Fahrt an den Bodensee - Annettes Gladiolen

After our Trip to Lindau we went further to another town by the lake. At Annettes place there is a wonderful view to Bodensee. But other than expected we did not draw the view. Three of us drew Annettes Gladiolas in a vase (see below) with strong popping colours. The two upper drawings are mine.

Nach unserem Aufenthalt in Lindau gings weiter in eine andere Stadt am Bodensee. Bei Annette hatte man einen wunderbaren Seeblick und dort malten drei von uns am Abend noch Annettes Gladiolen in der Vase mit kräftigen Farben (siehe unten). Die beiden oberen Skizzen sind meine.

Fahrt an den Bodensee - Kurz vor Bregenz, Austria

Zur Entspannung ist jetzt Radfahren, Baden und Malen angesagt. Wenn man von Lindau mit dem Fahrrad (Bodenseeradweg) über die grüne Grenze fährt wird die Landschaft irgendwie weiter und es ist sehr entspannt. Man passiert einen kleinen Hafen (da liegt auch eine alte Fähre mit einem Café...guter Ort für einen Halt) und es gibt verschiedene Badestellen. Von einer dieser Badestellen aus habe ich die obere Aquarellskizze gemalt. Die Berge sieht man im Hintergrund und davor liegt Bregenz.

Fahrt an den Bodensee - Lindau

Sitting in Lindau directly by the harbour, the sun shining and not too many people around so my view was not blocked. As I sat there and painted my watercolour, about 7 or 8 different people (tourists) sat down beside me one after another and told me the stories of their lifes. 

One lady wanted to buy my painting (not yet finished) and a little girl wanted to get her drawing stuff and draw with me... how funny. 

As I had finished my pencil drawing and began watercolouring a guy came up and said that it was really easy to do what I do, if you have a ready made black and white copy. He thought that I have bought the black and white paper with the line drawing and just coloured it...this is even more funny... 

You see it is fun to draw in public.

Mein neuer Malplatz war in Lindau am Hafen, die Sonne schien und es  waren nicht so viele Menschen unterwegs, die meinen Blick auf den Löwen und den Turm blockieren konnten. Als ich dort so auf einer Bank saß kamen ca. 7 bis 8 verschiedene Leute (Touristen) nach und nach und setzten sich zu mir auf die Bank. Wie so oft hörte ich einige Lebens-Geschichten.

Eine Dame wollte mein Bild kaufen (es war noch nicht fertig) und ein kleines Mädchen bat ihren Papa ihr Malzeug zu holen, denn sie wollte mit mir malen...lustig...

Als ich meine Bleistiftzeichnung fertig hatte kam ein Mann und sagte, dass das wohl extrem einfach wäre diese gekaufte schwarz-weiss-Kopie mit Aquarellfarbe zu versehen. Er dachte tatsächlich ich hätte mir die Linien-Zeichnung gekauft und würde sie nur colorieren...das ist wirklich zu komisch...

Beim Plein-Air malen erlebt man so einiges.

Fahrt an den Bodensee - Test Skizzenbuch + lila Tuschestift

A lovely long weekend to test one of the sketchbooks of the Amsterdam Symposium goodie bag. This is the small A6 Croc Book with a red cardboard cover back and very thin paper (should be around 90 g/m2 and it says ivory on the cover). As an addition to the new things I used a violet waterresistant Derwent ink pen before watercolouring.

First thing is that I could sketch in the car as I was not the driver and as there was an accident with full stop on both sides of the autobahn (see on my upper drawing there is no car coming on the other side...)
We arrived late at Bodensee (lac de constance). The next morning we discovered a very nice confiserie serving a beautiful breakfast. This is where I did the fast fountain sketch.

My Conclusion: The sketchbook is very handy, but for my kind of drawing the paper ist way too thin (I work with lots of water). The violet ink pen convinced me and is very nice to draw with. The tip is very smooth on the paper and I like it.

Ein schönes langes Wochenende lag vor uns und ich packte ein Skizzenbuch aus der Goodie Bag ein. Es handelte sich um ein Ivory Croc Book mit rotem Pappcover und soweit ich weiss hat es so ca. 90 g/m2 dünne Blätter. Vorteil: Es ist leicht und gut in der Handtasche mitzunehmen. Nachteil: Die Aquarellfarben kommen ziemlich platt auf dem Papier raus, aber glücklicherweise wellte es sich nur wenig. Ausserdem wollte ich den lila Tuschestift ausprobieren, den ich auch in der Geschenktüte aus Amsterdam hatte. 

Die ersten beiden Skizzen sind vom Auto aus gezeichnet, denn ich war der Beifahrer und hatte Zeit, weil wir im Stau standen. Es war eine Vollsperrung, daher kommen auf der Gegenfahrbahn keine Autos. Wir kamen sehr spät am Bodensee an. Ein schönes Abendessen und das üppige Frühstück entschädigten dafür. Von meinem Platz aus konnte ich während des Frühstücks noch schnell eine Skizze des leise plätschernden Brunnens machen. 

Mein Fazit: Das Skizzenbuch ist sehr handlich und durch die Grösse gut überall unterzubringen. Das Papier ist für meine Malweise jedoch zu dünn und die Aquarellfarben kommen einfach nicht brillant genug heraus. Der Tuschestift hat mich überzeugt. Er gleitet exzellent auf dem Papier und ich finde ihn gut.

Villa am Stadtpark

What a day for a day dream: Sitting in the shadow in the garden of this beautiful villa in Schwabach. Actually I sit in my studio with a foto in my hand and it is late evening. 

