7-4-04, Amsterdam

Over dinner I realize its the 4th of July. And not a single firework. Jackie's sick so I wander around Leidseplein alone, buy a T-shirt and some post cards, watch some breakdancing & an accordion trio, with tuba, playing surprisingly great classical music.

We spent the morning at the Rijksmuseum. Rembrandt is still the man, though I like his earlier stuff best. Fell in love with Vermeer, mostly for composition, one of the things I like best about Rembrandt. One Vermeer looks cubist to me, though I'm guessing its a few centuries too early, with diamond shapes of square floor tiles prominent in the foreground and angled framing elements. Most painters of the era, especially portraitists, seem to be all about precision, but a few have a looser technique. Rembrandt is capable of photo-quality but often gets very sketchy (impressionistic?) at the edges. I really liked a portrait of Rembrandt by his friend. My favorite, though, was a moonlit scene by someone I'd never heard of, van der Neer. Exquisite painting of a full moon landscape. It didn't just speak to me, it sang!

Dinner at Five Flies, recommended by friends Jay & Trina. Expecting a cafe but its more like a bustling Canlis. We're staying at the Owl Hotel, also a J & T recommendation. We're gonna send them ahead of us as advanced scouts from now on.

7-5-04

Quick re-visit to the Rijksmuseum (the van der Neer wasn't singing today) and a whirlwind tour of Van Gogh. The crazier and darker he got the better I liked him. Longer trip to Oslo than we had expected. Cab to Central Station, figure out which train, line for tix, just get on, hour to Rotterdam. Great Dutch countryside – big modern wind generators, couple of old windmills, lots & lots of little garden plots in the land alongside the tracks, each with a small structure ranging from shed to mini-cottage. Wonderful cluttery-crazy, colorful variety. Line-up at the airport tkt counter & halting conversation with a 2 year old, på Norsk. Forty minutes til takeoff so I go through the cafeteria line, sausage roll, croissant, orange, 2 waters and suddenly Jackie's calling. Shuttle to plane is loading. Now! Running for shuttle stuffing pastries & bottles in various pockets. Hour and a half plane ride following the coast of Denmark and then up the Oslofjord. I'm getting more excited the closer we get but when we come out of the clouds and get a good look at the land around Oslo I start to remember all the times as a kid I dreamed of this trip. I remember my Grandmother showing us Meisfjord on the map and I couldn't have been much more than 7, maybe younger. I always wanted to travel and was fascinated with certain countries but a trip to Norway always held pride of place in my childhood plans. And it looks like home. I can see why so many Norwegians ended up in the Seattle area. Dark, shaggy evergreens, lotsa hills and grey water, grey skies with the occasional patch of blue.

Everyone seems grounded – sober & competent, but friendly. Except, of course, for the woman on the plane, guffawing and holding forth while going through several little plane-size wines. She cheered when we landed, then laughed and laughed, announcing to everyone in the rear of the plane “you have to excuse us Norwegians, we just love to be home!” Customs involves going through a door marked “Nothing to Declare”. Not even a person to check our passports! Didn't get a stamp! Damn! The train from the airport downtown is clean and fast and pretty full. We sit across from an old couple who speak no english. An older guy with a ballcap and jeans who looks like a farmer slouches across two seats with a leg on the opposite bench, talking on a cell phone. I ask him if this is Oslo when the train stops and everyone starts to get up but he speaks no english either. Counting the conductor and a woman who chased us out of the 'office' section of the train the english speakers are two out of five. So much for “everyone speaks english there”.

Short cab ride to the hotel and the beautiful boulevard out front is full of backhoes and chain link fence. We negotiate for a room in back, away from the construction noise. We figure out how to turn off the heated bathroom floor which has the room at sauna level. Now we're happy!

7-6-04

We get up relatively early and check out the breakfast: decent coffee, crowded room, great table under a low windowed ceiling. Nine am and not much is open yet. We wander down to the harbor and end up on a tour boat. For lunch we try a couple places on the street next to our hotel that have sidewalk tables. They turn out to be crappy chain places like the ubiquitous TGIF. So much for quaint street cafes. We go pick up the car, find our way out of town and drive to Lillehammer. Fabulous scenery on a gorgeous day. Rolling steep hills patchworked with farms. Tidy buildings, reds, light greens with decorative touches, even on barns and outbuildings. Churches have tall, traditional steeples.