ADFAS trip to Holland, May 2009
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Monday:
39 of us travelled by coach to Leiden stopping en route at Ghent. Here we were able to admire “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” in St Bavo’s Cathedral for which it was painted as a polyptych altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in 1432.
We arrived in Leiden in early evening and enjoyed a drinks reception and evening meal.
Tuesday:
We met our guide Anneka, who took us by coach to Amsterdam, stopping to see Rembrandt’s statue, overlooking the river Amsel just outside the city centre. A guided tour of the Rijksmuseum was followed by a canal boat cruise before visiting the Van Gogh museum.
Wednesday:
Anneka took us for a morning walk around the beautiful canals and streets of Leiden, a University town, and the town of Rembrandt’s birth. We saw some of the places Rembrandt would have been familiar with; the carpenters shop beside the quay, the Latin school which he attended, the old university, and the botanical garden where Holland’s first tulip bulb was introduced from Turkey.
The afternoon was spent in Haarlem, where we had a tour of the Frans Hals museum and some visited St Bavo’s cathedral in Haarlem where there is a magnificent organ once played by Mozart and Handel.
Thursday:
The Hague was our destination today, especially the Mauritshuis, situated next to the parliament buildings. This is the Royal Picture Gallery and we admired paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer (including “the girl with a pearl earring”) and many others. From the coach Anneka pointed out many buildings of interest, and then we spent the afternoon in the lovely old town of Delft.
Friday:
En route to Calais we stopped for two hours at Bruges.
The trip gave a lasting impression of numerous bicycles and occasional windmills, new and old, knowledgeable articulate guides, wonderful paintings, good food and caring service.
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