Amsterdam, Leiden and The Hague with Hélène

Hélène Maumy-Florescu and Donna Quirk met several years ago when Helene was living in the Seaport area of Boston. They developed a friendship and became regular running buddies. Hélène has since moved back to her native country and lives in the French Alps. When Donna decided to visit us in Amsterdam she asked if she could invite Hélène and of course our answer was yes. Sandy met Hélène before in Boston and ran with her and Donna so we were more than happy to have her join us and get to know her better.

Hélène arrived April 15 from France. We had snacks after she arrived then Donna and Hélène went to Rembrandt House.

We met them at Rembrandt house and walked to dinner along this continuation of our canal, Oudenschans, which is Zwanenburgwal at this point.

Dinner at Frenzi the evening of April 15. This was our second visit. Italian, moderately good with limited menu choices.

Donna, Mark and Hélène went to Haarlem for the day on April 16. We stayed home as we have already been there and we were able to work on blogs and fix dinner.

Hélène invited her Dutch friend Corrine who she met in Romania. Corrine now lives in Amsterdam not far from us so she rode her bike over. We served one of our favorite Penne Pasta dishes with kalamata olives, garlic, cherry tomatoes, parsley and red pepper flakes. It was accompanied by a tossed green salad.

April 17, heading to Leiden and The Hague. Very windy.

The trains are fairly comfortable but somewhat dated and worn. Very few of them have electrical or USB plugs for charging devices. Although this photo reflects otherwise we typically try to put our phones away and converse with our guests. I think we were all researching things to do in Leiden(except Mark).

This is our third visit to Leiden, twice with Philip and Phyllis but we were happy to return as it is so charming here and we did not get to see the Botanical Garden as our focus last time was the Pieterskerk, St. Peters Church.

Our first stop in Leiden was at the Hortus Botanicus which is one of the oldest in The Netherlands and the world. Planted in 1590 and originally meant to be hortus medicus, a garden where medical students from Leiden University could study medicinal plants. It was here in 1593 that Carolus Clausius cultivated the first large tulip collection of Europe.

Researchers from around the world come here to do research. There is an enormous variety of exotic and rare plant species.

We enjoyed the spring scents as we walked through this garden on a misty day.

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) “Food of the Gods” is the literal translation of the scientific name for Cocoa. The former inhabitants of Mexico, the Toltecs and the Aztecs, worshipped the god Quetzalcoatl and consumed a cocoa drink to honor him. The Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortes brought the cocoa fruit to Europe in 1519.

Donna is very fashionable and bought the coat she is wearing at Rain Couture, a shop in Amsterdam. It went well with her rain hat and Jimmy Choo sneakers.

Witte Singel Canal view from the Garden with ominous clouds heading for us.

We noticed that there was to be a concert in the Lokhorst church at the university for a musician’s dissertation.

After our tour of the garden we had lunch then returned to the university to hear the concert which included some pieces by Bach.

Jim and Mark attentively watching the organist on the monitor screen.

Here is a short video to hear the organ.

We left Leiden and took the train to The Hague where Donna treated us to an overnight stay at this lovely hotel located across the street from the Canadian Embassy. When we had breakfast the Royal carriages went by as the King of Spain was visiting the King of Holland.

A friend of Hélène’s who lives in The Hague told us we should go see the largest painting in the world which is at Mesdag Panorama Museum so after breakfast we went to see it. The above is of Hendrik Mesdag who was commissioned to produce the Panorama painting. The information below explains about panorama paintings

Jim was able to get this spectacular video of the painting which is viewed from the top of the rotunda which was built specifically to paint the panorama. The BCA Cyclorama in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts built in 1884, was originally created to house the panorama painting of The Battle of Gettysburg by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux. William T. Sears was the architect of the building.

We found this to be utterly fascinating and spectacular to see.

Mesdag’s wife also helped him to complete the painting and she is pictured here in the painting, actually painting on the beach.

