Pixies and pasta….

We had a rest after playing with the cats, to recoup our energy levels ready to see The Pixies at The Paridiso.

Like a home from home, Jane and Karl came over for tea beforehand. A vat of pasta, salad and fruit consumed we got a tram to the venue.

On the way to the tram a woman cycled past us, then cycled back to see Pete’s earring. A goldfish in a bag, she was very taken with them, cycling off with a smile.

The queues outside the venue were huge, despite getting there relatively early. Luckily Jane had arranged for us to go through a side entrance, so within minutes we were sitting on the balcony, with fantastic views of the stage.

The place was packed. I think The Pixies played 29 songs. At the end of the night two men who were sat behind us and asked if I was his wife. Pete affirmed that to be the case, when he suddenly whipped up my hand in his and kissed it. All very odd!

Pandemonium was the name of the game this morning. Sleeping happily to be woken by a distraught Pete, who had lost his phone and purse. The flat ransacked, purse found in his jacket pocket…. Who would have thought that. Lengthy phone calls ensued to cancel his phone. On the way back from the gig we had decided to sample continental night life and popped to a late night cafe. The options of where the phone could be was narrowed to the venue, the taxi or the cafe.

Like a naughty teenager Pete declared that all wasn’t lost as he quite fancied a new phone…. Was this planned? Later that afternoon Pete returned to the cafe, they had his phone behind the bar. Overwhelmed with emotion, Pete hugged the barman, the customers let out a big cheer. All was good in the world of mobile phones. Reflecting on the few hours without his phone Pete said he felt much happier not having engaged on social media. But this didn’t last long, sucked in again. 

We had to pick up our chocolate bar creations today. Setting off relatively early we walked there. Stopping off at a shop on route to buy a present for Bea, the joys of grandparenthood, things you would look at and want to buy but couldn’t in the past due to financial constraints don’t figure as you get older, you just buy, buy, buy!

After picking up the chocolate we walked to the very, very windy Waterlooplein market.

We always seem to end up at this market, on the website it is heralded as unique and many other superlatives. As ever, it seemed quite grubby and down at heel, but certainly there are bargains to be had. Piles of clothes, that Ave-Peter, our on line shop could have benefitted from. At 10 euro a kilo, it was a bargain. But we have no room in our bags.

Our walk through the market brought us to the Jewish Museum, our destination.

The temporary exhibition housed work by Sol leWitt. His art seemed familiar, definitely seem in Yorkshire Sculpture Park, googling later I found I was right, his cube based work cslled 123454321 is there.

The baristas always seem so hip and trendy, the rock stars of the food industry. I googled ‘why are baristas so cool’, I didn’t get an answer, but there are loads of sites dedicated to baristas, why are baristas so rude, why are baristas so happy, 9 good reasons to date a barista…..

We looked round the other floors, they had a system of seats with screens and headphones, going through the history of what atrocities took place during the second world war from personal accounts.

Pete saw identity cards not too dissimilar to the ones his grandparents had, had to carry before they were able to escape Berlin. There was another part of the museum dedicated to explaining some rituals attached to the Jewish faith, some I knew of, some I didn’t and some I had misunderstood.

A man talking about blowing a horn was really interesting. He talked about the tradition of blowing the shofar, a horn that is blown a 100 or a 101 times a day on the run up to Rosh Hashanah. It is not something that can be done half heartedly, the blowing to continue for 9 beats. The man travelled the world, proclaiming that he had observed this tradition everywhere he had been, in taxis, in hotel rooms in New Zealand, China and Australia. The sound is loud, very loud and I can’t imagine how people would feel staying next to him or driving him around. I am s surprised he hasn’t caused a pile up somewhere on his travels in far off climes.

We had a coffee after this.

We are planned a well earned break after this and before going to the Moco the modern art museum. We got there too early, whizzed through the ridiculously over priced things in the museum shop. Then still had time on our hands…. We realised we hadn’t sampled the chips and mayonnaise yet.

Cheesy chips with mayonnaise, curry sauce. Yum! It was slightly incongruous to hear the sound of green parakeets flying above as we munched through our chips. They arrived sometime in the 1970s and now there are about 4000 birds, some locals thinking they add  a touch of colour to the city, whilst others voicing concerns on the impact on species such as the woodpecker.

The MOCO was amazing. An old house, Villa Alsberg, built in 1904, with fairly narrow staircases, small rooms housing modern classics of art. The special exhibition was art produced by Robbie Williams, I really liked it and the sentiments he was representing. I am not certain how this exhibition would have gone down in the UK, there is a sense that you have to stay in your own lane and not deviate. Sharing everything so you don’t have to go there!

They had these cards the right way up there. It is still blank. I need to sell myself more!

There were authenticated Banksy pictures. I loved the ones of the soldiers skipping through the meadow.

Seeing more Yayoi Kusama, bringing happy memories of seeing her art in her birthplace in Matsomoto.

Lonely Thoughts by Kaws was also fantastic, vivid colours and challenging concepts.

The digital immersive art really reminded us of an experience in Tokyo.  These were rooms produced by Studio Irma, a Dutch female artist. A very trippy experience.

Outside had some art you could climb on.

Jane and Karl’s boutique hotel was a short walk away in a neighbourhood polar opposite to ours. We meandered down the road, trying to blend in,looking like we belonged in an area littered with designer shops.