Of course, our landing on these shores will be a bit less impressive than the British Invasion of the 60s, but we'll do our best to shake things up in a baby boomer way. But we can't seem to leave the Continent behind.
Before we left Delft, we wanted to see the museum representing the Master of Light, Johannes Vermeer who was a contemporary of Rembrandt.
(Just as an aside, in case you didn't notice, some names or places in this blog are in a different color font. This change represents a link to more information about that topic or location. Have fun discovering these Easter Eggs!)
One of Vermeer's most famous paintings. This is one of his few landscapes, the town of Delft, where he was born and painted most of his works.
And this is another of his famous paintings, The Girl With A Pearl Earring. It was made into a movie and filmed partially in Delft.
Vermeer did an earlier version of this same girl, but decided it was a bit too busy and sent conflicting messages about his support of the Grain Guild over other guilds.
Luckily it's been preserved...
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Wait for it
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As an art critic, which version to do you prefer?
We didn't make it to the Delft Ceramic Factory, but we did find out about the various qualities of Delft-ware from this woman who's been hand-painting the factory items for years. Exquisite work!
Now on to England via the Stena Britannica, an overnight ferry that crosses the North Sea. And what a ferry! More like a cruise ship complete with staterooms, lounges, a movie theater, etc. After stowing our kits in our stateroom, we rounded out the evening with some delightful people we had just spent 4 hours with waiting to board the ship at the Hook of Holland port.
Bob and Bridget Raynard are a couple of inspirational school teachers from Canada who had to get out of Europe because their 90-day Schengen Visa expired at midnight. They have been bicycling all over Europe via the back roads and bike paths for 3 months and were going to spend the next couple months in England.
Since we had done some bicycle camping trips earlier in our marriage, it was fun to relive those memories and consider making new ones by bike.
Good luck on the rest of your trip, Bob and Bridget!
Before sunrise, we boarded a commuter train to London. Which led to a wild taxi ride through a traffic jam, with a profanity-spewing cabbie who railed on about the inept London government which tears up and rebuilds things that don't need it. As we lurched to a stop, I paid him his hard-earned £30, jumped from the cab, told him we were walking, to which he mumbled in his thick brogue, "I don't blame ya, bub." Welcome to London!
We finally settled into our little room on the 4th floor of The Morgan Hotel. Across the courtyard, we overlook the offices of The British Museum, above.
To get our bearing, we found The Big Bus Tours and tried to get our bearings. This is the Tower Bridge as seen from Westminster Bridge.
And this is the freezing couple on the Tower Bridge. There is a tremendous amount of construction going on, some just to evolve the infrastructure, but a lot to get the city ready to host the Olympics next summer. People seem to have adapted pretty well, except for some cabbies.
Big Ben!
New and climbing construction. When completed, the tall building called The Shard will be the tallest in London.
The cutest highlight on this tour!
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