Parking ticket for bikes

For a first time i saw a bike with a parking ticket. The red sticker says the bike will be removed withing 7 days:

Museum Geelvinck

On a way to Hermitage in A'dam on Keisergrach 366 there is a small Geelvinck Museum. It is a patrician house with the great garden with a beautiful fountain. The ladies in that lovely house gave me a guided tour and from them I learned that the owner of that lovely house was Sara Geelvinck Hinlopen a very rich and independant lady. More about Sara is on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Hinlopen.

There was a still-life painting in the house and Barbara - one of the guides explained its symbolism: peeled lemon is symbol of passage of time. Lemon was also symbol of moderation as it was used to be added to wines - in moderation to add some bitterness. Lemon - which was quite expensive in XV century was also a status symbol. Nautilus cup symbolises "God's natural order", cherries allude to sweetness of childhood, strawberries of continuous life.


In one room the wooden floor was made from former sail ship. Kind of special to walk on a floor which sailed across oceans.

First A"dam photos

I was lucky to see the exhibition of first photos of A'dam on its last day. The photos dated from 1845 to 1875. Amazing how the city actually changed very little. Some buildings have a different purpose these days - but they are still around. I found out that the Munttoren was in 1870ties a hotel. Few photos from the info area are on: http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/ArchivePhotosOldAdam?feat=directlink

Weed and wildlife

Enjoyed a short break in A'dam this weekend. First stayed at a spa hotel in Amsterdamse Bos. Pampered myself. After two nights changed accommodation for the hotel next to the Vondelpark. The hotel has amazing view on the park. One needs only to cross the bridge to start strolling along park lanes. Taking advantage of wonderful summer weather on Saturday afternoon park was full with families celebrating birthdays, friends having BBQ, people simply relaxing - some smoking weed. Heavy sweet smell of weed alternated with BBQ smoke. Taking photos in the park I stopped in amazement: there was a stork nest.

I thought I inhaled park air too deeply. But up there on the poles was indeed a stork nest with a couple of storks.

I continued strolling.Saw a crane trying to socialize with an old lady and uninterested pekingese.

Than a green parakeet flew in front of me. I was sure park air made me high. Or wildlife has a taste for weed. More photos from a park at http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/VondelPark06_1?feat=directlink.

Back in hotel I learned that green parakeets were introduced to Vondel park in 70ties. Now there are few dozen in the park. Spent some time on the lovely hotel terrace. In the evening went to see Boom Chicago - a comedy show. I saw "Upgrade or Die" show, a parody on technology in our lives. A lot of jokes about daily use of ipods, facebook, web etc. It was great fun.

Kiyv Sea Sailing

About 30min from the city centre there is artificial lake made in 1968 as a water reservoir. Yesterday with two other ladies - who are experienced sailors - I went sailing. Our skipper was Maxim who also owns beautiful 30ft yacht Electra. The weather could not be better. Pietrnel - a Dutch colleague - how knows some Russian - was concerned if she would have problems with sailing terms in Russian. We found out that almost all sailing terms in Russian have Dutch origin. This is because Peter The Great learned sailing and shipbuilding in the Netherlands. For example the mainsail in Russian is "groot". I did not sail for last 10 years. However basics came almost immediately back. Maxim - our skipper - is also the sailing instructor. He immediately started explaining and made us working sails. We did some tacking and trimming. The instructor preferred "spectacular" sailing to speed. Most of the time we were in the "heeling" mode. We had such a great time we are determined to do some more sailing this summer.
On the way back home I took a wrong turn and ended up discovering yet unknown Kiyv neighbourhoods. Sailing was easier than navigating city roads.
Sailing photos: http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/KiyvSeaSailing?feat=directlink

Bench Yoga

Theatre weekend

On Friday evening it was Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. Excellent.



On Saturday "Raymonda". The soloists were cream of Kiev corps' de ballet and during the performance there were was a lot of applauding and shouting bravo. The public (and me too) especially liked Abderahman. He was great.

Tonight it was Aleko - the one act opera by Rachmaninoff. I have not expected much but was impressed by wonderful singing, superb dancing and amazing scenography . In the second part the Kiev corps de ballet danced Bolero. There were 51 dancers on the podium. Fantastic.

Cooling mat and a life vest

This weekend temperature was between 35-37 degrees. The city pavement was even hotter. Igor - with his short legs and lot of fur - quickly gets tired on such heet. Yesterday morning he jumped on the bench in the park to rest.
At home it's also hot irrespective of airco.
To get Igor a bit more comfortable I tried to get a cooling mat for him. It's a mat filled with some crystals. If a mat is soaked in cold water it conserves "cold" so a doggy can cool on it.
In a doggy shop I described what I am looking for. The answer was polite: "No, we do not have it." Than I asked for a life jacket. Igor and I will do some sailing next week on Kiev Sea. On my question if a shop has a medium size life jacket for a doggy, the shop assistant started wholeheartedly to laugh. He never heard of such funny thing.

Guess Igor will not become a sailor next week. Now I will try to get a life vest from A'dam.

Lavra

Last weekend I was in Lavra with Catherina and Pieternel. The confusing museum sign is still there. There was no rain but museum was closed. In a small cafe were last time I left my debit card last weekend I left the camera. But I got it back.
Lavra photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/gordie26/Lavra_06_06?feat=directlink

On Lavra grounds there is a museum of Ukrainian theatre. It's small cosy museum. The ticket to Lavra does not include the entrance to the museum. The ticket price is UAH 15. We went there and the museum ladies started to tell us everything about famous Ukrainian directors and actresses. We were impressed with ladies knowledge and passion. The ladies were impressed we paid a ticket and entered the museum.