AND FINALLY....AMSTERDAM

Goedemorgen,

Our final destination before the Rotterdam - Hull ferry this evening.
We were last here 26 years ago and can't remember if this is the site we stayed at. Certainly now there is a metro service 5 mins away into town. A small display shows what they found when they dug the roads to build the line. Old bottles and coins and a mobile phone which embarrassingly, but not surprisingly, was a later model than mine!
The Rijksmuseum below is huge and frankly too big to take in even during a full day. It is also very busy which makes viewing a bit stressful. Half the visitors seem more interested in taking random photos of paintings than actually looking at anything. Assuming they look at their photos again all they are doing is looking at photos of paintings which they could have looked at 'live' if they'd taken the time. (It's probably just me.)

There are a whole host of museums and galleries to visit but we settled on just three. The best of 

these was the Stedelijk Museum which included one of my favourite artists, Chagall, below. I've 

recently read a lot about the artist and been to a Chagall exhibition at the Tate Liverpool and it was genuinely exciting to see some more of his work.

The Amstel runs through the City along with dozens of canals.

The canals are busy with leisure craft and cruises, the one below with a saxophonist providing the entertainment.

Me with the Amstel behind.

One of the attractions in the city is the 'Brown Café'. These are old bars with loads of wooden furniture. Not all of them serve huge ranges of beer but the one below, Gollem, happened to serve 200! Is this one Chouffe too many?

This is the Rembrandt statue. There's lots of Rembrandts in the Rijksmuseum which we both enjoyed.

Another view of the Gollem Bar.

We also visited the Van Gogh museum which was well presented but was heaving. Truthfully, I don't like Van Gogh much. No surprise to me that he failed to sell paintings while he was alive, more that they now sell for multi-millions. Subject matter rather boring in my opinion. Whilst in my Mr Grumpy phase, what annoys me more than it probably should is the large number of visitors taking selfies in front of any painting they choose. How does this improve anything? Don't get it and they just get in the way. I'd employ these two likely looking chaps to have a few quiet words.

So, our last day. Thanks to everybody for following our journey and sending their comments. We get about 150 views per month which makes it worthwhile from my point if view. Particular thanks to our friends and neighbours Peter and Mary for keeping an eye on our house and taking in the post. Also any other neighbours who stepped in whilst they were on holiday which I trust they enjoyed.

We hope to catch up with many of you over the next few months maybe in our motorhome.

I'll probably keep blogging on our next trip wherever that may be.

Gauw tot ziens,

J&P

BIRTHDAY IN ANTWERP

Goedemiddag,

Another day, another country, another language. Decided to have birthday with a decent beer in Belgium. We have enjoyed lots of good wine including some very nice white Moselle and fizz from Luxembourg. Less successful red as you might expect but it will do for cooking on our return.
Can't fool me Deb. Your family's ear count is far too high to have any connection with Van Gogh!
Antwerp is a nice compact city with some typical low country buildings.

There was an interesting printing museum, a spectacular station below

plenty of good bars with some untried beers including various Oude Gueze which are my particular favourites. Also beers again from Brew Dog. Their marketing team must be second to none!

And, of course, a cathedral, below,

With 4 Rubens,

and some good stained glass windows,

but we're probably done with Cathedrals for this trip.

Our campsite was on the opposite bank of the Schelde and a 30 minute walk from the centre. A cruise ship passes the cathedral.

One of the stained glass windows from the cathedral.

The small harbour near our campsite.

We enjoyed our beers but the food since France has been a little disappointing. We don't expect it to get much better in Holland, our final port of call, before heading home. Last post middle of the week from Amsterdam.

Tot ziens,

J&P

LUXEMBOURG

Gudde Metteg,

Our first look at Luxembourg and staying on a site at Hesperange about 6km from the capital. Luxembourg has interesting prices: diesel is under £1 per litre and public transport fares are low. Any journey on a bus or train is 2 euros and you can travel all day on any train over all Luxembourg for just 4 euros. We chose an even better deal of about 25 euros for 3 days travel on any bus or train and inclusive of free entry into practically every museum and gallery in the country. Supermarket food is cheap but eating out is pricey particularly if you try and eat local food.
We decided on the first day to walk the 6km. When we got to the 5km sign we decided to walk the cycle route. After 6km we realised our mistake. The cycle route still said 6.8km to go so we tried a cross-country route. Eventually we found a suburb had a beer and continued towards a promising skyline. Several aeons later we arrived in a down at heel suburb. We do try to eat local but as our research told us that over half the population was not from Luxembourg we felt comfortable going for a curry particularly in this part of town. A very good lunchtime buffet followed, then finally a walk into town and a bus back.
Luxembourg has an interesting history with many countries staking a claim. Below is the Austrian built fort of 1732 which houses a museum. In the background is the high rise of European politics and the excellent contemporary art museum. Whilst neither of us are usually fans of installation type pieces the work of Lee Bul is well worth catching should it pass your way.

