London and Amsterdam - February 2023

I was back in the UK in February and I learned about an exhibition of Vermeer paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and that sounded like something not to miss.  The tickets were in high demand but I was lucky enough to get one online.  The tickets were selling very quickly, and there was only one time slot available during the time I was in Europe.  I decided to travel to Amsterdam from London on the train, the Eurostar.  Not the cheapest way but very convenient and I do like trains.

I bought my train ticket through a third party, Omio, and didn’t pay attention to the small print.  The time of the train was 11:04 am and the email said please arrive at least 20 minutes before departure.  I arrived at St Pancras some 45 minutes early but since I didn’t see a need to rush I spent time looking around St. Pancras, a station I used a lot in my student days and which has now been transformed into a very modern and stylish train station.

St Pancras Station

When I went to get on the train I was told I was too late, entry to the train was closed.  That was a bit of a shock to say the least.  When I protested I was told to read the fine print on the PDF version of the ticket - there it said you need to be check in an hour before departure to clear security and customs.  Fortunatey there was a later train to Amsterdam at 6:00 in the evening.

No problem, there are plenty of things to do around St Pancras as I found out by a quick search on Atlas Obscura.  

My first stop was the British Library.  The library building post dates my time in London and is quite new (sometime in the 2000’s).  It is a beautiful modern building with an exhibits area open to the public and reading rooms that require membership. 

Gutenberg Bible

Shakespeare Folio Edition

I visited the exhibits which were a collection of some of their remarkable books, maps, and documents.  There was a map of Gertrude Bell’s route through Iraq, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, a Tyndale Bible, a couple of copies of the Magna Carta (one looking seriously damaged and worn), a Folio edition of Shakespeare’s works, copies of Mozart’s musical scores, scribbled notes of Beatles’ songs, a handwritten script of Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch, to name but a few.  What an amazing collection of historical texts they have there.

The Enigma Machine

Upstairs in the Alan Turing Institute, where they do research into Data Science and AI, is an Enigma Machine, the encoding machine that Turing cracked the code of in WWII.

The Francis Crick Institute

Just a few 100 yards north of the library is the Francis Crick institute.  Another wonderful modern building where they do bio-medical research.  An exhibit there was due to open the next day, but when I was there it was closed to the public.

Old St Pancras Church

Moving further north along the side of St Pancras’ rail tracks is the St Pancras Old Church and its park.  A lovely little church, apparently on one of the first Christian worship sites in Britain.  Inside the church, which surprisingly was open were a couple of old ladies who insisted that I take their photo.

Hardy's Gravestones and the fallen tree

Outside in the church yard are some interesting features.  One is a large number of gravestones arranged around what was once a tree.  The tree has fallen down now and lies across the gravestones.  The gravestones come from an old cemetery that was moved to make way for the expansion of St Pancras rail traffic.  A young Thomas Hardy, before he started writing for a living, was working for the company that managed the relocation.  He apparently decided to lay the gravestones around a tree in the church yard.  The bodies went elsewhere. Sadly recently the tree has fallen down.

Sir John Soane's Tomb

There a couple of interesting graves in the churchyard.  One is that of Sir John Soane.  It has a monument that is quite impressive and was apparently the inspiration for the British Phone Box.  You can see the curved top of the tomb that resembles the top of a phone box.  The other grave is that of Mary Wollstonecraft.  She was the writer and early feminist who was the mother of Mary Shelley, the Dracula author.  Poor old Mary died a few days after giving birth to Mary.  Mary and her to be husband Percy Bysse Shelley apparently made plans to elope together while visiting the graveyard.

Mornington Crescent Tube Station

The old Carreras Cigarette Factory

Moving further north there is the wonderful old tiled facade of the Mornington Crescent tube station.  Beyond that is the impressive art deco building of the old Carreras Cigarette Factory (Craven A’s were one of their brands).  The building is in the Egyptian Revival Style, popular at the time, being built just after Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb when all things Egyptian were fashionable.  It is now an office building and the black cats at the entry are not the original ones.  Still it is an impressive building.

Joseph Grimaldi's Grave

Heading back towards St Pancras station and then out the Pentonville Road there is a small graveyard.  There are very few gravestones there but one is quite well preserved and that is the grave of Joseph Grimaldi.  Joseph was a child actor and performer who developed the character of Joey the Clown in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.  He is considered the father of modern clowning.  The park containing his grave has been named Grimaldi Park.

Platform 9 3/4

One last thing before boarding my train was to visit Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station.  This is from the Harry Potter stories and of course it is wildly popular.  There was a large queue of people lined up to get photographed beneath the platform sign and the luggage trolley disappearing into the wall.  I didn’t appreciate the disappearing trolley link but apparently many do and they weren’t all young children lining up for photos.  But no I didn’t.

Busker outside Kings Cross Station

In order to keep up with the times and to recognize the lack of real cash in anyone's pocket these days, the buskers are now accepting digital money. Tap your card for a 3 pound donation.

I then went to check in for my train to Amsterdam.  I don’t know what I was thinking earlier by only arriving 20 minutes before the train left.  If I had thought about it I would have realized a customs clearance and a security check for a train load people takes a lot longer than 20 minutes.  This time I was plenty early and I was comfortably in my seat well before departure.

Basilica of St Nicholas, Amsterdam

The train journey was quite pleasant.  It took about 4 hours with stops in Lille, Brussels, Rotterdam and finally Amsterdam.  It was 11:30 when I arrived in Amsterdam but, even at that late hour, there were plenty of people around. I had a short walk over to my hotel, the Die Port van Cleve.  It looked good on the internet but it was in the middle of a construction zone - the street outside is being replaced and the hotel’s interior is being renovated.  The sewer smell in the bathroom didn’t improve my impression but at least it was a roof over my head.

The Royal Palace, Dam Square, Amsterdam

The next morning I went out early for a walk around.  The hotel is not far from Dam Square and in normal times it would be quite nice however now with all the street construction going on it is a building site.  In Dam Square I found a more luxurious hotel and went inside for their buffet breakfast - always a good deal in a nice hotel.

The Rijksmuseum

Back at the hotel I checked out and left my bag to pick up later and made my way to the Rijksmuseum.  The Rijjksmuseum is a wonderful building by itself without any of its contents however this Vermeer exhibition promised to be quite special - 28 of the 37 known Vermeers all gathered in one location.  A never before and perhaps never again event.

View of Delft - Vermeer

I had a timed entry for 12:00 but they let me in early and I joined the meandering crowd following the blue line on the floor through the exhibition.  I have always liked Vermeer’s work and so I was quite excited.  The excitement wore off as I dealt with the crowd of people clustered around each painting.  The paintings are small and it doesn’t take many people to obliterate the view.  There always seemed to be some large person carefully inspecting the paintings for an excessive amount of time while everyone waited behind slowly shuffling forward to the front.  

The Milkmaid

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

Then of course everyone has a camera in their phone so we all had to take a picture.  I did it too.  Such is viewing a popular alert exhibition these days.

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Vermeer was a masterful painter and his subjects are so appealing to me - mainly women, mainly absorbed in doing something like reading or writing or playing an instrument, nothing dramatic. I need to follow up and learn something about his sense of perspective when I get home.

I took in a couple of other galleries at the museum, the Night Watch and the Waterloo painting, but by then I was pretty much done with looking at pictures.

See my next post for what happened next.