To complete the saga of the trip

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Amsterdam, Nationale Opera, Rachveslishvili, Rembrandt

After our visit to Bergen our ship cruise back to South towards Amsterdam, we passed on our way South many, I counted 20 Oil drilling platforms in the North Sea, I am sure there are many more. These are gigantic platform with Helipads and apartment like structures able to sustain human activities since their remoteness means that the people working on them must also live on them.

To our left was the Coast of Denmark and then Germany and to our right England. Though you cannot see the coasts due to the vastness of the North Sea.

We arrived in the early morning hours to our berth in Amsterdam cruise ship terminal which is in the heart of the City next to the Centraal Train Station.

We stayed another 2 days in Amsterdam and this time in the old Portuguese / Jewish neighbourhood where the Zoo and the 375 year old Botanical garden is located. This is an area just outside the old City Walls not very far from Rembrandt’s Home.

The Front of the House and the inner courtyard at Jodenbreestraat 4 (Jewish Broad Street)

The house is fascinating to visit and decorated with similar furniture and paintings as in the days when Rembrandt lived with this family in the house. He was married 2 times and had a live-in mistress after his wife died. His house was a residence and a business, where as an art dealer he sold paintings of other artists he admired and his own. On the top floor he had students 4 or 5 who were only accepted by him if they already had learned all the basics and showed some talent. He became very rich but was constantly having money problems and debts. Rembrandt had to sell and leave the house in 1658 for a more modest one with his two children Cornelia and Titus, his maid and live-in mistress Hendricje Stoffels became his art dealer and organized his life. The house interiors were recreated from scenes in Rembrandt’s paintings, he often painted inside the rooms of his house and showed the house as it was then. He died in 1669.

We also went to the Nationale Opera & Ballet (Amsterdam) to see a production of Leoncavallo, Pagliacci and Mascagni’s, Cavalieri Rusticana. Absolutely beautiful productions.

Pagliacci (‘Comedians’) and Cavalleria rusticana (‘Rustic chivalry’) are both classic examples of verismo operas, telling so-called realistic stories about the lives of ordinary people. Here, hot-headed southern temperaments spark off rivalries and threaten relationships. Whereas Pagliacci is fuelled by the tension between everyday life and the aesthetic world of the stage, Cavalleria rusticana juxtaposes unbridled passion with profound faith. Canadian Director Robert Carsen flips tradition by opening with Pagliacci.

Anita Rachvelishvili, Mezzo-soprano played the two major feminine roles. Powerful voice and a great actress with stage presence.

Nationale Opera and Ballet (Amsterdam)

We also walked around the city and here are some street-canal shots.

We still have to make our way to London by train via Brussels. We departed on a very nice Eurostar train which is a high speed train capable of reaching 350 miles per hour.

After Antwerp an announcement was made that another train in front of us had broken down and we had to detour which meant a tour of Belgium, luckily a small country but we arrived in Brussels main train station 5 minutes after the scheduled departure of our train to London. The tickets are fairly expensive around 225 Sterling Pounds, we were again lucky after rushing like made through British Customs and Immigration in Brussels we arrived stressed at our departure platform to see hundreds of fellow passengers also waiting for the Chunnel Express, the train was delayed 30 minutes so all was well. The trip from Brussels to Lille to St-Pancras Station in London is fairly quick and comfortable.