Without Lifting A Finger

Spent the night a stone's throw from Schipol, returned the car, got a nice welcome and send-off from Chihuly's marbles (wish I were a bigger kid than I am!). (The classy greeter -- made out of metals rods? -- I only met briefly as I made my way to the gate.) *             

OK, I lied. I have one more photo from Europa to post. A little American kitsch (famous pitchman) we almost always sit by in Schipol. Anyway, I figured he'd earned this. * 

I was dead tired after Anne Frank. Standing. Pinched nerves (doctor says I'll have to learn to live with it -- part of the aging process) in my back and legs. I'd been here before, what could I see from Vincent that I hadn't seen before. Plus: Just finished Pnin where the narrator (most likely Nabokov) was pooh-poohing Mann and Van Gogh (not that I'm a follower). Anyway, here's what stuck (not saying the exact titles stuck, and I'm not running them down): Potato Eaters (never really liked it: too dark, cartoonish -- but I stared at it for awhile and then appreciated his evolution more); Wheat Field and Crows  (because the misconception is that it was his last -- it wasn't); Tree Roots (because it was his last, because it was the last or close-to-the-last picture in the gallery -- also, I loved its abstraction, though the sign said that aspect is primarily due to the fact that it was never finished); Skull with Cigarette (just because it struck me as ki...

Ran into his very cool "installation" (reminded me of giant marbles or candies) in Schipol Airport (Amsterdam) as we were heading to the rental car garage. *     *   Dale Chihuly (born September 20, 1941), is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur. His works are considered unique to the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture," (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). The technical difficulties of working with glass forms are considerable, yet Chihuly uses it as the primary medium for installations and environmental artwork.   [From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Chihuly ] 

Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tuli , "I have carried much"), was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia ). [From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multatuli ]

We slept near the airport and took the train into Amsterdam's Center. From there we walked to the Anne Frank House (about a 2 hour line) and then on to the Van Gogh Museum (another hour or so in line). Needless to say, we got tired of walking. We took a tram back and then hopped the train back to our hotel. In the morning we picked up our rental car and drove to Aachen.                                                                                                                             ...