Trip to the Netherlands I

Hello readers! (^__^) /

As I mentioned in the last entry, I was in the Netherlands. It's is one of our neighboring countries, but I visited it for the first time. It was a study tour. This means that the acquisition of new knowledge was the main concern of everything. And that means, we weren't there to party or just to hang around. ( ^u^) The program was packed and there wasn't much time for the individual trip stations or freetime. It was okay for me, because we have seen so much of the places and everything. Although it was a shame that we only had half an hour in some museums. >///<

Our hostel was in Amsterdam. But we went to Haarlem, Den Haag, Utrecht, Leiden and Delft. The days were usually so exhausting that we arrived completely done at the hotel in the evening. (≧∇≦) I loved what I've seen in this nine days!

These days, I took about 700 photos. It's not that much (for me). o(≧▽≦)o I show you a few of my photos so that you might gain a little impression of a part of the northern Netherlands. I'll split the post so it's not to much in one entry.

 

That was a good landmark on the way to our the hostel. ^___^

These pictures are all from the second day, because we arrived late on our first day. The weather was so nice and sunny and it was warmer than in Germany. Unfortunately it was also much windier. Every day the wind strength was around 30 km /h. Not good for my hair. XD

This year I saw the first early bloomers in the Netherlands. That was in front of the Hermitage Amsterdam. We were in a Van Gogh exhibition. No print can reproduce his paintings correctly. They are simply wonderful in person.

Cute ducky. ^. ^ Amsterdam is a dream for ornithologists. Haha, no really! There were so many different birds (water birds).

Miffy /Nijntje comes from the Netherlands. You could buy a lot of things with Miffy.

This is the Westerkerk in Amsterdam. It was built in the 17th century. And there was a cheese shop in the church. I've never seen something like this before. XD

Inside the Westerkerk. It shows a lot typical architectural and interior features. Like the vaulted ceiling, the chandeliers, the calvinistic whitewashed walls or the metal brackets in the arches. (Sorry if the terms are not correct. I'll give my best, but in technical terms the translation is difficult. >///<)

The organ was beautiful. I particularly liked the paintings on the shutters (Don't know the right term, sorry  ><). There were various musical instruments on a white ground. You may don't see it on my picture. Or do you?

At the Dam was a kind of fair.

Inside the Oude Kerk. It's the oldest preserved building in Amsterdam. There was an Exhibition of Modern art in this old building. A somehow weird and sometimes disturbing mixture. Here, for example, you can see a circle of feet.

Antother picture of the Oude Kerk.

The next day wasn't so sunny. We traveled to Harlem. This is the Sint-Bavokerk. First we visited the Frans Hals Museum. (No pictures, because in the most museums it's not allowed to take pictures.)

Inside the Bavokerk.

There were some beautiful wall paintings in the church.  But I'm not sure if well preserved under the whitewash or if it just imitates the old paint.

The eagle lectern is great, isn't it? In all the churches we visited the entire floor consist of gravestones. You might see it on this picture.

One of the best cheesecakes I ever ate. I looove cheescake. This one had a biscuit base. <3

This is the bathroom of the café. It was pretty cool. At first I was confused. There was no button or something on the tap. The water came, when you use the foot pedal. XD

 

This is the upward view in the entrance of the Teylers Museum. They've a nice scientific collection. We visited the museum mainly for an exhibition of the flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté. (I love his work!) We had in the previous semester a seminar on flower painting. So we had a resuming digression here. Our professors definitely know how to pack a lot of information (really a lot. No really, you've no idea. XD)  in a very short time.

These were the first two days. I'll write more entries about the trip later. I hope it's at least a little interesting.

 Soon, I might also post the 50 facts tag thing and the Lolita tag whatever. Normally I don't do something like this, but I found it quite funny after all the 50 facts youtube videos I saw the past few weeks. ^____°

Thank you for reading! (^_^)/