Hever Castle

Hever Castle is an important historic castle on the English landscape, once the family home of one of England's most famous Queens - Anne Boleyn, the intriguing 2nd wife of Henry VIII and mother of Elizabeth I.


There have been 3 main periods in the construction of the castle. The oldest part dates to 1270 and consisted of the gatehouse and a walled bailey. In the early 1500s the Bullen family bought the castle and added a Tudor dwelling within the walls and so it became the childhood home of its most famous inhabitant, Anne Boleyn. It later passed into the ownership of Henry's fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. From 1557 onwards, the castle was owned by a number of families until finally in 1903, American William Waldorf Astor invested time, money and imagination in restoring the castle, building the "Tudor Village" and creating the gardens and lake.


The tour inside the castle (where we weren't allowed to take pictures) illustrated the Astor family's commitment to retaining the period beauty while incorporating modern conveniences. All power outlets are hidden so that the intricate wood paneling wouldn't be marred. Learning about the Astor family was also fascinating; they had several rooms dedicated to them and their stewardship of this property. Since 1983, the castle has been owned by Broadland Properties Limited and open to the public. The castle has a homey atmosphere and houses historic 16th century Tudor portraits, furniture and tapestries. Other artifacts include 2 magnificent Books of Hours (prayer books), both signed and inscribed by Anne Boleyn.


One of the most magnificent areas of the gardens is the Italian Garden, which was designed to display William Waldor Astor's collection of Italian sculpture. Over 1,000 men worked on the great design with around 800 men digging out the 35 acre lake at the far end of the garden - taking 2 years to do so! Within 4 years the 30 acres of classical and natural landscapes were constructed and planted.


It is impossible to capture the scope of the Italian Garden unless an areal shot could be taken. It has 2 colonnades of marble and foliage leading down to the lake with large internal lawns and smaller hedged-in gardens. This sculpture caught my attention. Seems a bit salacious, don't you? Hmmmm...


This is one of the internal gardens. Apparently, the hedges planted (and that were historically accurate for Italian garends) grow extremely slowly so the gardens are only reaching maturity now (that would take serious patience - 100 years after their planting?!). We were struck by how quiet and secluded it felt, and since it was such a smaller space, it felt cosy. Each of these interior gardens had their own water element, which also added a peaceful air. Perhaps the risque statue is making more sense now that we discovered this romantic, secluded hideaway.


This water fountain faces the lake at the end of the colonnades. It reminds me of Trevi Fountain in Rome - which is probably the idea. D and I decided to walk around the lake since it was a beautiful day (and a glorious property) and it was also the first time since 1939 that visitors have been allowed to walk the entire distance around the lake.


It proved to be quite the wildlife experience. In case the weather didn't scream that the season was spring, all the animal families would have. We immediately came across a swan pair with their cygnets. (I had to look up what baby swans were called. For the curious, a female swan is a "pen" and a male is a "cob.")


Not much farther down the path we came across a duck with her ducklings. It was fun watching them. Birds at the fuzzy feather stage are so sweet.


We had the lake area all to ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed the view.


To keep the theme going, next was the ewe and her lambs. Little did we know that we were entering their "pen" area, but our shoes got the picture quick. It became exceptionally difficult not to walk in sheep droppings, no matter how much we danced around. We tried to dodge the pies but it became impossible as the next pic will show.


If you look at the ground around this group of lambs, you will see droppings everywhere. We tried not to disturb the sheep (clearly not many people choose to take the lake walk since we saw no one else that day and the sheep looked well entrenched) but it was almost impossible because off the path the poop was even deeper (seems like there is a life lesson in that, doesn't it?). It was fun to be able to get so close to them. They were smart to stake out the shade, it had actually become quite a warm day, but since there was low humidity, it was just about perfect in the shade. D and I sat in the shade with the view of the first picture (on that lawn under a glorious, huge tree there) for lunch before we had to get back on the bus to head for home. We agreed that it was just nice to be out in the sun enjoying beautiful countryside.

Warwick Castle

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a cliff overlooking a bend in the River Avon. Warwick Castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century, when Sir Fulke Greville converted it to a country house. It was owned by the Greville family, who became earls of Warwick in 1759, until 1978.


