History of Christianity, Museum Style

This afternoon, I felt a little stir crazy, but not quite ambitious enough to pedal across town to the gym. Instead, I decided I would take advantage of the fact it wasn't raining or snowing yet, and check out another museum in Utrecht. (By the way, now huge snowflakes are falling. While the snow is pretty from inside, I'm glad I'm not riding my bike in it.)

I knew that Mr. Traveler wasn't too interested in seeing the Museum Catherijneconvent, so I decided it would be a good solo adventure. (During our trip to Paris, we saw plenty of ceremonial objects from the Middle Ages, and I don't think he was interested in revisiting the topic.) The museum specializes in the history of Christianity in the Netherlands and is currently hosting a temporary exhibit called "Unimagined Beauty, Icons from Macedonia".

Courtyard at Catherijneconvent

With the Museumkaart, the entry fee was reduced from €11.50 to €2.50, although I was a little confused because I gave the cashier exactly €2.50 and he handed me back 50 cents. By the time I realized this, though, he was on to helping the next customer, so I just let it go. I stowed my coat in the cloakroom and wondered back through the bookstore and into the museum.

First, I visited "Feest", an exhibit about holidays in the Netherlands. Since it was upstairs, it gave me the opportunity to pass by a large, modern stained glass window, spanning several floors. I really like the colors in the stained glass, and am considering going back to buy a print of it.

Part of the very tall stained glass window

I think the Feest exhibit was mainly designed for children, but I didn't let that stop me from having a quick walk through. Besides, since all of the information was in Dutch, I would say that the children's understanding of the exhibit probably far exceeded mine. I did think the juxtaposition between the modern, interactive portion of the exhibit and the very old, traditional paintings on the wall made for an interesting experience. 

Feest Exhibit

Next, I headed downstairs to the permanent exhibition, which opens with an introductory room, filled with a variety of Christian memorabilia from different periods of time. The contraption in the picture, below, left me a little confused, and, the Jesus backpack is just a little too much for my taste.

Odd Contraption and Jesus Backpack

I did like the showing of Delft pottery, though. I find the blue and white patterns beautiful, anyway, but this display also demonstrates how location can dictate the materials used in ceremonial objects.

Delft Pottery Used in the Church

After the introductory exhibit, a dark room displayed chalices, maces, and jewelry worn by bishops. With many of the items adorned with jewels or plated in gold, this room seemed to demonstrate the excesses of the church throughout history, although I'm pretty sure that wasn't its purpose.

Back upstairs (but this time on the other side of the building), rooms were dedicated to the history of the church in the Netherlands. 

I like the arches!

No English explanations were provided, so it was easy to glance at everything and then move to the next room. (I'm not really being fair, because I could have gotten an English explanation if I bought the €14 book in the bookstore. I just wasn't that committed to understanding every part of the exhibit.)

One room was entirely dedicated to Christian history in Utrecht. Since I'm a sucker for old books, I enjoyed glancing at the texts in this room. 

Book from Utrecht

Finally, I moved up to the last part of the museum, the temporary exhibit about icons in Macedonia. This portion of the museum had booklets in both Dutch and English explaining every single object, along with some additional history lessons.

Booklet on the Macedonia exhibit -- So much information.

It was nice to be able to glance down and find out more information when I saw an interesting object, but I didn't have the energy to read through every explanation. Plus (I'm guessing because the exhibit opened this month), this portion of the museum was much more crowded, and therefore, I felt the need to stay out of the way of other visitors.

One of the many rooms in the Macedonia Exhibit

In case you are wondering, the explanation about the wooden chandelier reads as follows: 

Wooden chandelier

Monastery of Pološko, near Kavadarci, 1492

National Museum of Macedonia, Skopje, 317/143 (Kavadarci) 785
A chandelier hangs in the middle of the church as a reference to the heavenly Jerusalem. The arches with the cross depict the gateways in the city walls. Additionally, a burning candle is the symbol of Christ. He called himself The Light of the World.

The chandelier was number 5 of 158 objects, just so you understand why getting through the booklet would have been a challenge. Really, who can process all of that information?

Anyway, I'm glad that I went to this museum, and some of the exhibits, like the stained glass, the old books, and the pictures of churches with dogs inside, spoke to me. However, I'm pretty sure I've seen all the old chalices and incense holders I need to see for a while.

