Getting Miffed!

Tuesday 1st October 2024. International Coffee Day.

In Utrecht. No riding today.

The concert was good. A good mix of the Fleetwood Mac music was played, of course. I was surprised they played three or four songs from the early Blues music days which suited me fine.

I went back to the hostel to sleep in my shoebox. It was pretty comfortable. I think they may be quiet on a Monday night because no one seemed to be in the upper boxes.

This morning I had a slow start. I had all day to do very little other than have a look around the city centre. The rain didn’t really happen today, thankfully. I’m not sure if it was worth buying the umbrella or not. It definitely came in handy yesterday afternoon and in some ways ‘sods law’ would have meant that if I hadn’t bought the umbrella it probably would have rained today. So, the fact I bought an umbrella stopped it raining today….good result! I’m hoping the forecast is correct and it doesn’t rain again before I return back to the UK next Saturday.

With time to spare today I headed for the Centraal Museum.

Before I went in I noticed, across the road….

In the Lake District we have our own literary rabbit. I’m talking of Peter Rabbit of course. So, Utrecht and the English Lakes have fictional rabbits in common. All very cute and cuddly, and nothing to get ‘miffed’ about.

The Centraal Museum was a good visit. It had a mix of, what I call, proper art and some contemporary stuff.

There were some religious paintings, some landscapes, some contemporary stuff (as I said) and there was a reconstruction of Miffy’s creators (Dick Bruna) studio.

Even better there was a cafe. I was offered a scone ‘mit Slagroom’. It crossed my mind that the broad minded Dutch were offering me something more than jam and clotted cream! Sadly, it turned out to be jam and whipped cream.

I knew that tonight the same venue as last nights concert was staging a talk by the English author, David Nicholls. He wrote six novels, a couple of which were ‘One Day’ and ‘Starter for Ten’. I have read the second of those books. I took the plunge and booked a ticket to hear the talk. I also had a listen to his ‘Desert Island Discs’ radio episode to get me a little more familiar with his work. It should be interesting. Very different from last nights concert….tickets were still available but I’m not surprised.

I took a few more photos of the city…

The city definitely has a cafe and coffee bar culture. It’s all about eating and drinking. I had three coffees during the day to mark International Coffee Day. Have you noticed that I like to celebrate the Days that involve food and drink? Today, I could have chosen International Day of Older People, but I don’t know anyone in that category!! Certainly not me. I’m still clinging on to my youth….in my head….as long as I don’t look in the mirror.

I probably took a good layer of rubber off my soles walking around town….pootling as I like to call it. It’s good for getting a good impression of a place.

Back to the hostel for a freshen up before went out for a literary feast this evening.

The David Nicholls talk was at the same venue as the Fleetwood Mac tribute concert last night but it was in a different auditorium about four floor up. It was a smaller room but still well attended. He is obviously plugging a new book called ‘You Are Here’, it’s a romance that develops on the Coast to Coast Walking route across the north of England. I was impressed with the talk….partly because Nicholls was quite a shy person despite having trained as an actor. The way he talked showed how much thought and preparation he put into his books but I particularly liked his modest attitude….a characteristic that seems to be very much out of fashion.

Back to the shoebox.

Lastly, The ‘Old Master’ in the earlier photo was Van Gogh and his painting is in the middle, on the bottom. Of course he is Dutch although he spent most of his adult life in France. The other Dutch newer masters are Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit and Robin Van Persie!