Gary M. Letchinger

Amsterdam-France 2024

Amsterdam

The entrance to the 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.

Blankets and weaving using hemp.

Electric Guitar with Hemp Fiber Body and wood neck. I asked but 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 as shown in this display.
There is also a Museum of Erotica in the Red Light District. It focuses on artistic and humorous displays rather than any hard core stuff. This small but beautiful marble sculpture caught my eye. In the humor department was a cartoon “interpretation” of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that was somewhat amusing and quite unique.
We took a boat tour through the Amsterdam Canal network. Note the metal cleats in the walls for tying up boats. Most of the canal network was built in the 17th century using hand tools and animal power.
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. I heard someone giving a speech so maybe a celebration of life of something along those lines.
Farther down lots of locals enjoying a warm late summer day on the canal.
There are lots of low bridges over the canals. However Amsterdam is easier to navigate than Venice where the canals result in frequent dead-end streets. In Amsterdam there is almost always a street along the canal and many more bridges.
A major canal intersection. Note all of the parked bicycles on the left and bikes on the bridge over the canal in the background.
Canal front property in Amsterdam.
Houseboats line many of the canals. Most are occupied.
This is the North Sea Ship Canal which can be accessed from the canals. This is contemporary construction for cargo and cruise ships.
Another cruise ship in the North Sea Canal.
A drawbridge over a canal.
Original entrance to Anne Frank House (facing a canal). The tours enter from a modern building behind the original house shown below.
Entrance for Anne Frank tours and cafeteria.
Statue of Anne Frank in a small square around the corner 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. The stalls on the left line the bank of a canal.
The canal-side view of the flower market on the right. Note the mass of parked bicycles.
Bulbs for sale at Flower Market. I have an Amaryllis in my garden at home so these guys caught my eye.
We visited the Rijsmuseum which is a wonderful museum. This is the main research library.
There are lots of famous Rembrandt painting at the Rijks including this self-portrait (sorry about the camera shake).
Perhaps the most famous painting by Vermeer.
This 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 was 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 or removed.
An entrance to a hidden passageway (“traboule”) in Vieux (Old City) Lyon.
Inside a traboule. The earliest date back to the 4th Century. They have been used for secret movements in various conflicts including hiding from the German army in World War II. There were hundreds of passages but only about 40 still exist only a handful are open for the public tours.
A hidden courtyard accessible only through the traboule.
A typical street in Vieux Lyon. Yes they are super narrow.
Another hidden 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 courtyard.
Public art in Golden Head Park near our hotel in Lyon.
Archimedes! I like this piece.
Main Entrance to park.
Main gate detail.

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 were in our van approaching the wine region and saw this fellow picking grapes at the side of the road. 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 and farmland 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.
The town is built on a hill. The church is at the top of the hill and as we climbed up this was the view.
Inside the 18th Century Church at the topic of the hill. The tour group was waiting for stragglers here. Yes Amy and I were the stragglers.
In 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 visible to the left. When we spoke with us he said that this harvest was late due to rain and it won’t be a very good year in terms of the quality of the wine.
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 New York State. There were two other couples besides Amy and me and we all got along well. We bought a bottle of the Alexander reserve (made from that first row of vines shown above) 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.
Note the different materials used to (re)construct this wall. There are round stones from fields or reclaimed from fallen structures. The doorway in the lower left has cut stones from a stone quarry that was probably reclaimed. We also see some clay bricks used for repair.
This building also shows the variety of materials used in construction.
All of the streets have to look like 13th Century construction. In the occupied buildings you sometimes see a hidden hatch for access to modern plumbing & electrical.
This building has no roof and is not occupied. It’s your for free but you have to fix it up to a 13th Century appearance and live in it.
This building is an art studio and store.
This building is a hotel and it is open for business.
Here is our group wandering around.
Another view of the hotel. It does seem to have some wear and tear.
This is the original 13th Century Church.
Church Interior. There are several more recent additions added to the original building.