From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II. It has been used to hold prisoners, including some from the Battle of Poitiers in the 14th century. Under the ownership of Richard Neville – also known as "Warwick the Kingmaker" – Warwick Castle was used in the 15th century to imprison the English king, Edward IV. Warwick Castle has been compared with Windsor Castle in terms of scale, cost, and status.


Since its construction in the 11th century, the castle has undergone structural changes with additions of towers and redesigned residential buildings. Originally a wooden motte-and-bailey (which was a building type that consisted of creating an artificial hill and building a wooden fortification on it, with a moat), it was rebuilt in stone in the 12th century. During the Hundred Years War, the facade opposite the town was refortified, resulting in one of the most recognizable examples of 14th century military architecture.

In the 17th century the grounds were turned into a garden. Warwick Castle was purchased by The Tussauds Group in 1978 and opened as a tourist attraction.


We appreciated this sign, given that in Belgium they don't warn you in advance that the climb you are about to take could kill you. The sky was clear and once we made our way to the top, it gave us stunning views of the countryside.


These are the stairs leading up to Guys Tower. Towers were the mainstay of a castle's defensive system. Because they projected above and out from the wall, they gave archers a clear view downwards and sideways. Guy's Tower was built in the 14th century. It is twelve-sided, stands 39 meters high and has 5 stories.


Some of the beautiful views from the parapets.


The Great Hall and State rooms - the parts of the castle that were turned into a country home, from above.


Poor D! The 530 steps wore him out. But, given how inviting that grass was (truly like a carpet) I didn't blame him for wanting to take a little rest.


The Great Hall is the largest room in the castle and throughout history had been its heart. In the early middle ages, straw and dirt covered the floor of the Great Hall. Burning in the center of the room would have been a large fire, its smoke turning the air acrid. The only natural light filtered through narrow lancet windows. Here it was that the nobility ate, drank and even slept. The hall as it stands today was first constructed in the 14th century. It was rebuilt in the 17th century and then restored in 1871 after it had been badly damaged by a fire. The period weapons and armor, as well as the enormous side-table, add to the atmosphere and give a greater appreciation for just how big this room really is.


I have never been to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, so it was fun to have many of the rooms of the castle contain wax exhibits. This one is of Henry VIII and his 6 wives, which I liked because I had recently read Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance. The castle also had wax figures in rooms of the former Earls and some of their famous visitors, like Winston Churchill (MUCH shorter than I thought) and Queen Elizabeth II (taller than we thought - although we couldn't see her feet, so we hypothesized that she had heels on and was on a platform).


The castle boasts of a peacock garden, containing lovely hedges and flowers and full of the birds as well. They are all over the castle grounds and have recognized that people are a source of food and not dangerous, so they come VERY close to you. This one was scared up toward me by a toddler who became too curious for his liking, which was great for me to get this pic. He ran within inches of me.


Again, the falconry display was our favorite. So much so that this time, we caught both shows. They flew the same birds but since we knew what was going to happen the second time, we were able to sit in the shade and really take it in in comfort. The troupe of trainers/handlers were more professional than the one we encountered at Mary Arden's Farm and we took the opportunity to talk to them after the show. We learned a lot about the falconry business (all over, in England, the Middle East and America), the birds that are used and when (they use the eagles in the summer - when the biggest crowds are there - because they are such big, impressive birds to watch flying and this troupe is one of only 2 that are licensed to fly such big birds, and falcons are used in the winter), feeding, and about breeding them.

D and I were so excited to see an American Bald Eagle up close and to see him fly (his name was Stan). I guess he is a particularly good flyer (different birds have different skills, some are better flyers, some are better killers, etc - didn't know that) so watching him was a joy. And, it turned out that Stan is a new dad - they had, for the first time, been successful in breeding him and the chick was 4 weeks old. Rick, the handler kind enough to chat with us for so long, even offered to let us see the eagle chick, which we eagerly accepted. They had him in a shack "behind the scenes" and he was all fuzzy grey with HUGE claws (I guess like puppies, they grow into their feet.) The coolest/funniest bit was that there was poop just everywhere. Apparently, it is instinctual to go to the nests edge and relieve themselves - but there is a projectile component to it that meant that the shed had poop stains 4-6 feet away from the nest all over the walls. They had hence put up a cardboard "backboard" to coral the mess. We even got to witness the pooping (making sure we were not on the business end). The highlight of our day.


