Other

My dear father in law doing the crossword puzzle, plus more impressions from a train...this time going to the Neuburger Schlossfest, which is basically a renaissance fair except in a real castle!  A beautiful castle, and a lot of fun.  It seemed a good 75% were in costume, and the costumes seemed pretty consistent to the time period, as was the food to some extent (so i understood).  I had no time to sit down and sketch, but i took a ton of photos of costumes and such...will do studies from them some time.  A pity we missed the tournament of knights...

A kind of imposing looking fellow I saw above a video surveillance store.  Probably some bishop or something:

Between Munich and Augsburg

As my sister and her family and other friends live in Munich, we do much shuttling between the two cities.  My impressions looking out the train window...an interesting exercise:

Another view from the train (the three young people in front were so annoying); looking up towards the Theatinerkirche in Munich as we took cover from a sudden downpour at an outdoor cafe; some chocolate cake, and my niece's impression of her aunt and uncle (my wife and I);

Princess Kate!

And the contribution from the nephew (who has soccer on the brain): Allianz Arena, where FC Bayern Munich and TSV Munich 1860 play:

Cafe Puck in Munich, where we always seem to end up, and where I always wonder where my friend Julia (who created the logo) has gotten to..

Augsburg

In the living room, with the knitting obsessed wife:

My dear mother in law..I'm always a little hesitant to draw people i love and care for, for fear of offending with a bad likeness.  Except for my friends..they are not safe from me!  This wasn't too bad though i think:

A lovely coffee shop in Augsburg.  It seems to have been remodeled from an old theater perhaps:

Ah...the Damenhof was an oasis of cool in the blistering heat!  I think I might have accidentally left a stray pen mark on their impeccable white linens, though...oops!  It's water soluble ink though!

Amsterdam pt 3

Our last day in Amsterdam was spent just roaming the streets, mostly in the Jordaan.  Sigh!  Really nothing better!  It was, however,  a little odd to see so many trash bags left strewn about the otherwise clean streets there that day.  We assumed they were waiting for a particular trash pick up time?

Damn good apple cake! Mmmmm....

Amsterdam pt 2

Between fighting jet lag and dealing with extremely variable weather in Amsterdam, we did a lot of dodging into cafes.  Here's one in the Spui area:

...and the view from one we visited shortly before hitting the Rembrandthuis (also extremely cool!).  Pictured is the Rembrandthuis itself.

Haarlem

Before our trip, we'd been watching a DVD lecture on Dutch art and were inspired to visit the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, which is about 30 minutes west of Amsterdam.  Really glad we did.  Haarlem was just charming, and Hals' work is just jaw dropping. Highly, highly recommended!

From our vantage points from a couple different cafes on the same square (Grote Markt):

An amusing anecdote: we were walking outside another church near this main square when we heard muffled but clearly tortured screams..Mind you, this was Sunday just after mass...turns out it was this video installation in a nearby museum.  Extremely cool!  Nothing like a little Sunday afternoon black metal!

We decided to make our way back to the train station to head back to A'dam when lo and behold, we spotted an honest to goodness turning windmill in the distance!  Had to take a look.  And of course, once there i had to do a quick sketch:

Really pretty inaccurate and bad, but i was falling asleep and not making good decisions.  That's my excuse anyways.

Amsterdam pt 1

Just returned from 3 weeks in Europe - about a week in and around Amsterdam and the remaining time around Munich with family.  Unlike previous trips, I managed to get in a good deal of sketching this time somehow.  My first sketch of my pristine new sketchbook:

It was more ambitious than I had planned, considering jetlag and all.  Really doesn't look a whole lot like the Westerkerk what with all the stray marks (wasn't at my best).  Plus a van pulled up in the middle of my scene, messing up the lighting i'd been trying to get. But overall the image turned out better than i expected.  

From our second day at De Doffer:

Really rich food!