rijksmuseum (95/365c)

spent pretty much all day at the rjieksmuseum: as long as possible. we weren't the only ones who had that idea. so many amazing works and there were even proper descriptions on the wall.

i loved all their expressions here
better than the kids (early twenties?) who got here and said,
"i hate portraits, it's just pictures of people
they're so boring!"

father and son with bacchus

we had sushi from a grocery store for lunch and sat on a park bench trying not to share a crumb with the pigeons. originally we would have gone to another museum after lunch, but that was optimistic. there was plenty to see in the rjieksmuseum, and besides, we had just figured out the floorplan (we had gotten lost here too!). on the walk home we got lost too. every single canal and bridge looks the same and you swear you are walking in circles. we finally oriented ourselves by remembering seeing a flamingo decoration in a window on the train in the morning, and seeing a local underwear shop that we were sure of the side of the street it was on. in the evening we were too tired for anything else. we tried to watch a movie but we didn't even make it to the end.

some bonus photos, just things i liked extra much at the museum:

Chandelier woman (Leuchterweibchen) with a coat of arms, anonymous, c. 1525
"The meaning of the curious combination of a woman with a coat of arms and a suspended deer antler are not clear. Such objects were found in town halls and thus must have had an official significance. They owe their German name Leuchterweibchen (chandelier woman) to the custom of sticking candles onto the antler points."

"Anna Roemers Visscher engraved one of her own poems on a wine glass as a gift for Constantijn Huygens. The verses contain both a lament and a request: her pen has run dry, and her mind has turned to rust. She asks Huygens to fetch her some water from Helicon – home of the Muses – so that her ink will flow freely and she can write poems once again."

a flamingo in the shadows of a tapestry

Self-portrait, Johan Gregor van der Schardt, c. 1573 terracotta (clay material)
"To make this small bust – it is half life-size – the sculptor had to resort to all kinds of tricks with a mirror. Van der Schardt did not portray himself frontally, but with his head turned sideways, as if to avoid looking at the viewer. "

small detail of an enormous painting
David Leeuw with his Family, Abraham van den Tempel, 1671

NOT a marble relief - it's an OIL painting!
Allegory of the Sciences by Gerard de Liaresse (1641-1711)
"The merchant Philips de Flines was a true connoisseur. He commissioned Gerard de Lairesse to decorate his canal house on the Amsterdam Herengracht. The artist made paintings in black and white, in imitation of marble reliefs. They depicted the virtues of a cultured society whose obligations included the promotion of the sciences."

small detail of a dolls house, including miniature plates wicker basket, and even scissors on the table

lost in amsterdam part 1 (94/365c)

we arrived full of energy and looked up what we could do. near our airbnb was a salsa evening that even started at 6pm so that woud give us plenty of time to dance and get an early sleep.

but that would involve finding our airbnb first

which, with locals sending us in the wrong direction and everything being a bit larger than we thought ended up taking a while.

that cupcake looks tiny but we split it
it was heavy enough that it was plenty
which was fine, the bill came to something exorbitant, amsterdam really is expensive.

from the sky you see about the types of places we were looking.
.....waterways, and bridges and no streetsigns

we finally arrived, hours later, changed our clothes and went to salsa... which we couldn't find either. well, we got to the place but there was no sign of a festival.

looking for the festival, right before giving up.
the beer was really really really good
(and we're not beer people)

got lost going back home too.

home again for today only (93/365c)

frantic packing and breakfast with quintet this morning, so much stuff to put away and we were so tired from last night. we didn't officially have anywhere to be, but today is my only day home before my trip to amsterdam, so it's the only day i can see family, and that's extra special because edward is here on his trip to salzburg, and mary's been staying there for a while, and of course centa and brian and my kids.

full house when i got home

we walked up the schlossberg together and saw some funny signs for the schlossberg signs. i was too tired to photograph them, and too tired to get ice-cream, so i left edward with centa, and tried to take a quick nap... brian went out somewhere (i don't remember where :/ ) and i was asleep before 9pm.

i'm such a hippie (92/365c)

we are pretty silly!
my peace-sign necklace is mama's original peace sign newly strung on beads.

so that mozart costume? we need it for the video we shot today. everything always starts a bit late with olena (it seems we have a different "in-five-minutes" meaning) and so we were pushing the very limit of our energy when we were finishing the shoot. klaus and i took turns with the video camera, and we hope against hope that we got all the footage we need. we should have been packing, but instead we took a much needed evening of chatting and relaxing and junky sandwiches with fancy wine. we listened to sad relationship stories and cried and laughed and beat yesterday's 3am record for bed time.

a concert in castle (91/365c)

all day we got ready for our concert. that is not-too-much rehearsal, dinner, dressing, driving, etc.

since we were there early, we did a photo session together, and played happy birthday (well rehearsed and memorized from yesterday!) to barbara's mother.

to take photos and also stand in it i had to put my viola down, and not in that damp mountain grass.

what's the difference between a violin and viola?

the concert went so well that 8 of the 20 people who were there reserved new spots for the next few weeks. they also stayed up drunk and late until 3am, and we helped (we were not inebriated!) close the night out. impressive!

a secret video (90/365c)

i copied an arrangement of a song (i tried it invent something myself, but eh, my heart was just not in it) and we learned it by heart. 

i ordered a cake for the video, a custom one, it should be the size of a big cake but look like a single slice. 

i set up all the cameras, the tripods, the sun was shining and hot

irmtraud picked up the cake

testing testing ....

so that it wouldn't get too warm i did test shots with a book that should be the right size.

i was so nervous that everything would go ok, but in the end, i think it did turn out fine. it's only 20seconds of video....

then since we were all dressed up we did a quick photo shoot and then met claudia for a quick glass of prosecco. one of the boats moored near by escaped somehow, and klaus and irmtraud dashed in to rescue it.

sunny side up

we meet the castle (89/365c)

inside looking out
the view from where we will be playing

after an intense day of playing we got to meet the castle we will be performing in. claudia showed even showed us rooms that are not otherwise accessible, but photos were not allowed. the most interesting part of the location is that one looks down at the church tower. normally the church steeple is the highest thing in the area, but in this case the castle is oldest, and also on the highest spot.