Three years ago today, I arrived in Amsterdam. I was jetlagged and foggy in the head, but still remember the lift I got from the mounds of tulips blooming in a nearby park.
Amsterdam. April 28, 2017.
Such exuberant flowers, unruly in their passionate display. We should all live so boldly.
Amsterdam. April 29, 2017.
Amsterdam. April 29, 2017
Susan B. Anthony said that the bicycle did more to emancipate women than any other single thing. The bicycle was linked in the psyches of women at that time as a symbol of practical emancipation. Women could go places, wear their skirts shorter to manage the bicycle, and be independent. ~ Susan Vreeland
Lilies letting go, Amsterdam. April 29, 2017.
I just returned home after my first Trager session in 5+ years. Let’s just say I’m waaaaay relaxed. Good thing I already took care of today’s must-do list because now I’m off to put on my jammie pants and melt onto the couch.
Bikes are in the streets
some cars are on the sidewalk.
Hello, Amsterdam.
Despite already feeling overwhelmed by my gardening responsibilities, I brought 10 tulip bulbs back from Amsterdam. I wanted to have a yearly floral reminder of our trip. Today, I went outside and figured out where I could wedge them in. I prepared the soil and used my handy-dandy tulip-bulb-digger-thingy to make a hole. I set one bulb in the hole and then thought, “It’s been a while since you planted a tulip bulb, maybe you should check for any special instructions.”
Good thing I checked with the interwebs. Tulip bulbs are only supposed to be planted in the fall. Doh!
Amsterdam tulips nearing the end of their bloom.
My bulbs are now tucked away in a paper bag in a basement cabinet. They’ll stay there until September when my phone calendar alert reminds me that it’s really and truly tulip planting time.
We’re back home from our travels. My body is slowly adjusting to its usual time zone, but I still feel like I’m sleepwalking through glue.
I wanted to document the wallpaper I put on my phone at the start of our trip. The Minneapolis Airport had an employee art exhibit that we really enjoyed. This painting by Julie Fischer is titled QUARTER-LIFE CRISIS, and it won Best of Show in the Airport Foundation Employee Art Show.
Over the past ten days, I saw this image every time I looked at my phone. Something about the oxygen mask and a jet plane through the solar plexus felt very apt.
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Our family is rich
so how did I end up with
this big onion head?
~ Tracy
This picture makes me
think little girls in dumb hats
is super cool shit.
~ Zippy
Children lose their smiles
pose for a picture; realize
head is an onion.
~ Zebu
(NOTE: Despite the no-talking rule as we composed our haikus, mother and son both went the onion route. Nature or nurture, hmm?)
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The alarm went off at 6:00 this morning. We got up and went to the Amsterdam airport for our flight to Stockholm with its eight-hour layover in Copenhagen. After having the security guy in Amsterdam confiscate my peanut butter due to its bomb-making capabilities and then spending WAY too much time finding the baggage lockers in Copenhagen, we finally stepped out into the beautiful (but windy!) Copenhagen afternoon.
We went to the Trinitatis Church. By “went,” I mean peeked in long enough to take a photo which, because I’m exhausted, I’m having trouble editing, and then climbed to the round tower. Along the way, I found this fellow in a window seat:
Zippy resting on the climb to the round tower atop the Trinitatis Church in Copenhagen.
Up top we had this view:
View of the old and new in Copenhagen
Then we did some other stuff before heading back to the Copenhagen airport to fly to Stockholm. (Doesn’t that sound like a typical third-grader’s story/book report/research project in which it’s always a mad rush to The End?) Here’s a preview of what’s to come taken from our bus ride from the airport into Stockholm:
Well, that didn’t work. Rather than finding the photo I emailed myself from my phone, all I’m getting is the blue twirly wheel of death. I’m gonna call it a day.
*goes back to change the name of this post from Day 4: Copenhagen, mostly to Day 4: Copenhagen, totally*
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We’ve got tulips:
Floating in the Museumplein pool.
Growing in a mound as Tracy stands guard over them in a tiny park.
We’ve got a canal view complete with narrow buildings and houseboats:
We’ve got a bicycle built for three, complete with windshield for the tiniest rider:
And last but not least, we’ve got Stroopwafels:
Gift from Femke, our AirBnB host.
Good thing I documented them here, because these delicious morsels are going fast!
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We did a whole lot today: Climate March + MOCO Museum for Banksy/Dali exhibits + Climate March again + FOAM Museum for William Eggleston’s LOS ALAMOS exhibit plus additional photography exhibits, and then dinner out at SNCKBR. (And yeah, I’m totally cognizant of the fact that there are a whole lotta acronyms in the preceding sentence.)
It’s been a good day here in Amsterdam. So good, in fact, that I’m having trouble picking just one image to represent the experience. (To add more pics would result in a marathon blog post, and I don’t have the bandwidth for that right now.) So I’m going to leave it at this quote that was painted on the wall at the Banksy exhibit:
Actually, this is THE perfect sentiment for the day. You know why? The “art” wasn’t just in those museums. It was also on display in Museumplein where all those people gathered to voice their concern/outrage/hopes/etc regarding the climate change affecting the planet.
We’re a creative species, and it’s gonna take a whole lotta outrage + art + action to get us out of this mess. It’s a daunting endeavor. But today, between the civic action outside the museums and the creativity exhibited inside, I truly believe that is possible.
Art is essential to our survival.
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What we see from our AirBnB on Maritzstraat.
We’ve only been here about an hour and I’ve already managed to trip the breaker with the hand blender I brought with me to make my green smoothies each day. I REALLY needed one after that long day of traveling. Bad news is there’s a good chance I fried my brand-new blender. Good news is this place had a little blender so I was still able to have my smoothie.
Other good news? It’s really beautiful here.
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Tracy Abell 