I don't know much about medieval weapons; the standard mace, sword, lance, longbow are about the extent of my knowledge. This remarkable machine is called a trebuchet and is a siege machine developed in the 13th century for attacking the solid castle walls. As the defenses of castles improved, so did the weapons of attack. The trebuchet was the largest and most formidable of the siege machines and is, in essence, a huge catapult.


The trebuchet was used to fire huge projectiles to breach castle walls. Large rocks and stones were the main ammunition but there is evidence of more unusual material. Manure and dead animals were also hurled by the machines into the besieged castle to spread disease - pigs were the animal of choice as they were thought to be more aerodynamic. [I am not making this up - I couldn't make up stuff this good. Aerodynamic pigs?!? The first chemical warfare.] Weighing in at 22 tons and standing 18 meters tall, this massive machine was fired twice for us - the second time at the end of the day with a flaming fireball. We had talked to the trebuchet operator (a recent college grad in philosophy - funny huh? - who has interest in medieval weaponry) during his off time and learned about the machine, how they learned about it (big school for medieval weaponry in the Netherlands), how sophisticated it really is (both in construction as well as firing it - the wrong set up results in the cannon ball dropping straight down on top of the machine, destroying it and killing those operating it) as well as the best place to watch the fire show at the end of the day. We have some good video of that too.


These last two pics were just because it is so darn pretty there that we felt compelled to try and capture it. This place was really surprising and great. It had the feel of the Renaissance Festival (a huge Medieval fair that has several locations around the US that have great shows, food, dressed characters teaching and entertaining, singers, the whole works) but was at a legitimately historically accurate place and therefore, kept everything educational as well as entertaining. The food wasn't as accurate, but that is good by me. I saw so many kids running around with little knight and princess outfits on (all sold by the gift shops) and it was great. This is a terrific place for families - good stuff for kids, awesome stuff for adults, and enough to do to keep all happy all day. We loved it.

Stratford Upon Avon

A brief history of William Shakespeare: William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born at Stratford Upon Avon in a house on Henley Street. His mother, Mary Arden, was one of the daughters of Robert Arden, a yeoman farmer of Wilmcote: his father, John Shakespeare, was a glover and wool dealer of good standing.


From the age of 7 to about 14, he attended Stratford Grammar School receiving an excellent well rounded education. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who was seven years his senior and three months pregnant. She was of "yeoman" stock - her family owned a farm one mile west of Stratford in Shottery. He endured her until he could stand it no longer and fled to London to become an actor (not a very nice description of their marriage, but there you are). He then became actor-manager and part-owner in the Blackfriars and afterwards the Globe Theaters. He was a first-rate actor, but it is as a writer of plays that he has achieved lasting world-wide fame. His plays are thought to be the finest ever written in any language.

His 37 plays vary in type: historical romances, light, comedies, tragedies. He was a shrewd business man, amassing quite a fortune in his time. He returned to Stratford for his latter years where he died at the age of 52 and now lies at rest in his special grave at Holy Trinity Church.


[This is Mary Arden's Farm: a real working tudor farm, as is evident from the pig sty. D was particularly taken with this lot. The aromatic offering was a but much for me. That may be part of what is making D smile so much...]


Mary Arden's House: Three and a half miles outside Stratford and still retaining its country setting in Wilmcote, this timbered Tudor farmhouse is the house that Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, grew up in before marrying John Shakespeare and moving to Henley Street. [The gardens here are really exceptional. It was difficult to capture them on film - well planned, laid out, maintained, all of it.]


Our favorite attraction at this house was the falconry display. It was a very informative but relaxed event that talked about the bird and his place in English falconry history. What made it different than anything that we have even heard of stateside was that the handler gave everyone an opportunity to feed the bird that was interested. That consisted of putting on the heavily fortified leather glove, turning your back to the bird, accepting the bit of raw chicken from the trainer (a bit gross, especially when he gave the woman before me the chicken's head) and then the bird just magically came and ate. We have some cool video of it. The owl is remarkably light and we considered ourselves privileged for having gotten the chance to "hold" him.


