Guess where. The first four pictures tell it all. And a City with millions of bicycles.

Well, it must have been about twelve years ago that a museum in Amsterdam closed for renovation and refurbishment . Many thought, “what a waste of money; others thought about time too!” Now, everyone knows what estimates are for major government refurbishments. Always below budget… in the quote, and definitely not even near what a truthful time scale should be to complete the work. Dyana & I had been into this particular museum Oh!…..
about thirty eight years ago and definitely wanted to go back. Back to the plot. So once the project had been awarded and the work under way, its quite amazing how all the extras suddenly began coming out of their own little hiding places. Lets just talk about the time
scale first. The one year project was suddenly extended to two; then three… hmmm!…. Four…. Seven? You can see I've missed a few years in between. And it still went on….. and on... right up and until ten years. Can you imagine that? Ten years to complete. People
must have been throwing their hands up in utter despair. But finally ALL the building work was over. I shudder to think what the actual cost must have been, because I'm sure that figure will definitely never come out . EVER! What they did put out, probably because someone forced their hand… and the figure the authorities declared was one hundred million Euros. Yes… a quite eye opening and jaw dropping price don't you think? But… what a brilliant building. Refurbished to the highest standard. And rightly so… when all the masterpieces were put back in their rightful and proper places. And it finally opened.

The world famous Rijks Museum. And what a magnificent job they have done. The total beauty of the inside with its lofty ceilings to accommodate the magnificent pictures. The
beautiful lighting; subtle yet showing what needs to be seen. The viewer being able to get right up close and personal with the pictures. And when I mean close… I mean close. Two feet, or
whatever that is in centimeters. Just stunningly breathtaking.

Where to start. Well we decided to begin on the second floor with the Dutch Masters. Of Course. Where else? Names you will probably all know and have seen their pictures in various magazines and booklets . But nothing…. And I mean nothing can prepare you for what you are about to see. The masterful brush strokes; these famous Dutch artists were able to capture and depict the way the lighting fell on the subjects; the reflections in glassware. Just everything. It is one of the very few things that has completely taken my breath away. For example, standing in front of the master Rembrandt's 'Night Watch; or in fact any of his other
works is simply kneeling at the feet of what is just sheer unadulterated perfection. Then if course there is Vermeer. His painting of 'The girl with the pearl earing,' with her haunting look
as she turns to look back at you over her left shoulder. Well, when you look at her expression, for me it just so much better than ' The Mona Lisa!' and I instantly fell in love... with both her… and the actual painting. Well, we spent four hours on the one floor alone. And had to completely rush round the other two floors before it closed. What a day. Hope you like the pictures. Onwards… . to Rembrandt Square with the life sized statues of one of his
paintings. Hope you like the pictures.

You can see some strange sights on the streets of Amsterdam. For example, the weather was particularly hot and some of the students decided to set up a children's inflatable paddling pool on a pavement alongside one of the many canals and simply laze in the cooling waters inviting
passer by to join them. Very few takes though.

And now on to Rotterdam, a strange architectural city. Firstly, the docks and surrounding area was bombed by the invading Germans in the second world war, later, it was pulverised again by the allies so the net result is that there are areas built pre war, and then the modern
city rebuilt after 1945.

Its always nice to wander into the tourist office and ask what is the best things to see or do. And one of the things he said was to catch the ferry at the rear of the station to an island called WLNF . Or smething like that. Many artists have set up a colony, and are doing lots of things. Sounds quite bohemian to me. And something a little off the wall, and quite interesting. You never quite know what you may find. What's to loose?… nothing. And after a short ten
minutes passed by an old rusty Russian submarine finally landing at a reasonable derelict jetty.

We had actually arrived in a derelict shipyard. Now! What about that! A derelict shipyard of all places to be. Extremely large sheds where large ships would have been built years before with lots and lots of graffiti on their outside. Hmm. Now what?… looking round found a really small café. Help…. We need to know where to go and what to see.
“Vell its Sunday and everytsing is closed,” a small café owner said.
“Oh dear, Oh dearie dearie me”…. Or words similar coming quickly into our heads. Now what! “Is there anything else to see here?”
“Vell... dere is anoder Hippy Cafe down dere?” she said pointing in another direction .

So we walked down the road arriving at this, this… hmm… prefabricated structure looking like a second world war Nissan Hut with a corrugated perspex roof. 'Lets have lunch… “I'll just
have a burger, but leave out the marijuana cookies, cakes and lollipops. None of that for me please.' The food was OK, and while eating watched as a band started setting up on a small stage outside. Quite amazingly, we arrived on the one day they decided to have a salsa dance. Now we definitely have to stay a while longer and join in. instead of hippies, people started turning up in quite smart dress and what's more, their dancing was excellent too. Hope you like the video.

Standing over one of the bridges in Rotterdam suddenly heard drunken revelry. Now this has to be great fun I thought. I'm going to wait and see what turns up! And sure enough, a sight I have never ever seen before slowly emerged from beneath the bridge. Let me set the scene…. A very hot day… lots of beer… and a river canal. Get the picture so far? A small circular boat… NO…. A small circular hot tub boat. Yes. A steam powered mobile hot tub boat capable of taking six people immersed in the….. Oh! Why am I trying to put this into words…
please click the picture, it turns into a short video and it'll show exactly what I'm talking about. SO much better to see than to read about. Enjoy.