JUNE 2013 – AMSTERDAM & FRANCEThe Ouimets go to Europe!

Amsterdam – Day 1

First things first – we were hungry, had been rambling around half the day, and decided to check out the Grand Café Hermes across from our hotel (Holiday Inn Express – yes, very exotic!) It was AWESOME! I don’t know if we were just extremely hungry, but their potatoes were out of this world, and Erick said it was the best burger he’d ever had. So the score: Amsterdam: +1!

The only drawback? The chef and servers were all drinking along with the patrons, and around 10:00, just …. wandered off! Didn’t get to try their desserts – oh, well. We’ll just have to go back next time!

Amsterdam, Day 2: The Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum was established in 1800, and the current location in Amsterdam’s Museumplein was opened in 1885. The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by painters from the Dutch Golden Age such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. The museum also has a small Asian collection which is on display in the Asian Pavilion

Christus de Verlosser, afkomstig van het tabernakel van de familie Benedetti in de Santa Maria Novella te Florence, Giovanni Battista Caccini, ca. 1598

I like her hat. What can I say?

Meisje met eenbrede hoed, Caesar Boetiusvan Everdingen,ca 1645 - 1650

De welvoorziene keuken, Joachim Beuckelear, 1566

I never quite got what was so great about Van Gogh until I saw his work up close. This one is “The Farm in Summer”, painted in 1890.

The Treaty of Munster, 1648, by Bartholomeus van der Helst

Lunch at the museum

Erick's lunch at the Rijksmuseum - mackerel tartare sandwich with

pickled onions! The review? "Actually good!!"

I went safe with the ham sandwich (and a

Heineken!), but the pickled onions are awesome! How can southerners not know

about pickled onions??

WAFFLES!!!Don’t know why they are so good, but they are freakin’ AWESOME! I suspect the white powder is actually not sugar, but a particularly tasty version of crack.

Paris! Day 3

You come out of a subway station, turn right, and holy cow, it’s the Arc de Triomphe

At The Musée du Louvre, housed in the Louvre Palace (which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.

This vase belongs to a category of ceremonial ware called kraters that were used for mixing and serving wine at banquets. Made in continental Greece and exported to the Levant, this ceramic piece is described as Mycenaean. The painted decoration depicts warriors on chariots, a favorite subject. Members of the social elite of Ugarit, the capital of a kingdom on the Syrian coast, were entombed with this terracotta ware. (Late Bronze Age, thirteenth century BC, Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit), Syria, Continental Greece or the Anatolian coast)

Lots of people taking photos of the Mona Lisa. Note the woman lookingat the Mona Lisa…. on her phone.

The courtyard at the Louvre.

Castle Tennessus: The first known mention of the "tower, fortress, lodging, and village of Tennessus" is in a document dating from 1404, when it was owned, in his wife's name, by Challot des Près, lord of Fontenioux-Rolland. At the time of the siege of Parthenay by the Dauphin's army in 1419, the Château belonged to Guillaume de la Court, one of the rebels against royal authority. On the orders of the Duke of Vertus, a detachment was sent to capture and destroy Tennessus; but the castle held out for as long as that of Parthenay, and was still resisting at the time of Parthenay's surrender on 31 August.

The courtyard view from our room window. And that IS a drawbridge,yes!

And a moat!!

CarcassonneCarcassonne is a fortified French town in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century, though the Romans had fortified the settlement earlier. The fortress, which was thoroughly restored in 1853, was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1997.

The view from our B&B room window

Back to Amsterdam!

There is a reason that it is difficult to navigate in Amsterdam. It’s called …DUTCH.

The Farmer’s Market in Amsterdam

The largest, juiciest strawberries I’ve ever seen. Ever.

Somewhere under all that chocolate and fruit and whipped cream, thereare waffles.

Europe is awesome! Ready to go back!