A Week at a Time: Feb 12 - Feb 18

This week started with an early Valentine's dinner at Kasteel Heemstead in Houten. I took this picture of the restaurant before we walked across the moat.

Feb 12 - Kasteel Heemstead

On Sunday, while Mr. Traveler was at baseball practice, and I decided to play around with the camera a bit. I ended up with this "glamour shot" of one of our lenses.

Feb 13 - Lens Glamour Shot

Monday, it was back to the humdrum of grocery shopping and running errands. I took this picture near our place before I stopped by the grocery store.

Feb 14 - Advertisements

Tuesday, I went to grab coffee and catch up on the blog installments from our Paris vacation. I took this picture on the way home.

Feb 15 - Culture

Wednesday, after a trip to the library, I made tacos for dinner. I was surprised to see this packet of guacamole supplies at the store and decided to give it a try.

Feb 16 - Guacamole

Thursday, I needed some fresh air, so I headed to Grift Park for a stroll in the sun. These funny dancers caught my attention right away.

Feb 17 - Dancers

Friday, I decided to take it easy. In this picture, taken in our living room, Mr. Traveler's sneaker plays second fiddle to my monkey slipper. Looks like it was just a lazy slipper kind of day.

Feb 18 - Contrast

A Day in the Sun

Today, as I look out at the gray sky, I almost can't believe how beautiful it was yesterday. I woke up a little later than normal, and the sun was already shining through the curtains.

The Sun!

Even with the sunlight, I was feeling a little blah (I think I had a bit of a stomach virus, but seem to be getting past it now). I thought maybe a nice long walk would help me come out of my funk, so I headed to Grift Park with my camera and book in tow.

On the way there, I passed this woman with her very old dog. She was using a walker and the dog was slowly crawling behind her. Every once in a while, she would turn and say, "Kom on", while she waited for the dog to catch up. They just seemed like such a perfect pair.

Perfect Pair

When I reached the park, I took a moment to walk around and explore the different parts; I liked how the park seemed to have a good mixture of natural and groomed spaces.

Statues in the Park

I settled on a park bench, opened my book, and began to read, looking up every once in a while to appreciate the beautiful day. The clear sky allowed for a glimpse of the Domtoren from the park.

Domtoren from the Park

The flowers that I saw sprouting everywhere reminded me that Spring is just around the corner.

A Sign of Spring?

 And, the sight of young and old playing in the park just gave me happy vibes.

Feeding the Birds

Days like yesterday remind me of why I miss the sun so much when it's hiding behind the wall of gray clouds. They also remind me, though, to stop and appreciate the little things, something I promised myself I would do while I was over here.

A Week at a Time: Feb 5-11, 2011

Since I finally finished my Paris vacation recaps, I thought it would be appropriate to post my Week in Pictures post which started the week we were there. I won’t be providing quite as many details as normal to accompany the pictures, as you’ve already heard about most of the sites.

Feb 5 - Tombeau de Napoléon

Feb 6 - Fountain at Château de Versailles

Feb 7 - Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Feb 8 - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

Back in Utrecht, my body was drained and I hardly felt up for any adventures after our big trip. I snapped the following shot outside our front door. By the way, you'll notice an abundance of leaves in the picture. Before it started snowing (so in November), leaves started piling up in front of everyone's door. Since we don't have a broom or a shovel, we just hoped ours would blow away. Then, it snowed and it rained, and they just sort of became a permanent fixture. Soon, we noticed that there was not only an abundance of leaves, but an abundance of dog poop on those leaves. Finally, right before we went on our trip, I decided that I had had enough and using the dustpan as a shovel, I scooped all the leaves into a garbage bag. Then, we came back to this. I'm not sure if someone dumped them there or if they just happened to blow there (there are only 2 trees on our street and they haven't had leaves for months). I wasn't up for dealing with it quite yet, though, and I left them for a few days. Then, on Monday the street cleaners came and they brought a man with a leaf blower (which they had never done before). So, now the problem has once again been solved (this time without any effort on my part).

Feb 9 - Early Shoot

As I mentioned before, I was pretty tired after our trip. For this shot, I just used what was around the house. We (Mr. Traveler in particular) go through a lot of peanut butter.

Feb 10 - Peanut Butter

Mr. Traveler decided to challenge himself to a little map drawing exercise (i.e. replicating the whole world, including country divisions by memory), which is captured in the following picture. With my lack of geographical knowledge, I didn't even bother participating in this challenge, except to document his progress.

