Boog's Blog

Monday, more perfect and warm weather.

Museum day again.

But first the rotated picture mystery. It is now confirmed that on Mac computers, PCs and Android tablets and android phones the portrait pictures are rotated. On iPads, iPhones all are correctly displayed. I will try to take all pictures in landscape mode until a fix is found. The cause: seems as though iOS does not correctly manage the metadata. This turns out to be a known problem using WordPress and iOS images.

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A story from yesterday: On the bus back from the great tulip park we ended up standing next to the bus driver. A chatty one, probably from North Africa. Well informed with his set of facts and interpretations. When we said we were Americans he let us know how great a President we have. I asked him if he was joking. No. Trump is great. Why I asked with the intent of finding out, not convincing him otherwise.

-North Korea. Obama would have gotten us into a war. Trump stopped all the testing.

-Black: Obama did nothing for the blacks, Trump has been the best for the blacks.

-Middle East: Obama screwed up Syria. Trump is getting us out of the wars, and make Jerusalem the capital

-Politics: Every president promised many things, only Trump is following through on all his promises.

-The wall: Previous presidents built much of the wall with little pushback but Trump is not allowed build his part.

-He loved his two week visit to Israel, traveled all around, Arabs were great to him and loved Israel. Could not get him to be concerned about Palestinians. Trump has stabilized the area.

The bus ride is about 45 minutes so he had time to elaborate on each of the above and more. Some I challenged a bit but he felt his own eyes and interpretations were better than the news sources or any discussion points I offered.

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One major annoyance to me, at least, is that no photos are allowed at the museum.

One spot is permitted, a wall designated for selfies and pics.

At the museum, in addition to 200 Van Gogh paintings, selections from his 1100 drawings, etc. art work from his friends. Many more interesting to me that his works. However my favorite, The Potato Eaters, was on prominent display. No Starry night.

Special exhibit of Hockney, lots of works we have seen before a few showing an attempt at a different perspective were new to us. Many of the iPad drawings but not the sequences from Yosemite.

A very special exhibit was the etchings of Camille Pissarro. Works he did for himself and not for sale. Direct etchings onto copper plate or zinc plate. For me the best exhibit in the museum. In most cases each print was different as he modified the plate each time with experimental effects such as scratching, deepening, using ridge lines….

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Noticed how bikes in Amsterdam have both wheelocks and heavy chains, a duplication in most cases. Asked a local to explain. Turns out that wheels and bikes are regularly stolen and there is a regular eco-system for stolen bikes. 25 euros for a junk shop bike, likely stolen, to 100 euros for a bike store bike, also likely stolen.

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We climbed many stairs today. Have noticed that museums have turned into motivational stair climbing gyms. No membership required but expensive daily entry

Dinner: went back to Tomaz for beer and veggie burgers. A lighter fare after much eating and snacking.

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Tuesday, another hot day with full sun.

Portuguese Synagogue visit, as recommended by our friend Michelle.

Magnificent wooden alter donated by a rich wood merchant. Slightly different interior set up of a Sephardic synagogue. Pews parallel for example.

Good explanations of the lottery system for potential brides without money, international system administered from here. Also discussions of the system of the elders who managed the community, those who excommunicated Spinoza but also maintained a social services net.

Note of record: Today April 23 QB walked past a bakery and did not look in. Actually passed several.

Paris tomorrow.

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Easter Sunday and again a fine day, a little cooler.

First a short question to the readers. One reader, so far, has pointed out that many pictures are rotated when using a computer but not on his iPhone. If you a seeing rotated pictures in the blog please send me a note and let me know the device that is showing the rotated pictures. I do not see them on any of my devices.

Back to regularly scheduled programming.

We joined an enormous crowd both on the bus and in the park. By afternoon they closed the park for both parking and entrance. Unlike America they were indeed full.

On Thursday March 21 Keukenhof Gardens will open the doors for the 2019 spring season. More than 7 million tulips and other flowers will color the Keukenhof park near Amsterdam. The flower garden will be open for 60 days in 2019 and will close the doors at 8:00 PM on May 19 2019.

Located in Lisse, about an hour fifteen away, 40 or so km SW. Take Metro, then bus. All spectacular.

There are 7 million bulbs, each replanted every fall. Eight hundred tulip varieties. We lucked out with perfect weather and brilliant sunshine.

This is a day in the country to escape the crowds of the city. Not so much escape today in terms of people but well well worth it. This is escape should on almost all tourist lists.

The mix of the crowd surprised us. High concentration of Europeans, Asians from many lands, but no Africans. We did not see a single one. Did not notice any from Latin America and did not hear Spanish spoken.

This was an all day excursion, we spent 4 plus hours wandering. A great visit.

