DAY 5 - THE BANANA COAST- HONDURAS, TRUJILLO - CONTINUED

As I said in my last post, there was too much to say about day five in Trujillo, Honduras for one past so I am splitting it into two.

after returning to the ship we went back to our state room, deposited all our purchases and finds. I found a number of stones and other interesting objects as we walked along the beach. There were a variety of things that I found, a rock that had small deposits of copper on the outside, several pieces of coral and a really interesting piece that looked like it might have been a home for some small sea creature which after closer inspection it seems that it might have been the barrel of an old gun that had become attached to a rock and over time it became encrusted with stones.

After lunch we walked around the top deck to make up a mile, as if we had not walked ans climbed enough in the morning in Trujillo! Having achieved our mile walk we sat out in the shade in deck chairs and read. I started reading a new book on my Ipad, Volume I of Essential Chinese Medicine   Essentials-Chinese-Medicine-Volumewhich is the first volume of a giant three volume compendium of traditional Chinese medicine. As we sat reading the crew started pulling up the boats from the water, the very boats that they had used to tender us to shore. it was an interesting process to watch.

Afterwards we went to the Stardust theater to see the comic JP  The-Comedy-Magic-of-Jean-Pierre. we had started to watch him on the first night out by the motion of the ship caused my wife to be sea sick so we had to leave his first performance part way through.



After watching JP we went to the art gallery to see the unveiling of several new works of art. There was also complimentary wine. The first painting that they unveiled was a still life by Peter Max, Peter_Max.

1. 1. 

It was quite beautiful, bursting with color. I liked it. the next two works of art were etchings by Rembrandt Rembrandt.



 One was a self portrait completed near the time of his death. The second etching was a scene of his childhood where Rembrandt grew up. The third etching was another self portrait but when he was a young man. As much as I appreciate the technique of etching and Rembrandt's artistry in this medium, I could not see my wife and I hanging a Rembrandt etching on a wall in our house. We are not people who would buy a work of art just because it was by a famous artist, we would have to like it as well. I guess I am just a Philistine when it comes to etchings. the third artist was Itzchak Tarkay, 

 an artist from Israel. Most of his work was in acrylics but he painted a dozen or so watercolors of women in various poses. When the paintings were unveiled i was immediately drawn to their beauty. The color and the way that the artist balanced color and composition showed the hand of a master. We were told that these paintings we going for $2500 - 3500 a piece. I would say that that would be a bargain. I would love to own a Tarkay painting but we don't have the wall space, we still  have works of art that we have yet to hang in our house.

Amsterdam - Day Two

Our second day in Amsterdam started bright and early. I was up at 7:00AM to practice Taijiquan. I tried practicing in our tiny room the night before but it just didn't work, there was not enough room to move properly, I felt like I was in a street fight, not practicing Taijiquan, so I gave up after the second third of the Yang long form. Since the room was too small I had no choice but to go out into the street by our hotel. The Hotel Fita is adjacent to a school so the cross streets are blocked off to automobile traffic although bicycles had free access to both directions. At 7:00AM in the morning the streets were quite, only a few pedestrians and bicyclists passed by and they all ignored me with a studied deliberation that I found to be reassuring. Feeling refreshed and full of energy after half and hour of Taijiquan I headed back to the hotel.

We ate breakfast in the basement of the Hotel Fita. The basement was nicely done, it had a cozy intimate feel. There were fresh croissants and pain au chocolate as well as granola and muesli, as well as fresh fruit. They had a very nice coffee machine that made cappuccino or European black coffee with a nice crema on top. The hotel keeper made us Dutch pancakes which were absolutely delicious.

After breakfast we purchased tickets for the Rijks Museum which was only five minutes from the hotel. We were concerned about standing in a long line for tickets so we bought advanced tickets for a 2 Euro surcharge, it was worth it not to stand in a long line to get into the museum. We arrived at the museum just after it opened at 9:00AM. We walked right in because we had pre-purchased our tickets. The thing was, there was no waiting because there was no long line. We could have saved ourselves a few Euros by buying our tickets at the museum.


We spent the entire day at the Rijks museum. Taking advise from Rick Steve we started on the top floor of the museum and worked out way down that way we would at least have a chance to look at the upper galleries before the crowds caught up with us.

    The museum itself us a magnificent building. It is a testament to the period when Holland was an economically powerful nation. Most of Holland's wealth came from trade and overseas colonies. These two themes are played out over and over again throughout the architecture and art in the Rijks museum.

 This sculpture represents man and the conflict between technology and the natural world.

This aiplane was designed by Frits Koolhoven, a Dutch designer who had a great influence on airplane design in the early 20th century.

The center piece of the second floor of the Rjks museum is Rembrandt's Night watch. It is a truly magnificent painting. You cannot appreciate the scope of the painting until you stand in front of it. I took this picture behind the crowd because there was never a time that there was not a crowd in front of this picture. Just down the hall from the Night Watch there were other great paintings. I spent a lot of time standing in front of some of my favorite paintings by Vermeer.