Feb 11 - Map from Memory

So, there you have it -- Our week starting with Paris and ending with me staying mostly around the house!

Five Days in Paris: Wrapping Up Our Trip

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Traveler and I woke up around 8:30, and the house was empty. We hadn’t even heard Cousin C, A, and Baby L leave for their trip. We both showered, packed up our stuff, and planned out the stops for the day.

The first stop was the Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Industry). Cousin C and A had previously mentioned that they enjoyed this museum, so we decided to give it a try. We had bought a 4-day museum pass, which applied to many of the sites we visited, so it didn’t cost any more to visit a few extra places (in fact, in my opinion, it just added value to the purchase we had already made). 

Initially, we walked right past the museum and all the way around the Conservatoire in which it is located. When we eventually found it, we were hoping to find a place to check out coats and bags, but we weren’t able to locate one. I got pretty tired of carrying my backpack around and had to sit and rest on the benches a few times, but Mr. Traveler seemed to gain energy as we went. 

Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers

The museum provided a historical overview of different technological advances, from bicycles to sewing machines, gears to looms, and car engines to robots.

One of my favorite parts of the museum was the exhibit on looms. It was interesting to see how the cards, working similar to those in an early computer, “told” the loom what designs to create.

Loom

I also liked the room in the old church.

Foucault's Pendulum and the Old Church

While I thought many of the exhibits were interesting, there was just too much information (with most of the explanations in French) for me to absorb all the details. Mr. Traveler, however, was excited about something in nearly every room we visited, from car engines to mathematical discoveries, to unique musical instruments.

We thought about having lunch in the museum’s café, but it was completely full and seemed to serve rather elaborate dishes. It also smelled strongly of fish, so we decided to grab something near our next stop, the Musée National d'Art Moderne.

Even though we’d already seen a lot of art, we put this stop on our agenda because of the descriptions of the unique building in which it was held. The Centre Georges Pompidou. Commissioned by then President of France, Georges Pompidou, the Centre is created to be ultra-modern, with the color-coded pipes on the outside of the building. 

Centre Georges Pompidou

We picked up lunch near the Pompidou Center and sat on the concrete. We we tried to eat our sandwiches before the pigeons got to them (or us). Luckily we were successful in this endeavor, but we were soon to realize we’d made a pretty obvious error in planning. A had advised as that each of the museums closes for one day during the week. Some close on Sunday, some on Monday, and some on another day. Of course, we soon found out that the modern art museum is closed on Tuesdays, and we weren’t able to see inside the building, except by peeking through the windows. 

I wasn’t ready to head to the train station just yet, though, so I suggested that we stop instead at the Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme. Cousin C and A told us they hadn’t visited it but that friends had highly recommended it. The museum was only a few blocks away.

When we got to the museum, we first had to go through a metal detector to get into a courtyard. 

Statue of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in the Courtyard

Inside the museum itself, no pictures were allowed. We grabbed some audio guides, which were free with our Museum Pass, and we made our way through the many rooms of the museum. The museum provided a comprehensive history of Judaism, not only in France, but around the world. Objects from different periods in Jewish history painted a picture of what life was like for Jews throughout the years. The museum obviously addressed the many periods of hardship in the Jewish community. However, I liked how it also provided many examples of how Judaism has thrived throughout the years and provided examples of strong Jewish role models and tradition. I really enjoyed this museum, but felt that there was too much information to absorb in a single visit, especially since so much of the information was brand new to me.

When we finished the museum, we still had a few minutes before it was time to head to the train station. We walked down the street and I forced Mr. Traveler into a McCafé (he actually agreed quickly, but was pretty skeptical), since he had never seen one. He admitted afterward that it was better than he expected.

Finally, it was time to catch our train. We took the Metro to Gare du Nord (the north station) and wandered around the Relay bookstore before it was time to board the train. 

Clock at the Train Station

We made our way back to Utrecht (once again on a Valentine’s train), stopping in Rotterdam for dinner at Restaurant Engels.  When we left Utrecht Centraal, it was like the walking from the entire week finally caught up to us. We couldn’t take another step, and we hailed a cab.

Thinking back on how little we planned for our trip, I’m amazed at how much we found to do and see during our Five Days in Paris. (It’s also no wonder that it took almost a week for me to feel back to normal after all of the walking and information overload.)