QB took lots of pictures, available via this link. Good closeups and great color.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0oVAXNMSfXgSqHuwWf7clwpfw#Keukenhof_&_Kloveniersburgwal

Pavilion of orchids, there was also one of “Flower Power” bulbs. The QB pictures are the best to see the tulips, both variety and color.

Dinner: Hoofstad Brasserie

I am guessing that we will not find as good a brasserie in Paris as this one this evening. QB hopes that I am wrong but did not say I was wrong.

Starter: Avocado, garlic sauce, goat cheese, ajo blanco

Mains were done right and the dessert was all too many calories..

Friday, another perfect day.

The hotel sent a bottle of wine to our room. Nice gift. Looked around for a corkscrew, when none was to be found I asked reception. “Will send one up with a bartender to open it”. No need I say, just need a corkscrew. “Sorry, we have only one in the hotel.”

Rather odd.

Nice train ride and walk through the town of Alkmar on the way to the cheese market fair area. Exceedingly crowded at the fair, lots of cheese of course and lots of high street, no chain store, browsing and eating.

Several more pictures of the market fair as well as QB in a newly purchased cheese hat with cheese being shown in a canal boat in the background.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0L9Pns-nNynWIRFuoytEJutOw

In France and Spain one trips over pharmacies. Here one cannot find them; no supermarkets in the cities or none that we found even after asking.

Back in Amsterdam we took Michelles suggestion to visit the handbag museum. Another ball of string. 5000 bags in a canal house of the 17th century. High ceilings, large windows, large ornate fireplace, back yard reminiscent of the Jane Street village brownstone. A good example of why it was called New Amsterdam.

Museum is full of the history of items to carry on waist, hand and bags. Materials and changing fashions.

Went for drinks at In’l Aepjen, one of the oldest buildings in Amsterdam. Old bar with many very good beers. In earlier ages they accepted payment in monkeys which were eventually given away and led to the start of the local zoo.

Dinner at Brasserie FLO. A good chain but not here. Food was cold, service poor, preparation bad for QBs duck and these are the good points. In the review gave them a generous 2 stars.

Beautiful walk back to the hotel. Might have indulged in an apple tart, one of the Dutch treats. Have had, to date, the pancakes, the waffle, and the tart. No bitterballen as yet.

For the records, as if they are being kept, the first post of this trip did not go out with notifications, got posted but intertubes got stuck. So, there is one post earlier than this one for this current sacking.

Saturday, again a perfect day.

Almost everyone is outside. The beautiful weather is, apparently, so unusual that it is not to be missed. Insides of places have seats. Drinks at our hotel last night, we were the only ones in the bar, were and example of same. Bartender explained, no business until it rains again.

Day started with a visit to Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder, Our Savior in the attic. A 17th century canal building, in its original state, mostly, with a Church on the 4th floor. Protestants took over in late 16th Century and permitted secret worship of other faiths. This is one of 20 or so Churches in the attic, only one still intact.

Picture below is the actual church with alter. Three houses long. The merchant bought three houses and had them joined on the 4th floor.

Another highlight recommended by Don’s friend. The lower floors, with their audio tour, shows well the architectural style.

Very steep staircases, very. Only remaining oak one, other have been replaced with other woods. One staircase, to a portion of the house used by the live in priest, was too steep for us to bother with.

Sign in front of our hotel, Interesting history of the building.

Indonesian dinner at Indrapura, recommended by the staff at the hotel. Fine place, good meal.

Now that photos are on the cloud it is possible to set up a link of the daily shots. Not too many but too many for the blog,

Link to other pictures of the day. Church, canals, buildings, dinner, menu of dinner items (17-18)

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0ngLck_CGO3naZuKfyUBQVDXQ

Another trip, less of an adventure than city tours. A break from walking and hiking.

Just a great view of the physics of the newly “photographed” black hole. Now back to regular programming.

Easy to fall in love, again, with Amsterdam. Dutch dinner (Tomaz). Tulip season, just walking along the canals one sees pots of them. Night time pic but still ok.

Tomaz was described as a typical Dutch restaurant. We would have called it closer to a pub. More pages of drinks and beers than of food, a friendly bar. Menu solid but not exciting. Perfect for tired Boogs.

Planned an easy first day, getting over jet lag and orienting ourselves. Rembrandt exhibit, no surprise, at the Rijksmuseum. Don, via a business friend recommended a dinner place as typical good Dutch. Reservations secured.

Museum exhibit 60 drawings, 3000 prints, with 22paintings. His 350th anniversary.Impressive if you like his drawings. QB certainly did. Interesting items in other parts of the museum: weeping statues, master and commander type ship, honor gallery with Night Watch, delft ware.

Lots of wandering around the city, did about 8 miles today including dinner walk.

