Self-Portraits at Hoge Veluwe...

It was very interesting to watch Veronica in action while she took self-portraits. Of course, I couldn’t resist taking photos of her as she was preparing to take photos of herself.

Presto-chango, she changed into a white dress for the real shots.

These few are ones I took...

...and here is one of hers. 

The second location was amongst some pine trees. Again, here are my shots...

...and some of hers.

Hoge Veluwe National Park...

At 21 square miles (55 square kilometers), we only saw a small fraction of this large park that was established in 1935. After visiting the museum, we went for a long walk looking for potential spots for Veronica to take self-portraits.

While there are approximately 350 deer and 50 wild boars that wander within the confines of the fenced park, we didn’t see any wildlife.

It is only one of two privately owned national parks in the Netherlands, and the only one that charges an entrance fee. Presumably those fees help to fund the white bikes that can be used for free from multiple unmanned points.

Eventually we made our way to one of the lots to grab some bikes. I’m not great with back-pedal brakes, but I managed to survive.

Kroller-Muller Museum...

I was excited to finally get to go to the infamous Kroller-Muller Museum, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park. It was very complicated to get to by public transport, so we’d never been. We were clearly not the only ones that thought it was a good idea to get some culture on Christmas Day as it was surprisingly busy. 

The museum was founded in 1938 by an art collector within the extensive grounds of her and her husband’s former estate, which is now the national park. First we visited the modern sculpture garden, one of Europe’s largest.

 

The museum has the second-largest collection of Van Gogh’s outside of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, including Terrace of a Café at Night (Place du Forum), a nocturnal painting from 1888 without the use of black paint.

The museum café was very good and even had a vegan option for Veronica.

By far the strangest installation we saw was Inopportune: Stage Two by Cai Guo-Qiang featuring nine replica tigers pierced by dozens of arrows. They are suspended in their moment of death as a commentary on the mass extermination of entire species in the midst of the ambivalence of humans.

 They were so lifelike that it was truly eerie.

This speaks for itself.

Relaxing in Putten...

Jimmy brought his computer along and did some work, but he was pretty good about setting aside lots of time for walks in the woods and playing games.

Once we walked about 5K into Putten. It was a cute town, but despite having a surprising number of restaurants for a small town, remarkably none of them had a single vegan item for lunch.

Veronica thought we might need another Christmas tree, but I assured her that we didn’t.

 

On one of our other walks, she took out this colorful umbrella we found in the cottage, which was the perfect prop for some photos. 

Holiday Cottage in Putten...

Veronica was very sad about the prospect about spending our first Christmas without Ashlynn, who was still working in Australia, so she suggested that we go away instead of waking up in our own home on Christmas morning without her sister. We were very fortunate that Carlin offered us her car while they were away. So all that was left was to find an affordable place that allowed dogs. Luckily I found the perfect place outside the small town of Putten, not far from one of the country’s largest national parks.

The house even had a tiny Christmas tree and some other winter decorations. This might look like an ad for the place, but was actually taken by Veronica of her hot chocolate with vegan whipped cream.

Our cottage was less than 200 meters to the nearest woods, which we walked in daily during our four-night stay. 

We were all very happy to spend so much time in the woods.

There were some large homes nearby with some nice reflections. 

Christmas in Amsterdam...

Yes, it’s true. It’s August and we’re currently having a heatwave in Holland, and my blog is still stuck back in December. I’d really thought I’d get fully caught up during lockdown, but that clearly didn’t happen. Sorry for the delays and calendar confusion. 

So, this was the Amsterdam H3 Christmas Hash. As you can see, only a few of us wore anything festive on this moderately cold day. This was the beer break in Vondelpark.

Once back to the hare’s house for a hot toddy, Lisa and I changed into our Christmas dresses. I bought my dress with Veronica in Totnes during my visit to Exeter and borrowed the hat. 

The following weekend, Veronica went to Amsterdam to take a silks class and then we met her to go to a small Christmas market at Westerpark. We enjoyed lots of free samples at the first chocolate shop of Tony Chocolonely, a Dutch fair trade chocolate company. How cool is this display of their chocolate bars?

The market itself was small, but had a few nice offerings. This was an impressive display for a food truck selling friets (fries).

Veronica couldn’t resist doing some coloring in this large outdoor mural.

I couldn’t resist photographing what was once an old fish and fruit store....

...this funky window display at De Bijenkorf, the fancy department store...

...and these brightly lit hollow packages.

On the 20th, we went to Carlin and Kent’s to celebrate Rowan’s graduation with a Master’s in Accounting from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Jimmy was in charge of cocktails...

...which were very festive and yummy.

The following day, Veronica really enjoyed going bouldering with Rowan, Mark and Sam in Leiden.