If you missed the first 5 installments of our Paris trip, see:

Planning and Arrival

Packing in the Sites

A Visit to Versailles

Day 4, Part 1

Day 4, Part 2

Five Days in Paris: Day 4, Part 2

Walking back around the basilica, we tried to sit on the steps for a few minutes, but the crowds and pigeons drove us away pretty quickly, and we headed to our second stop of the day, the Louvre.

Louvre

We grabbed lunch from the Moroccan restaurant in the Louvre’s food court, deciding to skip out on the popular choices of Starbucks (there were 2) and McDonald’s. Who would have guessed that this pinnacle of French culture would play home to these American staples?

Then, it was time to start our intimidating self-tour of the Louvre. We’d picked up some maps the first day we were in town and had tried to narrow down the sites we wanted to see. We decided we needed to see the crowd surrounding the Mona Lisa,

Crowd Around Overrated Art

the large format paintings,

Wow. These are HUGE!

the Code of Hammurabi (Actually Mr. Traveler decided this. I didn’t even know what it was.),

Code of Hammurabi

and that we should see Napoleon’s apartments, since A had raved about them.

Napoleon III Apartments

Initially, we were kind of hesitant about visiting the apartments, because we had just been to Versailles and seen similar palace rooms the day before. However, we really liked this part, which displayed the excesses of Napoleon III. The chandelier in the above picture pretty much sums up these rooms.

Beyond those "must see" points, we decided we would walk by the paintings from the Netherlands; check out the sections on ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; and pretty much see whatever else was along the way. Some of the things that I enjoyed the most were random things we didn’t even know existed.

For example, I really liked this creepy green lion:

It's kind of cute, isn't it?

And, I was thoroughly impressed by the works in the “Near-Eastern Antiquities” (Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Levant) section, which we had originally said we could skip. I loved the colors in the green and blue wall art and was amazed by the size of some of the carvings.

I love these colors!

Me with large carving

Most of all, though, I was impressed with the building, itself. From my experience, art museums, especially those with ancient art, tend to be dark and uninviting. In contrast, the Louvre was bright and friendly, somewhere I could imagine just sitting and writing or reading. The architecture was also interesting and frescoes on the ceiling reaffirmed the Louvre’s place as not only a place for art, but a work of art in its own right.

A Ceiling in the Louvre

 Even with as much as I loved wandering through the Louvre (more than I ever thought I would), after seeing at least a taste of almost every section, I was definitely ready to sit down and rest my feet. After leaving the exhibits, we grabbed some coffee and a macaroon at Paul’s, located right in the center of the three wings. I’d been eyeing these macaroon’s since we first arrived in Paris, and finally I got to try one. It was even more amazing than I thought it would be and we ended up having another one at a McCafé the next day.

Yum!

Leaving the Louvre, we decided to try and find the French restaurant that A had recommended. We knew the Metro stop and the address, but without the phone (the street didn’t show up on our map), I figured it was a long shot that we would actually end up at the restaurant. Still, with a couple hours before dinner time and no other plan, we figured we’d look for it and if we didn’t find it by the time we started getting hungry, we’d just stop in at a different restaurant.

We got off at the Opera stop and were immediately impressed by the large Opera House. We actually briefly considered trying to see a show before realizing that we probably weren’t dressed appropriately. Tours had stopped for the day, but we walked around the building before the great restaurant search.

Opera House

Eventually, we did locate Chartier.

Chartier

The experience was definitely worth the bit of walking it took to find our destination. The servers were not just polite, but friendly, chatting about their own travels and food experiences. We ordered a recommended red wine and both got the Endive and Roquefort salad as an appetizer. The endive came out piled high with cheese and a creamy dressing. I opted for the steak (and after a bad experience with a rubber-tire-textured and burnt steak during our honeymoon in France, ordered it rare) and Mr. Traveler went with the beef tartare. Finally, we finished with dessert. I had the Baba au Rhum Chantilly (which came highly recommended) and Mr. Traveler had the Coupe Mont-Blanc (a chestnut mousse/pudding like dessert, which the waiter insisted was too sweet, but was also very good). 

After dinner, we were stuffed, and ready to head back for the night. We made it back to the RER train station near Cousin C and A’s place and took the bus from there (since we couldn’t call for them to pick us up).

Cousin C and A had to leave early the next morning for London, so they left us a key, which we slid under their door before we left for our final day of sightseeing. Stay tuned for the last installment of “Five Days in Paris”.