Tulips and Windmills...Homework

[nordski]

In another thread, concerning a new exhibit at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Genmasjoy made the excellent suggestion that we should research the life of Van Gogh prior to visiting so as to better appreciate his art.

 

I'm wondering what resources people are utilizing to prepare for their Tulips and Windmills cruise this spring.

 

Let me begin the discussion by mentioning some of the resources we have already consulted:

 

Books:

1. The Eyewitness Guides to the Netherlands and to Belgium respectively.

Pros: The Eyewitness Guides are detailed and contain excellent graphic material.

Cons: The Eyewitness Guides are detailed, so much so that, as a person who can suffer from "travel blur", they tend to overwhelm me.

Confession: These guides are sometimes most useful to me in accurately identifying what on earth I took a photo of.

 

2. Rick Steves' guidebook: Amsterdam Bruges and Brussels. Much simpler than the Eyewitness Guides and Steves has made a career out of helping travellers move beyond the typical tourist objectives.

 

Videos:

1. Lust for Life. A fictionalized account of Van Gogh's life, but the dialogue re: the life of the workers in Holland rings true to his actual letters to brother Theo

 

2. The Girl With the Pearl Earing. Another fictionalized life of an artist, this time Jan Vermeer. Amazing cinematography which seems to capture the interior and exterior colours of the Dutch Golden Age. Also suggests the tensions between artists and their merchant benefactors.

 

3. The Liberation of Holland. A CBC production which details the role of the Canadian Army in helping capture access to The Scheldt, Antwerp itself, and the North Eastern part of the Netherlands. Helps explain the close ties, even today, between the Dutch and Canadians.

 

 

We'd be glad to learn of other reources that fellow cruisers have found particularly helpful in their preparations

[nordski]

I know..I know...it's really lame to reply to my own post, however I found another book that is really helpful in providing background for travellers.

 

The book is The Occupied Garden written by sisters Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski and published by McClelland and Stewart in Toronto.

 

In the book the sisters write a family history of their market gardening grandparents, the impact of WWII and their subsequent emigration to Canada. Juxtaposed with this family story is a narrative of the Dutch royal family and their struggles to respond to the Naxi occupation. All of this is set against the backdrop of the role of the Reformed Church. The climax of the story comes when the Netherlands is liberated in 1945.

 

It is very well written and avoids the treacly sentimentality that mars many family biographies. Of special interest is the description of the conflict between collaborators and the resistance in Holland. It helps to whet the appetite for the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, a museum which has won awards the past two years.

 

I hope this review is useful, and we're still looking for suggestions re: information about Holland and Belgium

[WIT]

I know..I know...it's really lame to reply to my own post, however I found another book that is really helpful in providing background for travellers.

 

The book is The Occupied Garden written by sisters Kristen den Hartog and Tracy Kasaboski and published by McClelland and Stewart in Toronto.

 

In the book the sisters write a family history of their market gardening grandparents, the impact of WWII and their subsequent emigration to Canada. Juxtaposed with this family story is a narrative of the Dutch royal family and their struggles to respond to the Naxi occupation. All of this is set against the backdrop of the role of the Reformed Church. The climax of the story comes when the Netherlands is liberated in 1945.

 

It is very well written and avoids the treacly sentimentality that mars many family biographies. Of special interest is the description of the conflict between collaborators and the resistance in Holland. It helps to whet the appetite for the Resistance Museum in Amsterdam, a museum which has won awards the past two years.

 

I hope this review is useful, and we're still looking for suggestions re: information about Holland and Belgium

 

Nordski - Towards the end of my 34 year teaching career I was lucky to instruct three children whose grandparents had sheltered Jews in WWII. Each summer the family would return to their grandparents' Dutch farm.

 

I'll try to find The Occupied Garden.

 

WIT

[nordski]

Thanks for the comment WIT, I hope you're successful in finding the book and that you enjoy it.

 

One of our neighbourhood families has been honoured by Jewish societies for harbouring refugees during the war. Reading about collaborators and the resistance in the Netherlands raises the inevitable personal question: Would my convictions be strong enough to enable me to do the right thing?

 

Perhaps my interest in the Tulips and Windmills itinerary has been fueled by the sizable population of Dutch Canadians (a group that's often ignored as an entity) both in my hometown and the town in which we presently reside. In both locations, the Reformed Churches still play a significant role in their lives.