Playing Tourist: Churches, Escher, and Delft
Laurie's been here for the past week and we've seen a number of things I've been putting off, and a few other things besides. Quick reviews: (Note: all the pictures in this entry are linked to larger images if you want a closer view.) (Update: Some people have been reporting problems accessing the photos due to name resolution issues. I will start posting copies of the images to a Flickr account as well until I get around to fixing the problem or figuring out a permanent solution. The images in this entry are also available here.)
Some old churches in Amsterdam are pretty impressive. SintNikolaaskerk, Saint Nicholas' Church (yes, *that* Saint Nicholas) overlooks Central Station smack in the center of Old Amsterdam, which is appropriate for a church dedicated to the patron saint of the city. It's an active Catholic church, though, and while it welcomes visitors (and is more than worth a free visit) we didn't want to disturb people by staying too long or doing the tourist-flash-thing.
Instead, here's a picture from the Oude Kerk, the Old Church, squarely in the Red Light District, a church which was first built in the early 1300's. Here you can see the massive organ which dates from 1539:
Because much of the Rijksmuseum is closed for renovations, many of their items are shopped out to various places so they can still be seen; the Oude Kerk is hosting one of these mini-exhibits with a dozen or more drawings or paintings by Rembrandt of his wife Saskia, who is buried there. (Those large rectangular cobblestone-looking things on the ground? Those are tombstones... as Laurie put it, as she avoided one after another of the rich engravings, "They're telling us, 'I may be dead, but I can still sprain your ankle!'")
The Nieuwe Kerk, or (surprise) New Church, built so much more recently (started in all of 1380!) is currently used as an exhibition hall and for special national events. Right now is full of Indonesian stuff which rather obscures a lot of the churchy bits, but it's got a couple of great organs and some spectacular pulpits -- apparently the Old Church and the New Church were having a competition about which could have the most for a while. (The New Church finally won -- 38 to 36. And one of the pulpits alone might be nearly worth the price of admission to the exhibit -- it's incredibly richly detailed.) No pictures allowed, though. Wouldn't have done it justice anyway...
Yesterday, we stopped at someplace I've wanted to go for a while: Escher in het Palais, the closest thing to an Escher museum there is at the moment. It really is an Escher museum except that the building is owned by the royal family and is loaned for the purpose -- hence the "Escher at the Palace" name. Three floors of original stuff, highly recommended. (Not very brightly lit though -- bring high speed film or a way to stabilize your camera.)
And today we are just back from Delft, origin of the famous Delft Blue porcelein, and discovered by Laurie as an absolutely beautiful day-trip. We toured the Royal Delft workshop and factory... they have a large historical exhibit which is somewhat vainglorious but of moderate historical and artistic interest. (Picture a nearly life-sized Delft Blue Nightwatch.) But aside from the tour, here's the interesting bit: you can take a workshop in which you paint your own Delft Blue tile or Christmas bell. We've agreed that this is on our must-do list for her next trip...
The rest of Delft is downright pretty, and well worth spending the day. It has much of the picturesque charm of Amsterdam, in a slightly smaller scale and not quite so citified. For example, there are no houseboats (the canals are too narrow and the town may need to close off the waterways to avoid flooding without notice;) there are no guardrails at the edges of the canals; that sort of thing.
In the center of town is the Market Square, bounded by the City Hall on one side (no decent picture) and the New Church on the other:
(Some better context-providing pictures are here although the text is in Dutch.) Apparently the square is filled with a town market every Thursday... since today was Saturday, well, you'll have to just imagine it. :) And at the top of the church tower is a famous carillon ("the Stradivarius of carillons", according to one source.) You can climb up to the carillon and be beautifully deafened if you get there before they close at 4 or so... we didn't. :(
Of course, if Delft has a New Church, it must have an Old Church, right? Sure does... and it's a doozy:
No, I didn't tilt the camera. The tower is more than six feet off true vertical. Want to know the odd part? It started to lean as they were building it in the 1300's... and rather than fix it, they kept going. Not only did they keep going, they built the spires on top to be straight vertical rather than in line with the building... so that if it by some miracle ever *does* get straightened up, the spires will be pointing off at an angle.
