Needless to say, it´s a compulsory part of any New Year´s Eve celebration to balance a fairly large-sized pillow on one´s head to get the correct sense of equilibrium for the upcoming year and to allow for some Buddhist meditation which will prepare the mind for Challenges New...
Another year has ended, and what an eventful one it was, taking me across the world into the home and heart of a new love and sailing towards new horizons. I´m very happy to be physically surrounded this day by some of the people I love most (Niki, Anjes, Tess and Yarrow, and OK, Astrid the Cat) and I´d like to wish other loved ones and friends, wherever you are, the Bestest Wishes for the new year ahead which for some of us, as I write this, has already started and for others has yet to begin. May we all find the happiness, balance, peace, comfort, love and friendship (not in any particular order) we seek.
On New Year´s Eve we spent most of the day in Lisbon, the old part of Lisbon that is. We took the metro into the city center, then took the old historic tram up the hill to the Castelo de São Jorge where many a step was climbed and clambered by all and many a medieval wall was clung to (by me, for fear of heights, force of wind and lack of railing...). The views over Lisbon are breathtaking. Following this historic venture, we sauntered down to a tosti mista lunch and a (wet) walk through the oldest part of Lisbon, the Alfama - a bee hive of narrow streets built against hillsides. Its name originally derives from Arab Al-hamma, meaning baths. When the city started to grow, it did so towards the west, on the other side of the hill now crowned by the Castelo São Jorge. Since people were afraid of earthquakes, the rich abandoned the Alfama neighbourhood, leaving Alfama to fishermen and other humble people. Alfama actually survived the worst earthquake of Lisbon in 1755. Still now, the streetplan is pleasantly chaotic with a structure much like a kasba in Moorish countries.
A beautifully mysterious photo taken in the Monastery in Belem by Tess, who´s got a real good eye for images, composition and colour...
On leaving Belem, an amazing evening sky in which rain and storm threatened exposed itself to the inhabitants of this beautiful area of Lisbon.
Isn´t it lovely ... all of them together ... at breakfast abounding with Dutch things: ontbijtkoek, schuddebuikjes and hagelslag! It´s such a joy to have all three girls in the same room again ... Anjes flew in from Holland yesterday and the weather doesn´t look very promising for New Year´s Eve, but dat mag de pret niet drukken (we won´t let that get us down).
Let´s go back a few days and revisit the wonderful Christmas dinner with our family. For the first time in the absence of Dad, who was sorely missed but assumed to be watching us as we celebrated, we nevertheless had a relaxed and culinary satisfying gathering, with lots of laughter, and family closeness. Arthur and Marielle, supported in dessert by Jacqueline and Jos, had prepared the most delectable eight-course dinner which took the better part of the evening to enjoy.
The chronological order of recent events has escaped this blog, but I´m sure readers will be able to make sense of changing landscapes, locations and light. When the snow was still there, and we slithered from Oma´s house to town and from town to Oma´s house, Niki embraced the melting fate of this adorable snow creature (in honour of political correctness, despite the tie, let´s not call it a snowman...) A few days later it had dwindled into obscurity and slush ...
At the back of paint mill De Kat (The Cat), the only mill of its kind, apparently, in the world (!), there is an annex that feels almost like a secret room. On request we were taken there to see the pigments that the mill prepares for artists, education and industry, from sources wide and far as well as exotic. All types of material are ground to fine pigments of the most wonderful hues. It´s an almost erotic pleasure to see and feel all the colours and to learn about how they are made, how they can be combined to work together, how the paint itself can be made. I intend to do a two-day workshop when next in the Netherlands, which De Kat offers, during which you learn how to make (and tube!) your own paint. In the meantime I will take their recipe book and the pigments I bought and experiment. (´Experiment for 6 months, and then come and do a workshop´, the Miller, who was extremely au fait with the technical materials side of Paint Making as well as the history of paints and the cultural and artistic aspects of it.)
I guess that when in Clogland, one finds things that are Cloggy ... such as eating Nieuwe Haring ...
On Sunday we paid a visit to the Zaanse Schans, north of Amsterdam, and to paint mill De Kat where I overindulged (thank you, Niki) in buying pigments and tools to make my own paint ... One of the mills belonged to someone in Bertie's family which was interesting. Also interesting is the fact that there aren't actually many mills left like this - and so they gathered 13 together here for tourists. In an email later that day Ellen mentioned that one of her ancestors was also the owner of one such mill, a paper mill called the Schoolmeester, but this one is not part of the Museum. The intricate workings of the paint mill were absolutely fascinating and I managed to climb almost all the way to the top ...
And Tess and Yarrow have arrived in Portugal where temperatures are a goodly 15 degrees higher than in Holland! They arrived in Amsterdam first. Whisked out of Schiphol for a few hours, we sauntered through cold and slightly icy Amsterdam, enjoyed a scrumptious hot chocolate (of the variety where one stirs a ball of chocolate into hot milk) and sped off to the Airport once more to board our flight to Lisboa where, perhaps strangely to Tess and Yarrow´s satisfaction, it rained hard and a fierce wind blew... (Apparently the hot Australian summer had got on their nerves and they needed cooling). After a quick visit to the local Mini-Market in Povoa and a totally delicious soup prepared by Niki, Tess and Yarrow submitted to the inexorable and insistent drawing power of jet-lag induced Sleep, awaiting the arrival of their sister Anjes who is, as I write, winging her way to Lisbon, too, for a few days of family and sisterly bonding.
One of the regular culinary experiences I willingly submit myself to when visiting Amsterdam is having a meal at Restaurant ´Het Zwaantje´. As this is a Very Typical Dutch Restaurant with Very Typical Dutch Food, I of course took Niki there as well. You can´t get the food more Dutch, I don´t think: green beans, appelmoes, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, cauliflower and stewed beef on the side ... Needless to say, after a day of Cruising on a Canal Boat, visiting the Rijksmuseum, ice-skating, eating Poffertjes and drinking hot chocolate with cream ... the whole plate went ...
A wintry view from Bertie´s house. As you can see we´re on one of Amsterdam´s canals, the Singel. Go to Google Maps, search for for that street, and drag the little Yellow man (or woman?) to the Singel. You can walk along it in a different season ...
As far as cute goes, this kitten is ... Cute ... La Chouffe (yes, good guess Mieke, that´s right, of Belgian beer renown), a naughty but oh so adorable cat discovering the world of Bertie´d 17th century canal house. You can probably imagine all the nooks and crannies in an old house like that so Chouffe is having a whale of a time...
Needless to say, one of the first ´tasks´Niki and I undertook, was to visit the well-known Belgian chip shop off the Spui Square. Don´t worry, Niki did not eat both bags ...
Some more Christmas pics from Amsterdam. There´s not a lot of snow but it´s definitely slippery and at night the Christmas lights are enchanting. Amsterdam is truly a beautiful city and perhaps, as Ellen recently remarked, the only city (as in Big City) worthwhile living in ...? It´s really a wonderful city. Let´s hope, Tess and Yarrow, that the snow stays for a few weeks ...
