#vivian westerly

[crystallllines]

thoughts slide from one person or topic into the next, smudge and drag onward; robert burns may have been bipolar (type ii, i think?)

talking with nida about taking a couple of the lads and the three other members of her kickass quartet (vivian, essence, and naja, i believe) down to n*stonington-ish or westerly for hiking/beaching this saturday. really, as i was saying to j earlier, i desperately want to go camping but i realize that voicing my intentions so late in the week means we can’t think about making plans until next friday, at the earliest

[diedachse]

Amsterdam

An early start and we’re off. You can’t just close a chapter of adventure and call it a day, it has to be a new beginning. A truck full of our belongings is making it’s way to our new home, and we have decided to keep on exploring, keep looking forward.

We’re on our way to Amsterdam. It’s a first class train ticket for us and in around 6 hours, we’ll set foot in another new country - The Netherlands.

We arrive in Amsterdam around lunchtime, drop our bags at the hotel and head to the city by tram to explore.

First stop, the Rijksmuseum where a lot of visitors go to see famous collections of dutch pottery and masterpieces by artists like Rembrandt. We chose to clamber all over the Amsterdam letters instead.

Wandering the Negen Straatjes (nine streets) which form a grid of the most delightful houses, shops, cafes and restaurants nestled between the canals. Oh, and quite a few bollards to leap-frog over too.

We soon worked up an appetite of course, so there was only one place for us. Yes, Pancakes of Amsterdam!

After a well earned rest, we set out on day 2 in search of some culture.

The Neno Science Museum was top of the list, and was a brilliant place to spend a few hours experimenting with the terrific selection of hands-on exhibits.

While Neil and Archie disappeared over to The Lab for some chemical experiments, Jackson and I explored the rest of the exhibits and got ready for the perpetual motion demonstration. Its a great place for the curious mind.

Needless to say, a trip on the canals was high on the wish list. Luckily there were a few companies operating tours from close to the Science Centre, so we were able to rest our weary legs while taking in the city’s sights from the best viewpoint - water level.

It’s so pretty. I would really like to live here.

As always, we like to take in a bit of art when we’re travelling. It helps if there is something decent to see, so it’s always worth the research to keep the kids engaged, but as luck would have it, a Banksy exhibition at the MOCO ticked all the boxes.

Day 3 started off well for the boys. They chose to go on a tour of the Heineken Museum where they learnt how beer is made and even came out with their very own personalised bottles of Heineken beer. It was slightly alarming how much fun they had! I chose to wander the canals and take a little snooze on a park bench. All this adventuring is surprisingly exhausting!

Thanks to a marvellous tip from Vivian, we indulged in a brilliant lunch at a De Hallan, a former tram depot, renovated and reopened as a market hall in 2014. We had a lot of fun here, and some amazing food too.

 The waffle ice-creams were to die-for too.

The Vondelpark is Amsterdam’s green urban escape. Much like New York’s Central Park, everyone hangs out here. The weather was beautiful while we were here and it was full of families, friends, cyclists, walkers and people relaxing and enjoying the open space. A little tea house in the centre of the park overlooking a lake has live bands playing most days, entertaining visitors.

If you stroll all the way through the park to it’s most westerly exit you may be lucky enough to stumble upon a little wooden shack that overlooks the canal. Grab a pulled pork burger and sweet potato fries from Braai BBQ Bar. It’s amazing. The food, location and ambiance really were the icing on the cake of our visit to this beautiful capital city. 

Thank you Amsterdam. You really are a great European capital city.

[phantompaper-blog1]

New Place!

I've moved! My blog posts will now be on www.phantompaper.wordpress.com . The reason I've decided to use Wordpress is due to the limited themes on Blogger and Tumblr. Wordpress just has more options that I like! Yes, you can say that I'm pretty selective 😊. I'm also on Twitter now, where I tweet things too small for a blog. But I'm still keeping this address at Blogger(blogspot) and Tumblr so that no one else can pretend to be me or take away this name. I couldn't believe my luck that it wasn't taken on any of the 3 major blogging sites! Anyways, catch you on wordpress!  Love, Grace Westerly (P.S. I just notice the new messaging function on Tumblr, I'm tempted but I can't possibly maintain a blog on three platforms! Sigh. This is an opportunity cost 😔)