On the first floor of the museum I visited the library which is a full service research library for the arts. I spent some time there relaxing and looking at a book of beautiful wood sculptures.

There were so many wonderful and beautiful things to see and experience at the Rjks. We could have spent days there but one day was all we could allot for the Rjks. I have to share this picture of a wonderful Guanyin from the Asian pavilion.

This Guanyin was carved in the 12th century in Asia. It is a beautiful example of the incredible craftsmanship of that period.

I cannot do justice to the Rjks museum in this post. The best thing that I can say is that if you find yourself in Amsterdam on business or in transit and you only have one spare day to see the city then you must go to the Rjks museum, you will not regret it.

We regretfully left the museum around 5PM exhausted and dazzled. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at the underground supermarket that was near the Van Gogh museum to pick up salads for our dinner. The store also carried natural juices that were made from organic fruits. The salads and the juice were delicious. In the evening we went out to look around the city. Back at our room we practiced qigong and I went outside by the school to practice Taijiquan. It was a long and exciting and exhausting day.

THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS - NEW YEAR'S EVE

Finally, we made it to New Year's Eve. It really seemed to be a long trek this year and next year does not seem like it is going to be any easier. Well, it is the times that we are living in, there are greater changes afoot than anyone one of us knows about or can comprehend. We might as well enjoy the moment. celebrate this special moment in time where we balance the past against the future and celebrate the moment.

Although my wife and I did explore the iPad that were received for Christmas, we really did not spend that much time with it. My son-in-law and daughter helped us set up some apps and explained how to navigate around the iPad. Still, we had been so busy that we did not spend a lot of time with the iPad.

Since my wife was not feeling well on New Year's Eve we decided that we would stay home so that she could rest and not infect anyone else, especially our granddaughter. We had a quiet dinner at home, watched a movie then I thought I would explore the Kindle ebook app. it took awhile before we had realized that you download the books using an Amazon account then they would appear on our iPad. It was nothing short of miraculous.

I thought that I would start with the free books from Amazon. Since there were thousands to choose from I did not think it would be a problem to select a few. After looking around I settled on books that leaned more towards the classics. I downloaded an Italian cookbook for my wife,Italy Revisited by William Stockert . Then I downloaded The Complete Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. You can read my entire post that I wrote about the da Vinci exhibition that I went to in the summer in Buffalo with my wife, my son and his girlfriend. I also downloaded a number of books about art and music as well as philosophy; A History of Greek Art by Frank Bigelow Tarbell, Michelangelo by Estelle M. Hurll, Rembrandt, also by Estelle M. Hurll, Beethoven's Letters, 1790 - 1826, Volume 1, and The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant. In the end, I downloaded seven ebooks.

WHAT WE DID ON OUR VACATION : AMSTERDAM

I just returned from an European vacation. My wife and I took a Mediterranean cruise with a few extra days added at the beginning and end of the cruise to make it a twelve day vacation. It was great! We flew from Toronto to Amsterdam on KLM, KLM. It was the first time that we flew with this particular airline. We gave them top marks for service, food and comfort during the flight. We would recommend KLM to anyone for comfort and ease of travel. We left Toronto at 11:00PM and arrived in Amsterdam at 2:00PM the next day. It was a seven hour flight but it did not seem that long.

It was also the first time that we had been to Amsterdam. As we descended to the runway I had a good view of the canals that had been created over the centuries that provide transportation throughout the city. From the air, Amsterdam looked to be very neat and well organized. The woman who sat beside us during the flight told us that she was going to meet up with a group of people and take a ten day bicycle trip through Holland, Holland Bike Tours.

The airport in Amsterdam, Amsterdam Airport,  gave me the same impression as Amsterdam from the air. the airport was clean and organized and so very interesting. We arrived in the middle of the tulip festival, Amsterdam Tulip Festival
so everything had to do with tulips. I had to take a few pictures of the colorful tulip displays in some of the shops.

 Since I am always looking for things made out of wood I was particularly interested in the wooden tulips in the picture above. They are just as beautiful as the real tulips. From a distance it is difficult to tell the real tulips apart from the wooden ones.

 There were many many shops that were selling tulip bulbs, cut tulips and potted tulips. There was every color and variety that you could think of. It was very colorful. I am glad that we arrived in Amsterdam when we did. Perhaps another time we can take in the tulips festival.

we would have liked to have left the airport for a while and explored the city. It would have been really interesting to visit Rembrandt House that has an extensive collection of works by Rembrandt, Rembrandt House. Unfortunately, we only had a few hours lay over in Amsterdam which did not allow us to leave the airport. We will have to plan for another trip that will include a few days stay in Amsterdam, Amsterdam Tourism.

Amsterdam was only our transfer point this time. Our destination was Barcelona. That will be the topic of my next post.