19 September 2015 - IKEA for brunch and the Hermitage Museum

The kids requested that we go to IKEA for breakfast. I know, not very classy, but a meal out none-the-less on our travel budget! As it is usually cheap and has some local food, we decided to try it.  It was a really lovely cycle ride there passing farms and canals and grazing cattle, water birds and very little traffic.  

IKEA, quite different from the rather bland breakfast at our IKEA in Richmond, was serving some more Scandinavian fare like smoked salmon and cheese and slightly Dutch fare with pancakes and appelmoes.  The kids liked the "fruitwater" rather than the soft drinks usually offered and I rather overindulged in the strong Dutch like cappuccinos!  After finishing a leisurely meal we headed home via the fabulous Decathlon store again.

At Dutch IKEA, the carnation milk like coffee additive was supplied! -  See what I mean by embracing the local culture!

Pancakes and appelmoes and he's giving the great toothless grin!

My brunch - nice for the price: 3 Euros

Badmats!  (well actually bath mats but it is fun to be ignorant sometimes!)

The kids were happy to all stay at home while Karl and I enjoyed a cycle together to the Hermitage Museum  which is by the Amstel just near the Opera House.  It is a beautifully restored building in a prime position.  The current exhibition is about Napoleon, his Grande Armee's defeat in Russia, his love for Josephine, and her children from her first marriage and his death.  He made her empress and adopted her children whose descendants subsequently became Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Greek, Belgian and Luxembourg royal blood lines - no wonder they all marry commoners these days to widen the gene pool!!

We earned a lot about Napoleon, Josephine, Alexander 1 and their descendants forming the Scandinavian monarchies and also Belgian monarchy!

 It was a lovely exhibition but photos were not permitted.  I bought the postcard below of the most exquisite table of inlaid stones.  The craftsmanship was worth inspecting closely!  Each shell, each shadow is made from semi-precious stones.

From  Josephine's art collection - a most intricate inlaid table of semi precious stones-check out even the shadows made of stone inlays

Naploleon before his defeat !

"Which window will we look through today?" (Playschool) Looking through the Oval Window at the Amstel and boats

The other side of the Hermitage Museum was about the Golden Age, the 17th Century in Amsterdam - a city of guilds!

 The other part of the museum was about the Golden Age of Amsterdam, the late 17th Century, and all the guilds, the class based society and the popularity of portraits to preserve and recognise the guild members.

Civil Pride - van de Poll 1650 - Amsterdam was a city of guilds for the rich and through these they supported each other, the poor and met partners. 

 In the guilds, women were given equal speech and even Jews were welcomed whereas they were not welcomed elsewhere in Europe at that time.  The Jews had to care for their own poor but their money was welcomed!  You had to be somebody to be in a guild and it was important to be known!  However, the goals of preserving and enriching the economy and offering social care for community members were important and perhaps were the basis for the Dutch sense of egalitarianism and tolerance today.

The Central Square - van der Heyden 1668

New guild members!!

The courtyard at the Hermitage Museum

Carefully renovated brick work - detailed and very Dutch

By the Amstel

Karl about top head home.

Very Dutch

Drawbridge near to Opera House

Amsterdam scenes

Karl heading home on the dyke on his bike!

Another still and picturesque evening here in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel.  Feeling really blessed to be here.  About to watch the Hunger Games with the big kids as Tim has to watch it for school next term and although it is not my kind of movie, I'll watch it and might even enjoy it!