Leiden Liberation Parade...

It was great that Jimmy was able to join me on October 3 for this year’s annual parade in Leiden to celebrate the liberation from Spain in 1574. 

Although we didn’t buy any, we were impressed with how this salmon was cooked at a booth we passed on the way to the parade route.

As always, the parade started with officials in horse-drawn carriages.

This year’s theme was Learned Young. Several of the floats celebrated the 444th anniversary of Leiden University, the Netherlands’ oldest university.

Of course, there were also random goofy costumes including candelabras...

...and Lego police officers...

...and firefighters.

A New Home for a T-Rex and Many Others...

On Christmas Eve 2016, the whole family visited the old Naturalis to see Trix, the only tyrannosaurus to be permanently on exhibit in Europe. Shortly after our visit, the museum was closed for renovation and Trix went on tour around Europe. Now she is back in her purpose-built exhibition hall. With 80% of her skeleton extracted in Montana, she is one of the three most complete t-rexes ever found.

Her display differs from the two in the US in that her real skull was used and thus is low to the ground so it can be well supported. 

The rest of the Dinosaur Gallery was very impressive.

The Ice Age gallery taught us that woolly mammoths once roamed this region.

In an effort to show the diversity of life on our planet, the Life Gallery had an amazing display of an incredible array of animals and plants across a variety of landscapes. 

The top floor housed the Seduction Gallery, designed as a “playful warehouse of love” featuring real objects, illustrations and games to teach us about the art of love.

It was fascinating and informative for both young and old.

We were greatly entertained by short clips of Green Porno by Isabella Rosselini, the Italian actress and filmaker, teaching about animal seduction.

Amazing New Naturalis...

Less than five weeks after it reopened from a complete rebuild, Ashlynn and I were thrilled to visit Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden. We were completely blown away by how beautiful the building was.

No matter where you turned your head, the view was damn impressive.

Duran Latink Fashion Exhibit...

Back in November 2014, Ashlynn had her first modeling assignment, a lookbook for Duran Latink, a young Dutch fashion designer. I tagged along for the first part of the shoot and took this photo of him helping her into her trousers.

Here’s the official shot of what was definitely the most unusual outfit of the collection. 

Fast forward nearly five years later, and that outfit isn't looking so unusual anymore. He came to fame in 2018 for designing these vagina pants for the music video of Pynk by American pop star Janelle Monae; they are now part of the permanent collection of the Centraal Museum.

At just 31 years old, he had a solo exhibition at the Centraal Museum and I couldn’t resist going. Lantink specializes in repurposing old clothes. In De-Collected, the first installation, he worked closely with the museum to breathe new life into some of the museum’s rejected designer dresses. 

This section was entitled Straight from the Sales Bin, an indictment of the practice in which unsold luxury clothing is burned or shredded to prevent it from entering the sale circuit.

And lastly, Sistaaz of the Castle, an ongoing fashion and photography project started in 2016 about flamboyant transgender sex workers in Cape Town.

This section definitely had the most impact as well as the most whimsy.

Art in Utrecht...

While there is no doubt that I take too many photos when I visit museums, it is with a sad sense of irony that I am reliving visiting so many exhibitions while working on these posts at the same time that all of country’s museums have been closed since March 16 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is predicted that one-third of Dutch museums will file bankruptcy due to this global disaster. In the meantime, I will continue with the trip down memory lane...

At the end of September, I spent a day in Utrecht. I started with a visit to the Utrecht Archives Museum in the former St Paul’s Abbey. There was a cool exhibit about the start of the national railway. I especially enjoyed an exciting “carriage ride” through the old city.

My next stop was the Museum Catharijne Convent, housed in a medieval monastery. Biblical art doesn’t interest me much, so I went through the main collection very quickly.

I would have enjoyed the special exhibit about how the Dutch celebrate holidays more if there were English translations as there were elsewhere in the museum, but I didn’t need a translation for the birth of Jesus, complete with the three kings on Segways...

...and Joseph and Mary posing for a selfie.

Eventually I made it over to the Centraal Museum, my primary destination to see a fashion exhibit. By far the strangest part of the permanent collection were these surreal paintings by J.H. Moesman, an Utrecht artist who died in 1988 and was clearly obsessed with sex, fetishism and taboos.

In comparison, Bottled Humanism by Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo in 1962 seemed mild.

A Windy Day at the Beach...

The high winds were especially evident at the bottom of the pier...

...which is usually so calm, but was pretty turbulent.

As always, I loved the reflections along the pier. 

It was great that Jimmy was able to join me this year.