Cathedral (not visited!) below.

Second day we took a bus and train ride to Bourscheid Castle seen here before our walk down.

This was a castle until the 18th century and then a private residence. 

Great views over the surrounding countryside.

And lots of interesting nooks and crannies to explore.

Looking back up to the village of Bourscheid from the castle.

The scenery in Luxembourg is attractive, rolling hills and lots of woodland. The towns themselves, at least the ones we saw were rather dreary. We stopped in Ettelbruck which had a very interesting museum dedicated to General Patton but the town itself was not notable. 

At least Luxembourg City had some fine buildings including the Palais Gran Ducal below.

And more Cathedral views.

And looking at the Bock Casemates, a series of underground tunnels and cellars, under the higher part of town.

Looking down at the lower town.

And the famous red bridge which was built to link Luxembourg to Kirchberg.

A view from inside the Casemates.

More views to the lower town.

Our campsite was next to a babbling brook.

With the usual wildlife! 

The park was having an open air concert put on by the town council as it was yet another religious holiday. However, two hours of flamenco music was two hours too much. Sack the mayor!

Many thanks to those who have kindly sent birthday wishes on and off blog. We were aiming for Amsterdam for my 60th but chose to stop off for a couple of days in Antwerp where at least the beer is decent. Report to follow as we head to our final destination of Amsterdam.

We will be returning home on 19 June for those who are interested. 

Luxembourgish is spoken by most of the population, most trade is done in French and nearly all the papers are in German. A bit weird!

Addi

J&P

STRASBOURG/KEHL PART 2

Guten Abend,

As you can see, there are some wonderful old buildings in Strasbourg and we spent some time exploring.

Below is a view from the excellent Museum for Contemporary Art,

and this is the said museum.

From the restaurant roof of the Gallery.

This is the major crossing from the German side of the Rhine.

Back into Strasbourg and Petite France.

No leaf unturned in the pursuit of the local wildlife.

Some great walks and cycles along the German banks,

with the odd heron en route.

As well as Strasbourg we cycled into Kehl on market day. We left our locked bikes next to the market  and wandered the stalls. At the end of the market we realised that a festival was taking place celebrating 150 years of something we couldn't translate. The result was beer stalls and more food stalls than you could shake a bratwurst at. So after our fill of beer and sausage we wandered back to our bikes to find that the market had been cleared along with our bikes!  We reported the theft to the local police who said it was a daily occurrence. Of course, no German would dream of stealing, nor the French, although they were apparently rank bad drivers, having plenty of crashes in German territory which was how he learnt his French. No, the thieves were almost certainly, he inferred, being too diplomatic to name them, those from over the border who we might classify as Nigel Farage's favourite next door neighbours. 

Report printed we trudged off back to the van, a bit hacked off and with little chance of claiming off the insurance.

Thanks to J&A for their birthday greetings for Monday.

Deb. You have raised the bar very high with your latest link. I almost doubted you but looking at photos of Jean-Claude it was almost a double take so much does he resemble your father as I remember him. (Please don't tell me he is a cousin on your Mum's side.)

More on Luxembourg during next week.

Aura wiedersehen,

J&P

KEHL/STRASBOURG PT 1

Guten Tag,

We are staying just across the Rhine from Strasbourg in Kehl, where by chance, our Burstner motorhome was built. Thanks to J&A for their comment. I suspect the 3 river cruises we have come across were chartered by Americans as apart from the throng following the the tour guides, the tour guides themselves were American. But I'm not an expert.
Strasbourg is a pleasant 30 min cycle ride across the Rhine into France. Or it should be. Somehow we managed to get lost on the first return trip and 2 hours later etc etc. This seems to be a recurring theme of our trips. Somewhere walking or cycling we take a wrong turn or two and we're hopelessly lost. If there had been only one river in Strasbourg we would have been ok but as there are at least three, we followed the wrong one.
Also I should point out that having said all the working girls by the roadside were in Spain, this has now been disproven by the French roadsides. Perhaps it does happen in England and I've just not noticed.
Strasbourg is a truly beautiful city but choc full of tourists. There are waterways all round and a very fine old town. It is also full of con men and beggars which is quite atmospheric given the medieval streets as long as you don't fall for their tricks. (We haven't yet.)

Usual cathedral, inside

And out.

And a Protestant one for a change.

Germany was celebrating some religious festival last Thursday which turned into everyone's long weekend. First full campsite we have come across. Loads of photos so Part 2 at the weekend. Deb is doing well coming up with links but we're off to Luxembourg soon so you'll do well to find a connection there!

Auf wiedersehen

J&P