Adventures with Julia

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Back in the first world at 6:30am, we stop for a quick coffee in the airport as we have a few minutes to kill before our driver arrives to takes us to our hotel, the Pulitzer, on one of the canals near the old part of Amsterdam. We have just enough time to clean up before meeting our guide for the day, Tricia Robbins, at 9am. It was a good thing we had slept on the plane as she kept up a running commentary about the history of Amsterdam that made my head spin.

One of 2 remaining wooden houses in Amsterdam from 1550.

Small entrance to a hidden Catholic Church, near the wooden house above. During the Protestant era from 1578 until 1848, Catholics were not allowed to worship in public.

Interior of a hidden Catholic Church. Still in use today, although no longer hidden.

I take lots of notes to help keep up, but there is way more to Dutch history than either of us really wants to remember.
Tricia was delightful, never the less, and we enjoyed her company very much.

A row of bent houses. Some lean forward to allow easier access for furnishing to the upper floors. Hooks protrude from the tops of the buildings to allow pulleys to provide assistance. Some lean sideways as the wooden
pilings under them have shifter.

We walked all through the old city looking at different buildings and neighborhoods in a light, but cold, rain during the morning.

The skinniest house we saw. Only about 6 feet wide and three stories high. Can’t imagine who could live in it. It exists because people pay taxes according to the number of meters that front on the street.

We learned there are 850,000 people in Amsterdam and 880,000 bicycles. She, for example has three. One for going for groceries and errands, one for carrying her child and one for pleasure riding. Most people do not own a car. People have become very creative in finding ways to keep their bikes from being stolen. One of which is to have a really old, rusty-looking bike. We see hundreds like that.
The water in the canals is very clear these days due to stringent sanitation, however it is still brown due to silt in the water and bikes. Apparently, people toss their old bikes into the canals as the easiest way to dispose of them. The city fishes out about 15,000 each year.

The Dutch were and still are merchants first and foremost. The 13th century city was founded by the Spanish and was Catholic until the 16th century, when Martin Luther and others began to protest the excessive wealth of the Church, while its members were largely very poor. The protests eventually led to Amsterdam becoming a Protestant city in 1578. Catholic churches were banned in the city and were turned into Protestant churches. The remaining Catholics were not allowed to practice their religion in public places. Thus began the formation of hidden churches, several of which still remain today. Tricia took us into a couple of them and walked us through residential neighborhoods where nuns had once lived and now were lived in by single women. In 1848 a new constitution was approved that allowed freedom of public religion. Catholics immediately began building huge churches, of which there are now several.

To warm up we stopped at a coffee house for some tea. That sure helped as my fingers were very cold. She suggested we try a traditional Dutch dish of raw herring. It was served with chopped onion and tangy sliced dill pickles at a fish vendor stand. It was delicious. If we lived in Amsterdam, I’m sure we would eat it often.

The Royal Palace on Dam Square. Until 1806 it had been the Town Hall. It became the palace when Louis Bonaparte and his wife Hortense move in. It is still used for state affaires.

Tricia told us much more about the history of the monarchy and how a French Prince, William of Orange, became the popular Dutch leader or Stadtholder and helped the Dutch fight against the over controlling Spanish King, Charles V. When Napoleon Bonaparte absorbed the Netherlands in the early 1800’s, he installed his brother, Louis Napoleon, as king in 1806. Louis became very popular and in 1810, Napoleon jealously replaced Louis with himself and was king until the Battle of Waterloo in 1915. At that point, the stadholder position was permanently replaced with a king, starting with William I. By then, we were standing next to the Royal Palace on Dam Square, where Louis and Hortense Bonaparte lived during his 5 year reign. It had been the Town Hall until the Kingdom was instituted and is now used for royal banquets and social affairs. The statue in the triangle above the building is the Amsterdam City Maiden.

In front of the house Anne Frank hid in for 2 years before her family was betrayed.

We walked by Anne Frank’s house where very long lines of people waited to see the inside. I was glad I had seen it years ago and Mark was happy with a photo by the front door. We also stepped into a small store called the Mouse Mansion. It contained multiple, large hand made constructions of imagined dwellings for mice, primarily a couple named Sam and Julia. It was very charming to see the various “mansions”, meet the daughter of the creator and see copies of the 11 or so mainly children’s books about the mouse characters, Sam and Julia, that have been written.

Then Tricia took us to a place to get some lunch. We selected a couple of hot cheese dishes she recommended. OK to try, but not our cup of tea. After eating, we walked several blocks through a heavy downpour to the trolly and rode it to the Van Gogh Museum.

Self-Portrait 1887. Very colorful with the paint colors laid side by side, but not mixed.