Anne Hathaway's cottage is the most picturesque of all the Shakespeare cottages (there are 5 included in the trust - his mother's house (Mary Arden), Anne's house (his wife), his birthplace, Hall's Croft (where his eldest daughter Susanna lived) and New Place-Nash House). Before marrying Shakespeare in 1582, Anne Hathaway lived in what is justifiably described as one of England's most famous buildings. The cottage was known as Newlands Farm in Shakespeare's day and had more than 90 acres of land attached to it. As in many houses of the period, it has multiple chimneys to spread the heat evenly throughout the house during winter. The largest chimney was used for cooking. It also has visible timber framing, a trademark of vernacular Tudor style architecture. Again, the gardens are amazing and we were there at the perfect time to see them in bloom. This was my favorite house. I could just look at it for hours.


This half-timbered house is where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and is Stratford's most cherished historical place, and it has been a place of pilgrimage for over 250 years. Interestingly, descendants of the dramatist lived here until the 19th century. The house was divided in two parts, so that part could act as a store front for Will's dad in his glove making and wool trade. They had period dressed craftsmen in the home making gloves with tools from the era. We enjoyed talking with them and learning about commerce in the period as well as the greater Shakespeare family.


New Place, Shakespeare's home from 1597 until his death in 1616, was pulled down in the 18th century. Only the foundations remain and it is really just a sad story in which the new owner basically got tired of visitors the house attracted and finally tore it down over a disagreement with the tax man (no house, no taxes. Drastic solution if I do say...) There isn't much to see there, so I left the pictures out. This picture is of Hall's Croft. Apparently, Will's eldest daughter married a medical genius and lived here with him. The interior is dedicated to the medicine of his time. The exterior also reflects this theme in that the herb garden contains the plants that Dr. Hall would have used to cure his patients.


The grounds of this property (Hall's Croft) were the biggest and most enjoyable. I knew that the English are known for loving their gardens and having beautiful yards, but this really brought home why they do. On a beautiful day, there is no more peaceful place to be than surrounded by these gorgeous trees and hedges and flowers. Again, the lilacs and roses and other flowers were in full bloom, so it smelled as beautiful as it looked.


This is Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried along with his immediate family. It is small and beautifully maintained and on the very edge of town (which means a 10-15 minute walk.) We walked all of these sites and it made for the most pleasant day. I have the increasing desire to read more Shakespeare's plays, now that I feel like I have stepped a small foot into his world.


The Avon river - it didn't seem right not to include a picture of this lovely waterway.

Medieval England: Londinium

We found this fantastic tour that does all the planning, booking and leg work and we just needed to show up - my kind of tour! We were interested in seeing more of England instead of just London (even though we both really enjoy visiting London), and this tour took us out into the countryside to enjoy some of the medieval historical sites. We started in London (Londinium is the name of this great city during Roman times).


Our tour was primarily all by bus, but instead of taking the Chunnel (the tunnel under the Channel from France to England), we took the ferry from Calais to Dover. I was really excited about this because I have always wanted to see the white cliffs of Dover but didn't think it was going to happen. It is fun and slightly surreal that you can see the English shores from France and visa versa. And I didn't realize this, but it make sense, that the French coast has cliffs that are white, just like Dover's. (They just didn't get the same good press that Dover must have recieved.) The pictures don't do them justice, the cliffs are stunning.


We had only a few hours in London, so we had to pick one, maybe two activities that we wanted to do in that time. One place I hadn't been to was the British Museum. It is a treasure trove of historical, cultural and archeological wonders. I had done a little homework leading up to the trip and thanks to a easy to negotiate webpage with all the information you could want on it, I was able to map out the sights (down the rooms and display numbers) of interesting artifacts. This helped us to utilize our time most efficiently. This picture is of The Black Obilesk of Shalmaneser III. It is Neo-Assyrian, dating in the range of 858-824 BC. It is from Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), northern Iraq. It depicts the military achievements of an Assyrian king.

