Kerstavonddienst

I attended the Kerstavonddienst (Kerst = Christmas, avond = evening, and dienst = service - so all together, Christmas Eve Service) at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw on Monday evening. I didn't know much of what evening would entail, but the event was advertised via a meetup.com group as a Christmas concert.

I followed the advice of the concert description on the meetup site by arriving an hour early since, although the concert was free, there were a limited number of seats available. I arrived about five minutes before the doors were shut and dozens of people were left gazing at the jam packed lobby, hoping that they would be allowed in after the early arrivals were seated and there was a chance for the staff to see if there were more seats available.

The two members of the meetup group I'd found in the densely packed lobby (Delia from Atlanta, and Mandana from Iran) found seats slightly behind and to the right of the performance area. I saw that there were about 40 male singers in a choral group, a small chamber orchestra including a bass, two cellos, a handful of violins and violas, an oboe and a flute, and a piano.

Upon entering, we were given program booklets that provided the titles and sequences of the songs, as well as the points at which the the priest (or equivalent title - I'm not sure what denomination the service was) would speak. It also gave lyrics under songs that were described as Koor en samenzang, which indicated that the song was a singalong - that the audience was encouraged to sing along with the choir. After the first sing along, which was a lot of fun, a woman entered the hall from the staircase to my left and descended the steps while singing Halleluja loud enough so that the entire concert hall could hear.

The concert and service lasted for about two hours. It was entirely in Dutch, except for a one or two sentence welcome in English. My increased Dutch comprehension after the two week intense Dutch course I took in November helped my understand many of the words in the service, but I missed the point for most of it. I was able to sing the words correctly (in pronunciation, if not in pitch), though, so the classes did have some benefit here.

Merry Christmas, 2012

When I left my apartment around 10:00 this morning, I thought I'd stepped on a stage from 28 Days Later. The neighborhood was completely silent - no cars, no bikes, and no talking. I only saw a few people walking their dogs, and I only heard a tram rumbling in the distance. When the tram passed me, I saw only a handful of passengers. 

Note another photographer in the lower left.

My first destination was the Rijksmuseum, which I also went to on Christmas day last year. Seems like a good time to visit one of Amsterdam's most popular and crowded museums.

I prefer it to the Van Gogh, both in terms of the aesthetics of the building, and in terms of the style of the art. Most of the paintings depict Dutch life (well, at least wealthy Dutch life) hundreds of years ago, with rich oils paints colored on large canvases.

This apparently symbolizes Catholics (right bank) and Protestants (left bank) "fishing" for the loyalty of followers.

Rembrandt's famous De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch)

After the Rijksmuseum, I followed the Herengracht (one of the canals in Amsterdam's canal ring) to the Bijbelsmuseum (bible museum). The museum was unremarkable. There was a room containing sketches of biblical scenes, and another with hundreds of copies of the bible, and some information concerning the different translations of the bible and conflicts between groups based on translation, but apart from that, many of the rooms didn't hold to a "bible" theme. The museum had a nice garden - a major selling point, apparently - but it is much more appealing in the summer than on a cool, dreary December day.

A room looking toward the garden in the Bible Museum.

Evidence that I indeed took these pictures.

Some biblical figurines. I was a bit puzzled by the cheesy projected backdrop.

My final museum stop was at Our Lord in the Attic, a preservation of a clandestine Catholic church created in the 17th century. After the Dutch rejected Spanish influence from the Netherlands around that time, they outlawed Catholic worship. A wealthy merchant who happened to be Catholic created a secret Catholic church in a narrow Dutch house (and, actually, the attics of three adjacent houses) where Catholics in Amsterdam could worship. According to the audio tour, the Dutch government knew about the church, but decided to not enforce the law given the worship was not harming anyone (this sounds remarkably like the current Dutch policy toward marijuana). At some point in the 19th century, the Dutch rescinded the ban on Catholic churches, and "real" churches were constructed. After being abandoned in favor of other venues, the church in the attic was purchased by amateur historians who wanted it preserved.

