Category: Netherlands, Spring 2023

We took another day trip from Delft, this time to Rotterdam, a short 30 minute train ride away.  Our first destination was the windmills of Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997.  Figuring out how to get there took a bit of research.

Our journey included a train to Rotterdam, a tram to the waterfront, and two water taxis!  The waterfront has some nice buildings to admire as you wait for the water taxi.  The buildings are very modern here since the city was heavily bombed by the Allies during WWII.

If you buy a Rotterdam Tourist Day Pass it covers the tram and water taxi’s, and any other transportation for the day (outside of intercity trains), and at 15 euros each it was a bargain!  The second water taxi drops you off just 100 meters from the Kinderdijk entrance, 9 miles east of Rotterdam.  You don’t need a ticket to enter, but you can’t go into any of the windmills or museum sites without a ticket, so get one!

First off, Kinderdijk means “Children Dike”, so named due to a story from 1421, when a great storm flooded the area.  After the storm subsided, a villager went to inspect the dikes and saw a wooden cradle floating on the water, with a cat jumping back and forth on the cradle to keep it from tipping over.  As it came closer, the villager discovered a sleeping baby in the cradle, nice and dry.  This Dutch folktale has been retold as “The Cat and the Cradle” (not The Cat in the Cradle).  This artwork at the site depicts the story.

Kinderdijk has the highest concentration of windmills in the Netherlands, with 19 windmills, mostly dating from around 1740.

The windmills are in excellent condition and mostly operational, and two of them can be visited, including the one on the left below.  The rest of the windmills are actually private homes.

This sign is at the entrance to one of the windmills, letting you know it’s basically a museum.

Just inside the windmill are some of the famous wooden shoes, which I still can’t believe anybody wore.

Here is a historic photo of some of the early operators of the windmill, who likely wore those wooden shoes.

I took two short videos showing the inner workings of the windmill in operation.  The wind was up so this one was really cranking!  The first video is from the upper part of the windmill.

The next video is the lower part of the windmill.  All of these windmills are used for moving water out of low lying areas, and pushing that water into the nearby river, so this lower part is actually like a water wheel.

A somewhat successful selfie in front of the museum-quality windmill.  Ok, the windmill is slightly out of focus.  I’ll get there someday!

The beautiful photo opportunities are everywhere here!

The second windmill you can visit is actually the oldest one here, built in 1630.  It has a very different look from the “newer” windmills from the 1740’s.

After returning to the waterfront of Rotterdam we walked over to the Euromast, an observation tower completed in 1960.  The upper Space Tower, which you can ride up in for an additional fee, was added in 1970.  There is a restaurant inside the glassed in portion seen below, where you can get a beer and some wings to tide you over.

This was the highest building in the Netherlands until 2021, when a taller building in Rotterdam was completed.  The tower hosts “Base Jumping” events every few years.  I would have liked to have watched that, but we had to settle for going up in the Space Tower.  It does make for an incredible view!

Up next, we head to the city of Utrecht, which is basically a smaller version of Amsterdam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hague is known for having the International Court of Justice.  This is where you come if you lost your hair and Propecia didn’t work for you….you know…JUSTICE!  Not an issue I deal with, so far, but if I do I know where I’m coming if that happens to me!  While Amsterdam is the de facto Capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is the actual seat of the government.  It’s also home to some decent museums, and only a 20 minute train ride from Delft, where we are staying.

First up is the Escher Museum, which is located in what was a Royal Winter Palace up until 1990, when it was sold to the municipality of The Hague.  Since November 2002, the former palace has been housing the permanent exhibition of the Dutch artist M.C. Escher’s work and life.

You may say you aren’t familiar with Escher’s works, but you would be surprised how far his reach is in the US school system, where I first saw them.  First up is one of his earlier works, from March 1935,  from the top of St. Peter’s Cathedral.  Escher was trying to evoke a sense of vertigo with this piece.  It was an early manifestation of his brilliance.  Make sure you click on each image to get the full size version.

