleasant gently close hauled run down to Malma Kvarn but had trouble getting through the sailing school doing circuits right on the fairway. Martin and Maria duly arrived and we had a super time together and another very good meal at the restaurant with as a bonus a fried breakfast cooked by Martin the next morning. The only fly in the ointment was that we all went swimming in the lake behind the harbour and I managed to slip on the rocky slope, fall over, skin my shoulder and scratch my specs – clumsy!

Last few words from Broken

With a good forecast and very little wind we left harbour bound on the short trip to Broken for sun, swimming and scraping teak. Broken was as lovely as ever with many foreign boats but few club members and we continued teak maintenance and swimming as often as possible. My shoulder reacted badly to the bandage – I got a rectangular rash – so we had to buy some cheaper bandages that did not have this problem.

We stayed in Broken till the weather threatened wind and rain and left for Nykoping again but fully intended to return for family race day. Unfortunately the weather has continued to be uncertain with rain threatening often in the forecasts but less oftwn falling on the boat. However the plastic tent has proved invaluable and rain did fall heavily on us while the family race party was happening on Broken We were very sorry to miss it but got on with maintenance. We also did some tests recommended by Vectamarine and we are awaiting recommendations for further changes to prop angle as I write.
Our sails are off and packed. We did try to find someone to wash them but the prices seemed absurd at £8-9/sq. metre that’s about £450 in total which seems pricey. The new sails cost about £700 each. Most of our baggage is in the car. Badger gets lifted out of the water on Friday morning and we will be off to Copenhagen to see our friends Sten and Rosemarie on Saturday. Our Journey home will continue via Lubeck, Quedlingberg, Goslar, Lemgo and Veurne courtesy of the book Birgitta and Paul gave us.