Nancy and Steve travels to the The Netherlands. We spent most of our time in Eindhoven where Nancy helped lead a 4-day workshop at the Eindhoven Technical University. On our way home, we spent three nights in Amsterdam.
Eindhoven
With a population of nearly 250,000, Eindhoven is the fifth largest city in the Netherlands. It was founded around 1232. It is home to one of three major technical universities in the country. Philips Electronics was founded here in 1891. Eindhoven was extensively bombed by both the Allies and the Germans during WWII. Consequently, most buildings in the city were destroyed including many historic structures. It is now one of the most modern cities in the country. The US 101st Airborne helped to drive the Germans from Eindhoven. There is a memorial park dedicated to them in the city.
Nancy on the campus at the Technical University, Eindhoven.Workshop group.Bitterballen – a favorite Dutch treat. Filled with meat or cheese.More bicycles in Eindhoven than cars.Old church/monastery where are hotel was located.Our newer hotel built into the church.Hotel hallway showing where hotel meets the church.Mural in our hotel room.Interesting feature seen in our hotel room.Philips Museum. Frederik Philips was the Thomas Edison of Europe.Inside the DAF Museum. DAF was founded in Eindhoven and made cars but now builds mostly trucks.Bicycles at Eindhoven Centraal Station.Inside Saint Catharinakerk church.Public urinals seen everywhere in Eindhoven.Eindhoven sculpture.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the capital of The Netherlands with 2.5 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area. The city is located on the Amstel river and Amsterdam’s name literally means “dam on the Amstel river.” As in most of the Netherlands there are pedestrian walkways, large bike lanes, and lanes for vehicular traffic.
Traffic signal for the bike lanes.Traffic signal for pedestrians.Nancy on a canal bridge. The red path on the right is a typical bike lane.Enjoying a prosecco.Typical Dutch cafe.The “Heineken Experience,” a tour of their original brewery. In the entrance, a ceiling decorated with beer bottles.Brewery fermentation vessel.The main brewery room.A wall decorated with Heineken beer bottles.Final stop on the tour is to enjoy two pints of Heineken.On a Saturday, they serve 6,000 liters of beer in the tasting room.Our Amsterdam hotel room. Amsterdam was host to the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Amsterdam – Canal Boat Tour
Amsterdam is sometimes called the “Venice of the North” because of the large number of canals in the city. The canals are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are 165 canals in Amsterdam with a total length of approximately 100 km. We enjoyed a circular tour on one of the city’s main canals, the Herengracht.
The Herengracht canal.Stately mansions along the canal.Our tour guide. Heineken beer was complimentary.“The Drunken Houses.” Their foundations, built of wood in the 1600s, are rotting away and the houses tilt.The Opera and Ballet House.High-end office buildings line parts of the canal.There are more than 1,500 canal bridges in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam – The Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum is the Netherland’s national museum, especially focused on art. It holds more than 1 million objects in its collection with approximately 8,000 items on display at a given time. Some of the most famous works of art housed at the museum include paintings by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Vermeer during the “Dutch Golden Age.” The collection includes artifacts from the years 1200 to 2000.
The main entrance to the Rijksmuseum.The birth of the metric system was in the Netherlands. These are the first metric standards.Beautiful wood table inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl.Winter Landscape with Skaters. Hendrick Avercamp.The Love Letter. Jan Vermeer.A Woman in Blue Reading a Letter. Johannes Vermeer.The Little Street. Johannes Vermeer.De Staalmeesters. Rembrandt.The Night Watch. Rembrandt. Undergoing restoration.Titus as a Monk. Rembrandt. Titus was Rembrandt’s son.Self Portrait. Van Gogh.Triton Blowing a Conch Shell – Adriaen de Vries.Beautiful stained glass in the museum.