And, hence, the museum.

With that, Merry Christmas to all my friends and family.

Warme Wintermarkt

While riding home from my first yoga class in five months (something called "power yoga," which apparently involves a lot of grunting), I noticed that the Albert Cuypmarkt was open. The street is usually empty of vendors on Sundays (in a bit of a depressing and mildly creepy way), but it was the site of the "Warme Wintermarkt." It didn't seem any different than a normal day at the market, except that a few stands were selling Gluhwijn (mulled wine), there was a small pony area, which I think was some kind of manger scene, and there was a small group of people singing.  

The Cuypmarkt sells a lot of cheap clothes, toiletries, and trinkets, but I usually only buy food there. Many of the signs are marketed to tourists, or at least English speakers.

The ubiquitous herring stand.

I passed on the cookies, fresh french fries, herring, chicken, and fresh stroopwafels in favor of poffertjes, a Dutch mini-pancake. The vendor makes them fresh on a skillet designed specifically for poffertjes, and he passed them on to his wife, who smothered them with powdered sugar and added a healthy pad of butter. And extra 50 cents would have gotten me Nutella to go with is. I figured the butter and sugar was enough.  

This was the first time I'd seen turkeys at the market. Note the prices - one of them is 66 euros (approximately $90). Apparently the industrial meat complex in the Netherlands has not been able to provide the same prices as the U.S. system has.

Child at the fruit and vegetable market. Kind of adorable.

The Dutch Christmas season - well, the small slices that I've observed - seems more focused on family time and relaxation than gift giving (they have a different holiday for gifts in early December). The whole things feels a bit more wholesome. At least in Amsterdam, where there are few malls and big box stores to drown things like carols in conspicuous consumption and stress.

This pony almost hit me in the face. 

And, as is typical, there is a little bit of intimate/sexual material in the market. This still strikes me as a little odd. 

Yes, the chocolate penises are still here. And yes, I'm still amused by the Dutch term "Massief Geintje."

Amsterdam - City of Lights

Someone (Dutch government, Amsterdam government, arts community, business community) organized and implemented the Amsterdam Light Festival, which runs for a little over a month in December and January. My friend Dan and I walked along the Amstel into the city center a little after 6:00pm on Sunday, and half of the route happened to be along the "Boulevard of Light," which includes free standing, illuminated artwork and beams of light projected onto existing structures, like bridges and buildings.

One example - a blue...something outside of a generously lit Amstel Hotel.

Naturally, it had been dark for almost two hours by the time we passed the photo above, but it was still quite early in the evening. The small streets lining the river were crowded with pedestrians, many of whom were Dutch rather than tourists, whom you'd typically see in these locations. Older couples took pictures, and families with children played in some of the interactive pieces.

The raindrops decreased the sharpness of the photographs. But, in person, they danced lightly in front of the light beams.

And, below are two mundane pictures of the area that one could see nightly.

Rehearsal

While running errands on Friday afternoon in the city center (a too long delayed Dutch-English dictionary, and a guidebook for an upcoming travel adventure), I heard a faint bass rumbling above the din of the tourists and Christmas shoppers milling around. I followed the sound - partially based on a guess of where it might be coming from - and I saw that a group was holding a full rehearsal, including lights and camera work, for an upcoming concert. Only workers and performers were allowed within a few hundred feet of the stage, and a small crowd gathered along a metal fence around the perimeter to listen to the show. Apart from the brief comments from the director between songs, the performance was (I'm guessing) indistinguishable from what would happen later in the evening, when the square would probably be packed shoulder-to-shoulder. The preview was enough to make me set an intention to return that evening, when the full light show would have been on display, and crowd would been energized. But the steady rains and just-above-freezing temperatures convinced me to stay indoors.  

I also saw, for the first time, a duo who specializes in drawing a hoard of pidgeons. I'm not sure if they're making money off it, or if it's a hobby. 

And, for the first time, I stopped in the Magnaplaza, which contains the types of shops I would never patron (in the clothing sense). It did have a nice Christmas tree, though.