I guess I have nothing more to say about that. :)
Some old churches in Amsterdam are pretty impressive. SintNikolaaskerk, Saint Nicholas' Church (yes, *that* Saint Nicholas) overlooks Central Station smack in the center of Old Amsterdam, which is appropriate for a church dedicated to the patron saint of the city. It's an active Catholic church, though, and while it welcomes visitors (and is more than worth a free visit) we didn't want to disturb people by staying too long or doing the tourist-flash-thing.
Instead, here's a picture from the Oude Kerk, the Old Church, squarely in the Red Light District, a church which was first built in the early 1300's. Here you can see the massive organ which dates from 1539:
Because much of the Rijksmuseum is closed for renovations, many of their items are shopped out to various places so they can still be seen; the Oude Kerk is hosting one of these mini-exhibits with a dozen or more drawings or paintings by Rembrandt of his wife Saskia, who is buried there. (Those large rectangular cobblestone-looking things on the ground? Those are tombstones... as Laurie put it, as she avoided one after another of the rich engravings, "They're telling us, 'I may be dead, but I can still sprain your ankle!'")
The Nieuwe Kerk, or (surprise) New Church, built so much more recently (started in all of 1380!) is currently used as an exhibition hall and for special national events. Right now is full of Indonesian stuff which rather obscures a lot of the churchy bits, but it's got a couple of great organs and some spectacular pulpits -- apparently the Old Church and the New Church were having a competition about which could have the most for a while. (The New Church finally won -- 38 to 36. And one of the pulpits alone might be nearly worth the price of admission to the exhibit -- it's incredibly richly detailed.) No pictures allowed, though. Wouldn't have done it justice anyway...
Yesterday, we stopped at someplace I've wanted to go for a while: Escher in het Palais, the closest thing to an Escher museum there is at the moment. It really is an Escher museum except that the building is owned by the royal family and is loaned for the purpose -- hence the "Escher at the Palace" name. Three floors of original stuff, highly recommended. (Not very brightly lit though -- bring high speed film or a way to stabilize your camera.)
And today we are just back from Delft, origin of the famous Delft Blue porcelein, and discovered by Laurie as an absolutely beautiful day-trip. We toured the Royal Delft workshop and factory... they have a large historical exhibit which is somewhat vainglorious but of moderate historical and artistic interest. (Picture a nearly life-sized Delft Blue Nightwatch.) But aside from the tour, here's the interesting bit: you can take a workshop in which you paint your own Delft Blue tile or Christmas bell. We've agreed that this is on our must-do list for her next trip...
The rest of Delft is downright pretty, and well worth spending the day. It has much of the picturesque charm of Amsterdam, in a slightly smaller scale and not quite so citified. For example, there are no houseboats (the canals are too narrow and the town may need to close off the waterways to avoid flooding without notice;) there are no guardrails at the edges of the canals; that sort of thing.
In the center of town is the Market Square, bounded by the City Hall on one side (no decent picture) and the New Church on the other:
(Some better context-providing pictures are here although the text is in Dutch.) Apparently the square is filled with a town market every Thursday... since today was Saturday, well, you'll have to just imagine it. :) And at the top of the church tower is a famous carillon ("the Stradivarius of carillons", according to one source.) You can climb up to the carillon and be beautifully deafened if you get there before they close at 4 or so... we didn't. :(
Of course, if Delft has a New Church, it must have an Old Church, right? Sure does... and it's a doozy:
No, I didn't tilt the camera. The tower is more than six feet off true vertical. Want to know the odd part? It started to lean as they were building it in the 1300's... and rather than fix it, they kept going. Not only did they keep going, they built the spires on top to be straight vertical rather than in line with the building... so that if it by some miracle ever *does* get straightened up, the spires will be pointing off at an angle.
I guess I have nothing more to say about that. :)