A Cultural Day

It's me at Sweelinck's grave.

Amy's paper went well. She had a good presentation, and some tough questions afterwards, but it was good. We had good Italian for dinner, and then wandered the city for a bit before bed. Tuesday was a fun day. While Amy went to a morning session on Paul, I found a good shop for some wetshaving supplies that you can't get in the States, and then we toured the Oude Kerke. It's a massive Gothic structure, although some of it was unfortunately damaged due to Protestant zeal. It was also a little odd as a youth choir/band from Great Britain was there to do a jazz concert of Gershwin show tunes. They were good, but it was just a little weird while looking at a 14th century Pieta. The famous organist and composer Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck served here just before it switched to Protestant, and he is buried here. There are two beautiful organs, the smaller of which was from his time.

We had a late lunch at a brown café, Myrabelle's, which was fabulous and got to Skype with the kids there (who had just gotten up—7 hours difference is a lot!). Then we walked down to the Rijksmuseum, where you can see many Rembrants, Vermeers, and others. It is unfortunately being renovated, so much of the collection is currently not seeable. It was still about a 2 1/2 hour walk, and the most famous paintings were all on display, the most famous being Rembrandt's "The Night Watch," was was truly impressive, for its size and skill.

We went back to our hotel and changed for dinner, for which we had Indian at a place across from our hotel. Then I got tickets to see a Handel/Vivaldi concert at Het Concertgebouw, one of the premier classical music venues in the world. It was fabulous, even if jet lag still played some havoc with my sleepiness. It was a concert of arias, largely, and the soprano was fabulous. The audience loved her, and she did 3 encores! Concerto Köln was the orchestra, and they too were quite impressive. We didn't get home until about 11:30 from that, and had a fabulous time!