His most popular artistic style was “tessellation”, where images connect seamlessly and can be repeated endlessly.  This is an example of what I remember from school.

He also created artworks that morphed from one element to another.  This is Three Worlds, from 1955.

This is his most famous “tessellation” image, called Day and Night, from 1938. This was so popular in the Netherlands that he made most of his income from creating prints of this image.  He printed more than 600 copies.

Escher created this Icosahedron (I can’t pronounce it either) in 1963 as part of a marketing scheme for a candy company’s 75th anniversary.  The box contains 20 sides and uses  a tessallation of shells and starfish.  There were 7,000 of these created, and you can still find them on Ebay from time to time.  There is one right now listed at $3950.  I like it, but not THAT much!

This drawing, called Hell, was drawn in November 1935 with the Dutch artist Bosch in mind.  Bosch is best known for The Garden of Earthly Delights, which we previously saw in Madrid.  Escher also saw the painting in Madrid, about 100 years before us in 1922, and decided to create his own copy of the “Hell” portion 13 years later, when he was snowbound in Switzerland, and feeling rather depressed.

Here is a photo of Bosch’s crazy painting, which I took in November 2018, before the Nazi SS guard growled at me to not take any photos.  Too late!  If you look at the right panel you can see the scene that Escher copied.

This is perhaps his most famous drawing, Ascending and Descending, from March 1960.  It’s definitely one I stared at for long lengths of time as a child.  The depiction of people walking up and down stairs without going anywhere is mind-boggling.

This drawing is also quite famous, called Waterfall, from October 1961.  If Escher could have actually made this a reality we’d never have energy issues again!

The differing perspectives on this drawing are impressive.  This is Other World, from January 1947, depicting a scene on the lunar surface.

Lastly, this is perhaps his most impressive drawing, Hand With Reflecting Sphere, drawn in 1935.  The ability to draw the reflections of himself and his surroundings in this glass ball are incredible!  Mathematicians today are still studying Escher to see how he interpreted the real world in his art.

After departing the museum we took a little walk around the city center.  This lake marks the center of The Hague, with the modern skyline in the background.

We also visited the Mauritshuis museum, which houses some of the great Dutch masterpieces.

I only took a few photos of the paintings I liked the most.  This one in particular caught my eye, as it depicts a display of other well-known art that each had to be duplicated.  This was painted by Willem van Haecht in 1630.  Really quite masterful!

This famous painting is called The Goldfinch, painted by Carel Fabritius in 1654.  This is one of only a few works known by Fabritius.

This was painted in 1667 by Rembrandt.  It is thought that the casual style of the man being painted shows that he was an acquaintance of the artist.

Another Rembrandt from 1669, this is a self-portrait.  No 17th century artist made more self-portraits than Rembrandt.  He died in 1670, so this may have been the last one he painted.

Lastly, this painting is of Johan Maurits, who built the house where these paintings are on display.  This was painted by Jan de Baen in 1668-1670, and is on display in Room 8, which shall forever be known to us as the “White Guilt” room.

Every painting in Room 8 had a audio guide description.  Each painting’s audio went to great lengths to point out how Maurits had slaves, and participated in bringing slaves to Brazil where he spent some time as Governor.  Now mentioning it once is fine, good to know and all, but by the time I was listening to the third audio bit I’d had enough of the preaching.  I’m here to see historic beautiful art, not get a lecture on how much I suck because I’m white.  I’m hoping this isn’t going to become a trend in museums.

Despite the lecture at the end, the museum has some excellent art work, and isn’t a monstrosity like the Rijksmusem in Amsterdam, so you can get through the highlights in about an hour, a little less if you skip Room 8.  If you only have time for one museum though, make it the Escher….just fascinating work, and the museum is very well done.

Up next, we visit Rotterdam, and the Unesco site Kinderdijk.