Our next stop was the Peace Palace which is an international law administration building in The Hague. It houses the International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague Academy of International Law and the Peace Palace Library. American financier Andrew Carnegie funded the building of The Peace Palace.

Here is a photo of the staircase in the building which we were unable to go in as it is a working government building but we did do the interactive exhibition in the Visitor Center.

Over the years, the Peace Palace has become a worldwide and universal symbol of peace.

The inscription on the bench reads Law Not War.

Another shot of The Peace Palace with a glimpse of the garden.

Outside of the Peace Palace is this war memorial for the 20,000 Dutch who died during the 5 years of German occupation in the Second World War, 1940-1945.

One of the main streets in The Hague. Notice the crown hanging across the street which we think is for the King’s Day celebration on April 27.

We went to a cafe and met up with Hélène and her friend Christián who lives in The Hague

He was kind enough to take us on a tour of the city.

The yellow building is the back of the Mauritshuis Museum that houses the famous painting by Vermeer titled “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”.

This special work of art by Johan Thorvecke represents the modern democracy of The Netherlands. The woman sitting with her butt on the table symbolizes her equal place in society. However we. think the short skirt and gap between the legs looks rather sexist!

Christian brought us to Museum Bredius which is a small house museum with an excellent collection of paintings by the Dutch Masters. We of course focused mainly on our namesake artist.

The Wedding Night of Tobias and Sarah by Jan Steen.

Jan Steen The satyr and the peasant 1660.

Jan Steen Couple in a Bedroom 1668-70. The red woman’s coat hanging at the end of the bed tells you that she is a prostitute coat.

See description below of this. Very Interesting artwork.

This was quite the controversial painting in the museum 😮. The description was in Dutch which we google translated but did not keep 🫢. It did say if you were offended by the painting which is titled “The Peasant” then the staff would be happy to discuss it with you. We will let you come to your own interpretation 🤔.

This is a statue of John de Witt a 17th century dutch politician and staunch republican who opposed the Orangists who wanted to return to the House of Orange. Considered to be the most important Dutchman ever, he and his brother were slaughtered on this very spot by a mob instigated by William III Of Orange.

The Hague skyline contrasting old and new buildings.

video of Jim stumping our tour guide Christian.

This building was formerly a jail but is now a museum.

Christian took us to this museum next which was the first public art collection in the Netherlands. This is the picture gallery of William V (1748-1806). The Gallery closed its doors in 1705 when French troops seized the paintings and took them to Paris where they were displayed in the Louvre. After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, part of the collection was returned to the gallery in The Hague.

Another Jan Steen titled “The Tooth Puller”. This reminded Sandy of her childhood dentist!

This is a Rubens portrait of his wife Helena Fourment.

The paintings are hung very densely which showed the princely collection off to its best advantage.

Christian walked us back to our train station continuing to point out places of interest. We walked through this lovely passageway of shops.

Of course Donna and Tom could not pass this by as their ancestors stem directly from Ireland and they have dual citizenship. Read the accolades for this pub over the door.

And so another adieu leaving us with wonderful memories

and we hope to visit this beautiful lady in the French Alps where she lives.

And so another visit with Donna and Mark comes to an end. We always have such a good time with them as they do more research than we do and they take us to new sights and destinations. They are also much too generous with treating us to meals and buying groceries. Mark is also an accomplished chef and fixed us a few delicious meals.

2 responses to “Amsterdam, Leiden and The Hague with Hélène”

Mark Neylon

May 4, 2024 at 3:33 pm

Thank you again for providing us with such wonderful memories! I will never forget our trip to the Hague. And I actually think you were all playing Wordle on your phones! Miss you guys.

PEGGY SCOTT

May 4, 2024 at 3:32 am

Another great blog showing Leiden and The Hague…showed me what we missed in our very brief 4 days there….you are so fortunate to have had such great “local” guides as well.

Living the retirement dream