Purple Irises 1889. Although still lovely, the purple has faded to blue. Vincent was not always able to afford expensive paints that would not fade.

Gaugain’s Chair 1888. Vincent found elegant furnishings for the visit of Paul Gauguin to his house in Arles. Painting this chair with a nocturnal atmosphere in mysterious reds and greens was like painting the artist. In contrast he painted his own simple chair in yellows and blues. After 2 months of being together, they fought and parted for good.

1889. While in an asylum, having admitted himself, Vincent creates a scene that evokes the madness of patients with the contrasting red and green colors and inserting a tiny figure in the overwhelming landscape, reinforcing the sense of dread.

Symphony of Yellows. This is the only piece where Vincent painted the frame to go with the art.

Close up of Symphony in Yellow. Many other colors are visible close up.

Flowering Trees 1888.
This is one of my favorites. It does have a Japanese sense to it.

Close up of Flowering Trees

1890. Vincent’s final painting. Unfinished, especially in the lower left. The unrecognizable forms, powerful lines and vivid colors suggest he was a forerunner of abstract art.

It is quite a well laid out exhibition. Tricia kept me moving through the most important works and kept Mark entertained so, we ended up finishing at the same time. That is a first. Tricia was an excellent docent. She told us Vincent, born in 1853, used his 40 self portraits as ways to improve his skill as a portrait artist and to practice experimentation. He had no money to hire models and painting himself was free. His brother, Theo, born in 1857, managed to give Vincent an allowance for several years, which allowed him to continue his experimentation. From the age of 27 for 10 years, he painted over 900 pieces. It was Theo’s son, also named Vincent, who started the Van Gogh Foundation with most of Vincent’s art and all his letters and notes, which had been left to Theo. The Foundation now operates the Museum and manages the display of paintings and Vincent’s writings and letters. Vincent was shot and died two days later in 1890. It remains unclear how he became shot. Theo died of syphilis only 6 months later in 1891. According to Tricia, Vincent painted what he saw. He did not paint from imagination as his friend Gauguin did. This was at least part of the difference between the two contemporaries. Following are photos of several of Vincent’s paintings. Hope you like them as I do. We took a taxi back to the Pulitzer and bid Tricia farewell. If only every guide could be as interesting, educated and fun as she is.

We had dinner in the hotel and were happy to dive into bed after a long day with not so much sleep on the plane the night before. Good thing we are not yet old. Hmmmm.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Waiting for the 8:02 train to Stuttgart. It was freezing cold and windy. We wondered why the train doors would not open so we could go inside. Brrr.

Up and our early again. We catch the 8:02 train from Amsterdam to Stuttgart. Mark clocks our top speed at 178mph between Cologne and Stuttgart. The ride was quiet and smooth and the train very clean. We skillfully negotiated a train change in Mannheim. Then, off the train and out of the Stuttgart station at 12:30, a taxi driver tells us we should walk the short distance, even though it is raining. We do. However, it is several hundred yards and I am feeling bedraggled when we walk into what is billed as a 5 star hotel, the Am Schlossgarten, looking like drenched vagabonds.

The entrance to the Mercedes Benz Museum. The sight of the place filled us with anticipation.

After checking in we took a taxi to the Mercedes Benz Museum and spent 2 full hours walking down and around and through the well laid out exhibition in a very futuristic building.  We managed to stay together most of the time as we had audio guides that kept us in sync. I was fascinated by the overall presentation and enjoyed the walk.  Here are a few of our favorite cars.

1902 Mercedes-Simplex 40PS is the oldest Mercedes still in existence. Called Simplex because it was relatively easy to handle for the period.

1939 Mercedes-Benz 320 Stromlinien-Limousine was a streamlined sedan. They were the most stylish means of travel for comfort and safety.

The rear compartment opening of the MB 320 sedan.

One of several showroom floors in the MB Museum.

1936 Mercedes-Benz 500K Spezial-Roadster was the car of the rich and beautiful. It was the brand’s show piece of the 30’s and its most expensive, at $28,000 Reichsmark (roughly $98,000 Euro in todays currency.)

1907 Milner-Daimler Doppeldeckerbus.  The bus was used in London from 1904 on. By 1907, here were 400 in use including this one.

1954 Mercedes-Benz 300S Cabriolet A was launched as an exclusive top-of-the-range model with a sporty touch and a more powerful engine.

1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR “Uhlenhaut-Coupe” was to have been a racing car, but the company stopped its motorsport activities and instead, the car was used by the head of the Test Department, Rudilf Uhlenhaut, as a company car.

