Hemp Museum in Amsterdam. The Dutch East India Company relied on hemp rigging and sails on their ships but it can be used for many more things.
Hemp Museum in Amsterdam
Electric Guitar with Hemp Fiber Body and wood neck. I was not allowed to play it.
Down the block from the Hemp Museum is the Marijuana and Hash Museum. Both museums are in the Red Light District where prostitutes are displayed in store windows like living mannequins. Tourist photography of the prostitutes is strongly discouraged so I respected that.Jimmy Carter’s view of the drug war in a Norml ad in Playboy Magazine.A carved marble sculpture in the Museum of Erotica which is also in the Red Light District.Amsterdam Canal Tour. Note the metal cleats in the walls for tying up boats. Most of the canal network was built in the 17th century.Bicycles are everywhere in Amsterdam.This tribute on the stairs was part of some sort of ceremony in this area. People were gathered on the bridge over the canal and along the sides.Locals enjoying a warm late summer day on the canal.There are bicycles everywhere in AmsterdamCanal front property in Amsterdam.Houseboats line many of the canals. Most are occupied.The North Sea Ship Canal. This is contemporary construction for cargo and cruise ships.Another cruise ship in the North Sea CanalA drawbridge over a canal.Original entrance to Anne Frank House (facing a canal). The tours enter from a modern building behind the original house.Entrance for Anne Frank tours and cafeteria.Statue of Anne Frank in a small square a few feet from the tour entrance.The original Anne Frank diary. There were several other diaries and journals all of which still exist. No photography was permitted inside the house except for this one display case.Amsterdam Flower Market.A canal-side view of the flower market on the right. Note the mass of bicycles parked on the left- you see bicycles parked everywhere in Amsterdam.Bulbs for sale at Flower Market.Library at the Rijsmuseum in AmsterdamThere are lots of famous Rembrandt painting at the Rijks including this self-portrait (sorry about the camera shake).Perhaps the most famous painting by VermeerThis was in a modern art exhibit at the Rijks. It was part of an exhibit about the gun culture in the U.S.
Lyon and the Neighboring Countryside
This church is the meeting point for our tour of Vieux (old) Lyon. It is an 18th century building as I recall and it was the newest building in the area. Much of the outside of this church was vandalized in the 19th Century and most of the statues on the exterior were damaged.An entrance to a hidden passageway (“traboule”) in Vieux (Old City) LyonInside a traboule. People live in these buildings and only a handful are open for the public toursA hidden courtyardStreet in Vieux LyonHidden Courtyard where multiple buildings come together.Part of a building was removed exposing this courtyard to the street. You can see where a wall was removed.Another hidden courtyardStatue in Golden Head Park near our hotel in Lyon.Main Entrance to park.
Beaujolias
We took a small group tour to the French countryside. We begin in Beaujolias which is about an hour drive from Lyon. This is a 19th Century estate built in the style of a castle.We are now approaching the wine region and saw this fellow picking grapes. The 2024 harvest was delayed by rain so that gave us a chance to see the harvest and the grapes being crushed.More grape harvesting.Lots of vineyards in Beaujolias!In the 17th Century each town had a stone quarry and a cemetery. We are in the town of Oingt where we will visit a sparkling wine winery and have lunch in a very nice restaurant. Our tour guide Oliver is in the center in the blue puffy jacket.18th Century ChurchIn addition to the sparkling winery in the town we also visited this winery that produces red Beaujolias from these vines. These vines are Gamay grapes common in Beaujolias. The vines in the first row on the left were planted by the current winemaker’s great grandfather Alexander and that was the wine that we tasted.This is the current winemaker’s son. The machine above him is the crusher that will squeeze the juice out of the grapes. The winemaker is to the left.The son is about to climb into the crusher to clean out remains of the grapes.The son has now climbed out of the crusher and they will crush the next load of grapes. The wine is then fermented in steel tanks, aged and bottled. Beaujolias is a fruity wine and is not aged in wood.Here is our tour group. The two young guys in the back are brothers from the Seattle. There were two other couples besides Amy and me and we all got along well. We bought a bottle of the Alexander reserve to enjoy on the remainder of our trip.
Medieval Village of Perouges
The final stop on our excursion was the medieval town of Perouges. This is a 13th Century village near Beaujolias. The town was mostly abandoned for a long time but the French government offered the buildings for free to anyone who wanted to fix it up. On the outside it must look like the 13th Century but inside there is indoor plumbing, electricity, telephone, internet, etc. There were about 90 people living in the town when we visited. There are some restaurants, artisans, and retail shops supported by the tourist traffic. There were a lot of tour groups when we visited. The photos show a mix between restored buildings and ruins. This is the 13th Century ChurchChurch Interior.