The archaeologist Henry Layard discovered this black limestone obelisk in 1846 during his excavations of the site of Kalhu, the ancient Assyrian capital. It was erected as a public monument in 825 BC at a time of civil war. The relief sculptures glorify the achievements of King Shalmaneser III (reigned 858-824 BC) and his chief minister. It lists their military campaigns of thirty-one years and the tribute they exacted from their neighbours: including camels, monkeys, an elephant and a rhinoceros. Assyrian kings often collected exotic animals and plants as an expression of their power.

There are five scenes of tribute, each of which occupies four panels round the face of the obelisk and is identified by a line of cuneiform script above the panel. From top to bottom they are:

Sua of Gilzanu (in north-west Iran)
Jehu of Bit Omri (ancient northern Israel)
An unnamed ruler of Musri (probably Egypt)
Marduk-apil-usur of Suhi (middle Euphrates, Syria and Iraq)
Qalparunda of Patin (Antakya region of Turkey)

The second register from the top includes the earliest surviving picture of an Israelite: the Biblical Jehu, king of Israel, brought or sent his tribute in around 841 BC. Ahab, son of Omri, king of Israel, had lost his life in battle a few years previously, fighting against the king of Damascus at Ramoth-Gilead (I Kings xxii. 29-36). His second son (Joram) was succeeded by Jehu, a usurper, who broke the alliances with Phoenicia and Judah, and submitted to Assyria. The caption above the scene, written in Assyrian cuneiform, can be translated

The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king [and] spears.

This picture illustrates the Israelites carrying the tribute to Shalmaneser.


This picture is of the Elgin Marbles, also known as the Parthenon Marbles, which are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions and architectural members that originally belonged to the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1799–1803 and a looter according to some people in Britain, obtained an ambiguous permission from the Ottoman authorities to remove pieces from the Acropolis. From 1801 to 1812 Elgin's agents removed about half of the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon. The Marbles were transported by sea to Britain. In Britain, Elgin was criticized for his actions, labelled by some as vandalism. However, following a public debate in Parliament and subsequent exoneration of Elgin's actions, the marbles were purchased by the British Government in 1816 and placed on display in the British Museum, where they stand now on view in the purpose-built Duveen Gallery. However, the legality of the removal has been questioned and the debate continues as to whether the Marbles should remain in the British Museum or be returned to Athens.


The Elgin Marbles, removed in 1801 by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, include some 17 figures from the statuary from the east and west pediments (pediments are the triangular spaces formed by the pitch of the roof of a Greek temple, one at either end of the building), 15 (of an original 92) of the metope panels depicting battles between the Lapiths and the Centaurs, as well as 247 feet (of an original 524 feet) of the Parthenon Frieze which decorated the horizontal course set above the interior architrave of the temple. As such, they represent more than half of what now remains of the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon.


These statues come from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, on of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is Greek in design, from around 350 BC but from Bodrum, modern Turkey. They stand at approximately 12 feet in height. Research suggests that there were once thirty-six such colossal portraits standing between the Ionic columns of the peristyle of the Mausoleum.

The mausoleum was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC at Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, a satrap in the Persian Empire, and Artemisia II of Caria, his wife and sister. The structure was designed by the Greek architects Satyros and Pythis. It stood approximately 135 ft in height, and each of the four sides was adorned with sculptural reliefs created by each one of four Greek sculptors — Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros and Timotheus. The finished structure was considered to be such an aesthetic triumph that Antipater of Sidon identified it as one of his Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The word mausoleum has since come to be used generically for any grand tomb, though "Mausol – eion" originally meant "[building] dedicated to Mausolus".


This one may have been my favorite, although it is hard to choose between such great artifacts. This is The Flood Tablet, relating part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is the most famous cuneiform tablet from Mesopotamia. [Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs and later developed into alphabetic writing.) The Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-631 BC) collected a library of thousands of cuneiform tablets in his palace at Nineveh. They recorded myths, legends and scientific information. Among them was the story of the adventures of Gilgamesh, a legendary ruler of Uruk, and his search for immortality. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a huge work, the longest literary work in Akkadian (the language of Babylonia and Assyria and earliest attested Semitic language). It was widely known, with versions also found at Hattusas, capital of the Hittites, and Megiddo in the Levant.