Later, for dinner, we stayed in our 5 star hotel, provided courtesy of Mercedes-Benz for buying a car from their factory, and dined in their Michelin Star restaurant, called Die Zirbelstube.  We called it our joint birthday celebration.   We are between our 2 birthdates, the trip has been an incredibly successful adventure and we are about to take delivery of a new car.   The restaurant was elegant with knotty pine walls and starched white linens on the tables along with crystal glassware and sterling flatware. We chose the 3 course meal rather than the typical 7 course dinner, similar to the one we had enjoyed in Croatia when we were there. We were not very hungry and we did not want to spend three hours having dinner. Our first course consisted of two kinds of raw Hamachi that were beautifully presented in two ways. Our main course was boneless pigeon served with mango wrapped around a soft filing we could not name and a delicious sauce. Dessert was fig served with goose liver pate, served three ways. It all tasted delicious and was quite enough for us.

Friday, April 6, 2018

At 8am we leave the hotel for our date at the Mercedes Sindelfingen Factory to pick up our new car. Everything goes smoothly and by 9am, we have seen the car and accepted it per our specifications.

The delivery area where 300 cars a day are handed over to their new owners. Mine is in the left foreground and looks splendid.

My new SL 550. Ain’t she a beauty! I hate to touch her and just walk around staring.

It is quite a beauty sitting in the large room where all the cars to be delivered this day are parked waiting for their new owners to claim them. After all the paper work is done, we wait for the Factory tour to begin at 10:30 and share the experience with way too many people, 40 at least. We get the most out of it that we can and I do pick a few factoids from the guide. In 2017, 310,000 of the E and S class model cars were made in this 3 square kilometer factory, along with a few other models such as the Maybach. The factory opened in 1915 and was bombed to bits in 1945 by allied forces before being rebuilt. 250-300 cars are handed over to people like us on a daily basis. Our car was brought here from a different factory where the model SL’s are made. It had 20 miles on it.

There are 35,000 employees in addition to 5000 robots, which do many different tasks. 28% of the work force is foreign, 33% are women, 5.4% are disabled and hired per German law. Mercedes has a training Center where 750 students study for 3.5 years to become employees of the company. They have over 3000 applications per year for the 250 annual openings. Employees do not leave, but can be repositioned within the company.

10% of the cars are right-hand drive, 10% are manual shift. Each car travels 45 kilometers within the factory from start to finish. 90 train cars and 1200 truck loads of parts arrive per day for a “just on time” delivery system. 80% of the 8-10,000 parts per car are produced in Germany. 30% are produced by Mercedes Benz and 70% by 1200 suppliers. The guide would not tell us the exact number of cars produced per day, but we calculated between 14 and 1700, based on other details he did share.

After the 1.5 hour tour we drove the car to the shipping handler about a kilometer away from the factory. We managed to get disoriented and put 5 miles on the car before finding the place. Am sure glad we did not choose to drive the car around the country.

The shipper ordered up a taxi. We took one last look at the car and headed for the Porsche Museum on the other side of Stuttgart. It was in a very futuristic looking building too. Inside, we had a nice lunch and a pleasant walk through the exhibition. There were a lot of racing cars that neither of us had any interest in and a number of 911’s from every year they have been made. That history was mildly interesting, but neither of us took any photos. We went through the museum in less than an hour and grabbed a taxi back to the hotel, arriving mid afternoon.

The futuristic Porsche Museum.

The only Porsche photo I took was this one out side next to the building.

Our hotel, it turned out, is very centrally located. Not only is it close to the train station, it is next to a city park, and a major shopping district along a main pedestrian street called, Konigstrassa. We started wandering toward the park and ended up walking to the end of Konigstrassa. Just to have a goal, we looked for the local Escada clothing store, but were distracted by a quality bedding store, learned that Escada had closed its Stuttgart location and purchased comforters and covers for them instead. Why bother you ask? Well we have found that we like having our own individual comforter, but have not been able to buy them in the states. We purchased our first set in Prague after appreciating separate comforters in Iceland and wanted a second set for our lake house. Here was our opportunity. Once we had made that purchase we had to buy a suitcase. So we found the local luggage store and bought a lightweight bag. We squished everything into it and rolled it back to the hotel, pleased with our purchases. Aside from a single strand of beads I bought at the street market in Chad, we have not purchased another souvenir or piece of art. We will make good use of these comforters and have a new suitcase
too.

For dinner, we walked back through the park to a very popular watering hole, called Carl’s Brauhaus and had German food and beer amid the crush and bedlam of so many people intent on having a loud, as well as good, time. To be seated timely, we agreed to share a table with 2 other couples. The food was just ok, but the beer was really good.