View from hotel room window

Dinner at Blau an W, the one via Don’s business friend. In the red light district, tucked away in a 16 th century old spice house. No menu, someone sits down with you and tells you the courses available. There were six courses offered, we choose to have only four. The best was a neck of lamb in a madira sauce. Also excellent was the seared tuna with a kohlrabi sauce with lightly breaded mussels.

No beer except Heineken in a bottle. Very friendly place.

Server sat down to chat with us about the history of the building and then the neighborhood, weed business in Amsterdam, CBD business …

Tomorrow the cheese market.

This post did not send notifications the first go around. Tom has now updated. Adding this addendum as a test.

Saturday. Arrival via plane. Last few days before we head back to vote.

Walking up to the sounds of waves sadly ends.

Drive to the airport along costal route was a bit more exciting than QB, the driver, wanted for due to torrential rain.

Another meal by our chef, beef noodles followed by dessert,valrona chocolate, hazelnut from Alba, raisins.

Sunday. Much colder. High forties to 50 F

Breakfast at Fisher’s. Expensive but good value. Becoming one of our favorites for a fine brunch. On Marlybone High for those who might wish to visit. Reservations suggested even for breakfast/brunch.

British museum, special exhibit, I dissent, curated from the museum. Passed it on September. Glad we went today. Objects from their archives. The curator govern free reign to assemble.

One example:

Dinner, possibly a few too many roasted veggies for me.

And of course pizza a la Bobby.

Monday. British library day. Another special exhibition.

WOW.

30 second website overview.

https://www.bl.uk/events/anglo-saxon-kingdoms?gclid=CjwKCAjw39reBRBJEiwAO1m0Of1Q-r04mAHxh2uNPm2wU0oden6UvyHAIat8EaVE41fR-ldzK5ZM7BoCCCEQAvD_BwE

We spent 2 1/2 hours walking through and sort of rushed at the end. Rash due to brain overflow. Had to get a cup of tea.

Tuesday. Final blog day. Tomorrow linneaus talk at Royal academy them packing etc. Likely a final doombar.

QB spent most of today trying to recover from a cold. Then, dinner at Twist with Bobby. Excellent restaurant. Will go back next trip.

Some food pics to end the blog.

Saturday. Drive to Menton on a faster road than Menton to Alba.

Instead of coast road took the high road. 3.5 hours. Lots of construction on the autopista.

Menton

View from hotel balcony. Best Western.

Don researched an appropriate place for us to have dinner. A good piece of investigation.

They were out of the figs. QB is done for now with sardines.

We had the salt baked branzini. First the black salt to sprinkle on. Very crunchy and a nice look.

Then the presentation.

And then the serving. Excellent quality, not friendly our professional service. Food 10, service 5.

Friday.

A day to see the town, old Port and pack up for our flight to London.

We will not miss the motorcycles. They are at a decibel well beyond OSHA. Almost all are tuned to make the maximum nice possible. We have experienced this in every continental town this trip. Certainly it has diminished balcony sitting.

19th century grand hotel, now a residence. A fair amount of done architecture can be found here.

Used to be a grand hotel. Now a residence.

Lots of sporty areas, football, running but this one attracted my eye. You sit in a Jacuzzi and work out. Equipment and result.

Old Port

Dipped feet into the wetness. Nice.

Wednesday.

First a visit to Pertinace, a winery, located very close to Alba. An outstanding tour by Fabrizio. One of the best tours we have had; knowledgeable, good English and fin to be with.

Fermentation tanks.

Winery produces 750K bottles a year with grapes from 17 farms. A large co-op.

Spotlessly clean.

Years are not blended but farms are except for three pictures later.

Sugar content tabulation.

Some of their labels.

6500 bottles with of future sales.

Fully automated bottling, corking, sealing.

Really to go, much to the USA.

The three special terroirs.

Prices

Sampling. Very generous and most excellent sampling.

Our tour guide and fine host.

Off to lunch at Ascheri. Lunch at their restaurant.

Salamis,soup, cheese pancetta in paper.

Veal, Ragu, and pasta with many white truffles.

Ascheri tour, after fermentation lable.

The fields have different souls, clay to Sandy, picture later in post.

Started in 1880 seven generations ago they make 240K bottles from 40 hectares.

Notice the silicone plug on the French oak barrels. The plug costs extra. Ah the French.

Most corks are 60 40 Cork and plastic except their fine vintages, 15 years in the bottle.

Storage of the aging stuff.

The wall shows and described the three types of soil conditions in the different terroirs.

Land just sold for one million euro for one half hectare. High end cost and high end wine.

Barolo.

After this to busy tasting vintages and types to take more pics. No longer fully sober.

Barolo Ascheri, 110 euro per bottle

Barolo Pisapola vintage 2013 75 euro

Barolo 2014, from several terroirs including their best 30 euro

Acquired for dinner. Bobby got some black truffles for a pasta dish. Both types today on pasta, just as they should be served.

Two types of pasta and a black truffle.