This, the eleventh tablet of the epic, describes the meeting of Gilgamesh with Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim had been forewarned of a plan by the gods to send a great flood so he built a boat and loaded it with everything he could find. Utnapishtim survived the flood for six days while mankind was destroyed, before landing on a mountain called Nimush. He released a dove and a swallow but they did not find dry land to rest on, and returned. Finally a raven that he released did not return, showing that the waters must have receded. (Sound like a familiar story to anyone?)

This Assyrian version of the Old Testament flood story was identified in 1872 by George Smith, an assistant in The British Museum. On reading the text he, "... jumped up and rushed about the room in a great state of excitement, and, to the astonishment of those present, began to undress himself." Those wacky Brits.


After all this wonderful history and culture, we decided to spend our remaining time enjoying afternoon tea. [We had been mistakenly calling it "High tea" but apparently it is only High tea if you drink Champagne with it, which we didn't. Therefore, we had afternoon tea, or cream team as it is also called. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet...] We tried to go to the Savoy, which is probably the most grand hotel in all of London, but discovered that it is undergoing renovation. Although it was supposed to have been opened by April of 2009 (after being closed 18 months and spending in the area of 25 million pounds on the renovation), it still wasn't finished and was likely to closed until the end of the year. Wow. This was information provided to us by a wonderfully friendly doorman at an adjacent building. He gave us the recommendation of the Waldorf Hilton to enjoy our tea (just down the road), which we did.


I took this picture right before we got back on the bus to head northwest to our hotel in Banbury, which was centrally located between castles for the weekend. I liked the picture because it gave a feel for how great the sky was, and remained for our weekend in Medieval England. Next up, a visit to William Shakespeare's birthplace and home at Stratford Upon Avon.

Third Time is a Charm

We arrived back in Europe the week of May 9th for the last leg of our European adventure. I jokingly tell D that I studied abroad in College and he has done his study abroad through work. Anyway, we are excited that the weather is MUCH improved and so is the daylight. As would make sense, when we were here in the winter, it was dark and a bit dreary - the sun rose around 9:30am and set at 4-4:30pm. Now, the sun is rising before 5am and setting after 10pm. What a difference a few months will make!


So for our first weekend back, we decided to visit our friends up in Utrecht, The Netherlands, in what turned out to be one of their last weekends in Europe. We trained it up this time, which was so much more relaxing (and predictable) than driving. [Last time our Garmin failed to keep up with all the construction and extended our travel time substantially.] We got there in time to enjoy a lovely dinner party at Josh and Liz's and meet many of their friends. It was a fun group from all over - Americans, Canadians, Germans, Swiss and Dutch. It was a fun evening of stories and games and a great way to shake off the jet lag.


After a wonderfully relaxed morning, including a fantastic breakfast of crepes, we meandered our way into Amsterdam to check out the Rijksmuseum. It is, unfortunately, under renovation until sometime in 2010, but it has kept one wing open in order to keep available Dutch masterpieces for view. We came to see one of the most well known Dutch masters, Rembrandt (whose full name is Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn), and his most famous work commonly called The Night Watch.


The official name of the painting is The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch. It is renowned for three elements: its colossal size (11ft 10in x 14ft 4in), the effective use of light and shadow, and the perception of motion in what would have been, traditionally, a static military portrait. This painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Netherlands' golden age. It depicts the eponymous company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq (dressed in black, with a red sash) and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch. With effective use of sunlight and shade, Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd, the two gentlemen in the center (from whom the painting gets its original title), and the small girl in the center left background. Behind them the company's colors are carried by the ensign, Jan Visscher Cornelissen. For much of its existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name by which it is now commonly known. It is a remarkable work of art and worth the effort to see.


This is just another favorite picture of mine. After walking around the Rijksmuseum, D and I were a bit tired and thirsty, so we stopped at this outdoor cafe for a drink (Heineken for D in honor of being in the city of its birth in 1873). I was just sitting there and was struck by the combination of color and contrast. There is the natural beauty of the sky and gnarled tree limbs right next to the modern shapes, clean lines and colors of the chairs and street lamps.


Again, we had a gorgeous weekend. Amsterdam is normally a very rainy, overcast place (and generally quite chilly) but we have had stunning weather which helps so much in just enjoying the look and feel of the city. We loved our walk through the canal intermingled streets.