The Frans Hals Museum and Surprise! A quilt shop.

This afternoon I walked over to the Frans Hals Museum.  I was almost to the museum when the Google mapping car drove past me.  I've seen the Google car several times in the past, but it still surprises me when I see it.  I wonder if they will erase me from the images.

The Frans Hals Museum is a hofje that is home to the municipal museum in Haarlem, that was established in 1862. The main collection, including its famous 17th-century Frans Hals  paintings, for which the museum is named, is located in the former Oude Mannenhuis on the Groot Heiligland. 

The collection is based on the large number of paintings owned by the City of Haarlem, which includes over 100 artworks seized from Catholic churches in the 1580s after the Protestant Reformation, and Haarlem art rescued from demolished local buildings from the 15th century on wards.

 The building is very old and beautifully detailed.  Inside, there are many rooms with paintings on the walls.  

At the entrance there is a exhibit of Dutch Silver, mostly religious vessels and baptismal pieces.

This painting was huge

Mercury

One of the rooms was especially beautiful.  It has dark blue drapes to keep the sunlight from the paintings.  The walls are covered with gilded leather wall hangings that are stitched together in panels, much like wall paper.

Each wall has a different design.

 The museum is built around a courtyard with a beautiful sun dial.  The garden is manicured much like an English garden with boxwood hedges and begonias.  The walkways form a cross around a circle in the center with wooden benches for sitting.  I sat for a while and enjoyed the beauty of the garden and the amazing blue skies.

When I left the museum, I almost turned to my left, the way I entered the museum, but I noticed what looked like the canal at the end of the street and turned to my right.  This turned out to be a really good thing because just a few buildings away was a quilt shop.  I stopped in to see their fabrics and picked up a few fat quarters to add to my Circus Mischief quilt.

Corrie Ten Boom's House

Yesterday, I went to Corrie Ten Booms house.  I'd read her book A Hiding Place and was looking forward to seeing her house, which is now a museum.  During 1943 and into 1944, there were usually 6-7 people illegally living in this home: 4 Jews and 2 or 3 members of the Dutch underground.   Through these activities, the Ten Boom family and their many friends saved the lives of an estimated 800 Jews, and protected many Dutch underground workers. 

   On February 28, 1944, this family was betrayed and the Gestapo raided their home. The Gestapo set a trap and waited throughout the day, seizing everyone who came to the house. By evening about 30 people had been taken into custody.   Casper, Corrie and Betsie were all arrested. Corrie’s brother Willem, sister Nollie, and nephew Peter were at the house that day, and were also taken to prison.

   Although the Gestapo systematically searched the house,

they could not find what they sought most. They suspected Jews were in the house, but the Jews were safely hidden behind a false wall in Corrie’s bedroom. In this "hiding place" were two Jewish men, two Jewish women and two members of the Dutch underground. Although the house remained under guard, the Resistance was able to liberate the refugees 47 hours later.  The six people had managed to stay quiet in their cramped, dark hiding place for all that time, even though they had no water and very little food. 

  The Ten Boom house is filled with tiny rooms and winding staircases.  Corrie's bedroom was the room where the hidden room was built.  A brick wall was added across the back wall of her room and a sliding door at the bottom of a linen cupboard that opened to allow people access to the tiny room behind the new wall.  

 The brick wall has been opened up so museum goers can see how small the space is.

This is the opening people crawled though to access the room. 

The room is about 3 feet deep.

 

Delay, delay, delay

  Although scheduled to leave LAX at 8:10pm on Saturday, July 15th, my  NOwegian Airline flight from LAX to London Gatwick was delayed for 30 hours.  This was my first experience with NOwegian airlines and my last.  Their customer service was amazingly horrible. They offered no hotels and after trying to locate a hotel nearby, I discovered the only hotels were in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica with rates beginning at $498.  I called NOwegian's customer service to confirm that they would reimburse me for this rate and was told "we would hope that you would make the most economical choice possible."  She never did answer whether they would reimburse that high rate or not.
  The flight was continually delayed for 3-6 hour increments, making any plan to leave the airport frustrating.  Finally, at 2:30 am on Sunday morning, I rented a car and drove to Irvine were I parked in my brother's driveway and slept until 6:00 am when he got up.  Needless to say, he was surprised to see me.  I got a little more sleep before heading back to the airport for the rescheduled 1:00 pm flight only to find that it was delayed until 11:00 pm Sunday night.
  I rented another car and booked a room in Seal Beach, where I met up with my friend, Dean Bruce for lunch.  I got about 4 hours sleep before returning to the airport.
  In the meantime, I missed my connecting BA flight to Amsterdam and my first night at the hotel.
  The flight finally took off at 3:00 am on Monday morning.  I have nothing good to say about NOwegian airlines.  The premium economy offered great leg room, but that was all.  The food was horrible and the plane extremely hot.  Ugh.
  7:00 PM, I arrived at London Gatwick to find the airport a mess after a plane blew a tire on the runway earlier in the day.  No outbound flights to Amsterdam were available and no nearby hotels either.  I booked a room at the Hever Hotel and waited an hour in the taxi cue before finally getting on my way.  When I arrived the kitchen had closed, so the night manager made me a ham and cheese sandwich.
  After the confusing and frustrating time trying to get to Amsterdam, I decided to take a non-travel day and stay at the Hever Hotel another evening and relax.
  Yesterday, I traveled to Haarlem, checked into the Brasss Hotel before walking around this lovely town to find dinner.
  I'm glad to finally be able to begin my vacation.

