AMSTERDAM

HOLLAND is not the country but a region of The Netherlands.

It is the region that Amsterdam is in and stretches northward along the coast. Our host Kess took us for a drive one misty moisty perfectly Dutch day.

Below- Holland is famous for it’s bulbs. Here an Alium field.

Below- Near Aaltmark the next town north from Amsterdam, is Bergen which is a picture perfect little village set in the woods near the sea. Some delightful cottages.

Below-The North Sea from Bergen en Zee with the Sun setting at almost ten pm in the evening.

Below-About 20% of The Netherlands is under sea level and this poster reminds us that this area sits some 4.5 metres (15 feet) under sea level and that the local utility company keeps it dry enough for the farmer.
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Amsterdam is a picture perfect city that is on a very human scale.

Below-the view from their kitchen window into a sanctuary for birds.

 

The Beginhof (below) dates from 1346 and was designed as a cloister for “pious” women. An option for women who did not want married life but also did not want to be in a convent.

Synonymous with Amsterdam are “coffee shops”- where no coffee is drunk.
They are indeed ubiquitous but the smoking isn’t everywhere on the streets. It is frowned upon in fact.
It seemed to me smoking was confined only to those places of purveyance.
The slippery slope to national overall decadence seems to have not happened.

On a warehouse-

Below- “In the courtyard- a peddler”

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THE THEATRE TUSCHKINSKY

Built 1919-21 in Dutch School Jungenstill or Art Nouveau it is considered as one of the most beautiful cinemas in the world.

The builder was Abraham Icek Tuschinski and was of Polish Jewish descent. He found success as a movie theatre owner opening lavish cinemas around The Netherlands in the teens and twenties.
This building was his crowning achievement and was way ahead of it’s time.
It cost 4 million guilders, using according to his own words the best people, best ideas and best materials he could get. When the Second World War broke out Tuschinski lost all his cinemas and he was transported to a concentration camp and from there to Auschwitz where he died.

The lobby was designed in such a way as to offer theatergoers the feeling that they are stepping into an illusion.
 Photo via Wikipedia

The light was not good enough inside to get any great shots but you can see that every surface had been crafted with utmost care.

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 The building itself is a work of art. 

Young Woman Warming Her Hands-
by Cesar Van Everdingen c 1650