I thought I’d be toot-toot scootering this morning to see some windmills. But that went to hell in a handbasket.
Today was off the beaten track day. I did a day excursion out to Utrecht and ’s-Hertogenbosch. Try to say that quickly five times. Or you can just say den Bosch.
What was in these 2 places worth checking out?
How about Miffy, international icon in Utrecht and heaven and hell in den Bosch?
I knew what I wanted to do when I woke up this morning. I wanted to go to De Poezenboot over at Singel 38.
De Poezenboot currently houses 25 cats and the boat is run entirely by volunteers. Think SPCA except that some of the cats have free reign on the place. They can stay in or choose to go out on the side deck (which is enclosed by fencing so the cats won’t drown in the canal)
It didn’t start off this way. It certainly was not my intent. But my day became all about introspection and reflection.
“Asking yourself a question. That’s how resistance begins.”
The day began with a visit to the Dutch Resistance Museum. To me, it was important being in this country to visit this museum.
I was on my way to Museum Het Rembrandthius, when I got sidetracked. The tram I was on called out Muntplein stop aka the Flower Market stop. Of course, I took this as a sign to get off and walked over to the Bloemenmarkt, Amsterdam’s famous floating flower market.
There were lots of tubs filled with tulip bulbs, flowers and cactus. I love flower shops and flower stands. I love the burst of technicolour. How can one not be cheered by the sight and smells of flowers?
Up and at ’em!
I woke up just after 6am, but stayed in bed, thinking I should get up at a more respectable time. So just before 8am, I officially started the day. Hopped the bus to Centraal station, where i purchased the best thing ever.
Introducing the I Amsterdam card.
It’s always smile-inducing after a long haul flight that when the pilot lands the plane safe and sound, the cabin bursts out into applause and hoots of appreciation.
We arrived at Schipol airport early. The flight was smooth overall, what with us climbing to 41,000 ft and flying over the north arctic, where it’s currently sunshine 24 hours a day. There was no darkness at all during the whole flight. When we landed, Amsterdam was already 13C at 745am.
Back in April, Dutch Perspective’s Marc van Bree, interviewed me for his website. We finally got to meet at the Opera America conference last week.
We were able to chat between our presentations, but unfortunately Marc had a flight to catch after my presentation wrapped. If I had a newborn little girl, I would also not want to be away from her for very long.
It was great to meet the person behind the online name and I look forward to the next time when our paths cross again. Perhaps Boston in 2011, if our work decide to send us.
Marc was so kind as to give my presentation a shout-out on his blog.
Furthermore, if I had included concrete examples, I would have picked the Vancouver Opera…
I couldn’t be happier then to listen to Ling Chan’s presentation about Vancouver Opera’s social media efforts. I already knew the surface of their efforts, but Ling provided the most creative case study of an opera company’s use of social media. I recognized a lot of the same key points I tried to make from a theoretical point of view in Ling’s practical demonstration. She described her own experience of the presentation on her own blog. – Dutch Perspective
Thanks Marc!
So glad to be back in Vancouver, albeit only for a couple of days.
The more I visit LA, the more I know that I could never, ever move to LA. The city is not pretty. Too much brown, taupe, sand. Not enough green space, the hard water wrecks havoc on my skin and the city is too much of a sprawl.
But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be fun. Especially when your friends from Vancouver happen to be in LA the same time you are AND at the same hotel. How random is that? Of all the billions of hotels in LA, we all found ourselves at the Omni.
As my general director told us, it is important to attend conference sessions, but equally as important, we must take the opportunity to socialize and get to know our opera co-horts. Even if that means making a trip out to Amoeba, the largest independant record store in the world.