 

Introduction to Paris
  I'm going to post this a little late.  As soon as Grace and I got to Paris we got very busy with little time for going online.
  Our flight from LAX went smoothly and we were able to sleep a few hours in our cramped Premium Economy seats.   After our London to Paris connecting flight, we caught the RER train into Paris.  I knew the stop we were supposed to use was Saint Michel, but the Notre Dame station looked closer to our hotel so we got off there.  Yikes!  The station was underground in a dark, tile-lined tunnel.  The only way out seemed to be a flight of stairs.  Up we went, dragging our 40 lb. suitcases and small carry-ons with us.  There was an old man coming down the stairs.  He had few teeth, a 4-day beard stubble, a long, red woolen coat and some large packages.  He began yelling at us in French and pointing to our bags.  In my sleep deprived state the only word I could make out was "Madam".  After climbing the very, very long and steep stairs, we erupted onto Quai de la Tournelle, one of the busiest streets in Paris.  It was night and the street corner was a mass of zooming cars and fast walking people, reminiscent of Back to the Future.  We felt like we'd been dropped off in a different time.  We looked around to see if we could hail a taxi, but soon recognized that that was impossible.  Finally, we saw a line of taxis about a block away.  Once we dropped our bags at the Hotel Des Deux on Ile Saint Louis, we walked to the end of the street to the closest bistro for some nourishment.
  Le Saint Regis was the perfect ending to our day.  We ordered beer, cheeseburgers and fries.  The beers came quickly and the burgers followed right behind. 

  The following day we were up and about early as we had a 2 o'clock tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours at the Eiffel Tower.  Our first full view of the Eiffel Tower was from the park just below. 

 After Victor, our tour director gave us the history of the Eiffel Tower,  we took the elevator to the first level to begin our tour.  The view was amazing and we were fortunate that it was a sunny day. 

After the tour, Grace and I took the elevator to the 3rd and highest level.  The fast ascending elevator is open framed so you see the city rapidly falling away. 

 

 The "Champagne Bar" at the top of the Eiffel Tower cheesy and very overpriced.

But the views were free and breathtaking. 

 

Beware of pickpocket signs were everywhere.

The daffodils and tulips around the Eiffel Tower were in bloom.

PARIS PUG

 

 

 

29 March 2014 - Riding on the Metro

29 March 2014

Today, Grace and I had our first Metro experience.  We walked from our hotel to the Saint Paul metro station where we bought tickets.  We agreed that if we got separated we would meet at the very next stop.  That was a very good thing because the trains were very crowded and although I made it on, Grace did not.  I turned to see her face outside the train window.  We both mouthed, "Next stop."  We easily met up at the next stop and boarded the train together.  We switched trains at Concord and then got off at Pigalle.  This is the metro station.  The doors open when the train is ready for boarding, but you'd better be quick as you only have about 10 seconds to board.

 
This is Tissue Reine on rue Saint Pierre.  I was looking for Liberty of London fabrics and found 2 tables of bolts.  Still quick expensive, but not as much as in the U.S.  If you look closely, you can see the very petite doll like figures to show how the fabrics will look make up into garments.  We had to secretly take a photo because they do not allow photos taken in the store.

Just up the street from Tissue Reine is Sacre Coeur.  It is on a hill overlooking Paris.  Today was Saturday so the park in front of the church was mobbed with people.  There were musicians performing, guys with cases of beer walking around selling bottles of beer, and vendors with their wares laid out on blankets.

There was also an Asian bride getting her photo taken with her new husband.  We could not help but notice that she isn't touching him and he barely touches her. 

 
On the way up the hill, we passed girls playing with their bunny.  He was dyed blue and violet.  Perhaps he is the Easter bunny.

 

And we saw our first Paris cats.  Lucky for the gray one, some ladies were putting food out for him.  The black and white one had a perfect spot in the sun overlooking the park area next to Sacre Coeur.

 

 

People in Paris use creative ways to earn some money.  This couple spread out their rug with a hat on the corner and danced a tango.  We have been serenaded in the metro by women singing, two men playing clarinet and sax, and twin blonde women playing guitars.  The first two merely boarded the train with their pig amp and Walkman on a wheeled cart and began their act.  One of the men continued to play clarinet while the other walked around with a paper cup collecting coins.

 

Our final stop of the day was the Moulin Rouge.  Grace pointed out that there is no pink elephant.