Black truffle and butter in preparation for the pasta.

Completed.

Monday. The fair is over and now to touristing. There is the town to see, vinyards in this famous Piedmont area.

Roman temple site around 0 AD, Augustus.

Italian, modern, found in multiple locations.

Cathedral in Alba

As labeled above.

Many of these places

Tuesday, Acqui Terme day. Old sulfurous spa town about an hour east of Alba. 75 degree C water deep deep underneath.

Naturally the Roman Baths were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. The opportunities for a hot tub were limited to going to a day spa and spending 50 euros for a half day. Several pools and add-ons like massages.

Called I’ll bollente.

At the tourist office I asked if the aquaduct was closed. She smirked at me. Yes, a smirk. When we got there it was roped off but clearly visible.

Aquaduct is marked second century d.C Guessing domni Christo.

Walk along the river. Flat, easy, 4-5 km return.

Lots of risotto here

Typical Piedmont.

Dinner, peppers and eggs, a la Bobby. Outstanding, as expected, Could have used some espilette but….

Wednesday. Wine tiring and final Piedmont eating.

Two wineries booked, must have a booking for a tour. One Barbaresco. The other Barolo.

Both types and tastings were sufficiently of interest to do a separate blog. Two wineries, two tours, and a very fine lunch.

Saturday, a longish drive from Nice to Alba, went along the coast to Savona and then North to Alba. Bobby was waiting for us there, went Friday night so as to spend a bit of time in Torino.

In Menton.

Google said three hours. Took seven,7, beautiful curvy windy. We had planned to get to the paid for talk, Foodie talk, in Alba, at 13:00 or so, get settled in the AirbnB and then wander over to the festival and get seated. Arrived at 17:30 having left at 9:15. We took the coast road, too long though beautiful. Will take the faster higher road on the way back to Nice.

Missed the planned talk.

City set up like the Renaissance fair. Party atmosphere, wall to wall people. Good food.  This pic is of the first course of the degustation menu.  More pics follow in the link.  Pics of the fair and food.

Pics are self explanatory.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/5fjQfD5gUzdT1YFS7

Back yard of Airbnb and inside shot.

Pizza talk at the festival.

The demonstration about 90 minutes. Fried pizza, standard dough pizza, wine, Alta langa brand sparkling. Served sample.

For 35 euro extra shave truffle added. The demo cost 30 euro.

And with truffle at reduced price of 10 grams for 35 euro.

QB ordering. This is how you ask for the “supplement”.

Second demonstration of the day turned out to be a grand appetizer.

Female deer,rare,chestnuts. Designed not to overwhelm the truffle. It’s all about the truffle.

Excellent dish accompanied by sparkling wine, our favorite of the ones served, and an hour of marketing. Unlike the Pizza demo we learned nothing but had a fine appetizer. Non stop dual language about food,wine,pairing,boring.

After sampling some grappa and many items in the market headed back to a pasta dinner with the results of browsing.

Tuesday, arrived in the rain after a side trip to St Paul de Vence and Fondation Maeght. Uninspiring dinner by the old port area. Very different vibe and choice of eats from when I biked though hear in August a few years back. No fiduea, pushy restaurant shills. We ate at a decent but not memorable place.

One more from the museum.

Some excellent architecture in Nice. Many such buildings recently scrubbed. Beautiful stonework.

Neither the tourist office nor the concierge ever heard of fiduea. No problem, there is lots of other food here.

View of plage from hotel window.

Bus to Eze village was being considered with the tourist office. He explained that we could take the tram and a bus and that the ticket for the tram is good for 74 minutes. Yes, exactly 74 minutes. He shrugged.

Afternoon walk to the terminus of the old Port. Have booked this route on my way to Menton bit slower and easier to see on foot.

Yes,a few brave souls on beach and in the water.

War Memorial Monument built into the hillside.

Old Port of course.

Private boat. I discussed with two women getting off to see the area. One person owns this and just tours the seas, nothing else. Crew of 20+

Dinner starts with special oysters.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillardeau_oysters

Described as creamy and deep. Also,expensive. Served with brown bread, the significance is not clear.

Speciality of the restaurant is paella.

We could not finish all. The 50cl bottled of wine are just perfect for us. We had a local rouge.

Thursday. Bright, sunny.

Breakfast on the balcony, breakfast with visitors. Persistent ones.

Visit to the daily market. Flowers, food and stuff. Large outdoor space which cleans up each day around 13:00.

Continuing through old Town with charming streets

The cathedral, not pictured, was not especially interesting other than many many puti. This church in Rosetti square is.

More old town

In the port a ship right out of Master and Commander.

Hotel sent up a bottle of chilled red wine, chocolate bars, and fixings. They’re had been electrical problems and we complained.

Friday.

Beach day.

And the wind of the Nice segment