I check out my colours and materials with this small watercolour sketch for I will leave within shortly to the Urban Sketchers Germany Meeting. 

This time I will have no luggage limitation. Unlimited Sketching Materials...how great and this is so different from my other travels.

Was für ein schöner Tagtraum: Im Schatten dieser schönen Villa zu sitzen und zu malen. Tatsächlich ist es bereits später Abend und ich sitze in meinem Studio und male die Villa anhand meiner ausgesuchten Vorlage, denn ich möchte noch ein paar Farben testen und mein Material für das grosse Deutschlandtreffen der Urban Sketchers zusammenstellen.

Bei dieser Reise habe ich kein Gepäck-Limit. So ein Luxus...das ist so ganz anders, wie bei meinen anderen Reisen. 

watercolour portrait sketch - Blonde

Painting faces in watercolour is a favourite of mine. Yesterday evening I tried this one. It is always like a game as if you make a mistake watercolour does not easily forgive. It looks a lot like Blonde and thus I am happy with it.

Gesichter malen finde ich eine der interessantesten Disziplinen im Aquarellmalen. Gestern Abend habe ich dieses Gesicht ausprobiert. Das ist jedesmal wie ein Spiel, denn wenn man beim Aquarellmalen einen Fehler macht, ist es nur schwer zu korrigieren. Tatsächlich sieht das Bild aber unserer Blonde sehr ähnlich und ich bin zufrieden damit.

Marktbreit - finally finished

Yesterday evening I finally finished my unfinished  Marktbreit view (the tower  to the right was still without any colour. The painting was done en plein air in Marktbreit in May this year). Now that it is finished I feel good as I like this one. At the time I painted it on a very cloudy morning it began to rain and I had to stop.

This watercolour will be framed as it reminds me of good times during the painters week-end in Marktbreit.

Gestern Abend habe ich endlich meine bisher unvollendete Stadtansicht von Marktbreit fertig gemalt. Der Turm rechts war bis dahin noch blankes Weiss. Das Bild hatte ich an einem sehr bewölkten Morgen plein-air in Marktbreit begonnen, musste aber wegen dem Regen aufhören zu malen. 

Jetzt werde ich das Bild rahmen, denn es erinnert mich an eine schöne Zeit während dem Mal-Wochenende in Marktbreit. 

Urban Sketching Workshop - Wir malen Crailsheim - Rund um die Johanneskirche

Another Urban Sketching Treasure hunt in the City of Crailsheim. This time the area we sketched was around Johanneskirche.

Wieder eine Urban Sketching Schatzsuche in der Stadt Crailsheim. Dieses Mal waren wir in der Gegend um die Johanneskirche beim Malen.

Urban Sketching Workshop - Wir malen Crailsheim - Weg durch die Stadt

This is another little Treasure Hunt example I did on a walk through Crailsheim for my Urban Sketching Workshop: WIR MALEN CRAILSHEIM. I sketched whatever came into my way. 

Hier weitere schöne Ecken, die ich bei einem Sketchwalk durch Crailsheim für meinen Urban Sketching Workshop: WIR MALEN CRAILSHEIM eingefangen habe. Ich habe so einiges, was auf meinem Weg lag gemalt.

Die Scheune des Schäfers

Another Sunday leisure watercolour. I enjoy the quietness of the area of this barn in Frankenhardt.

In der Nähe der Schäferei in Frankenhardt steht diese Scheune. Die Umgebung wollte ich immer schonmal im Aquarell festhalten, also machte ich mich auf, um mein Sonntagsbild hier zu malen.

Topinambour

Let's cherish the beautiful garden view. This is what I thought as I painted the Anemone and the yellow Topinambour. The plants are like a jungle at my place and I wanted to show a part of this to you. In one weeks time I will be away at the Urban Sketchers Germany Annual Meeting and will do some workshops and write about it later. I am so looking forward to seeing my friends again and to be able to draw and paint from dusk till dawn.

Jetzt nochmal den Garten genießen, dachte ich mir beim Malen dieser Anemone und dem gelben Topinambour. Meine Pflanzen wachsen dieses Jahr so üppig und das muss im Bild festgehalten werden. In einer Woche bin ich dann wieder auf Kurzreise zum Malen. Das Deutschlandtreffen der Urban Sketchers steht an und ich werde Workshops machen und darüber berichten. Ich freue mich schon riesig meine Freunde wiederzusehen und von morgens bis abends zu malen.

Sunday Watercolour at Betzenmühle

What a beautiful weather. I packed my bike and went out to Betzenmühle. First I wanted to draw the Fachwerk-House, but the local dog did not allow me to stay, so I drove further around and went to the backside of the buildings. Here was the right calm spot in the shade. I first did a Sketch in order to get a feeling for the place and my composition and then started with the upper watercolour. 

 Such a calm and relaxing place. I have to go back there again to do some more watercolours...

 















Es war Sonntag und herrliches Wetter. Andere würden ins Freibad gehen, aber ich packte meine Malsachen auf mein Fahrrad und fuhr los Richtung Betzenmühle. 

Eigentlich wollte ich das Fachwerkhaus malen, aber der Wachhund mochte meine Anwesenheit auf dem Grundstück nicht, also bin ich noch ein wenig drumherum gefahren und habe auf der Rückseite der Häuser einen schönen ruhigen Schattenplatz gefunden. 








Zuerst habe ich eine schnelle Skizze gemacht, um ein Gefühl für den Platz und meine Komposition zu bekommen. Danach erst habe ich das obere Aquarell angefangen.

Urban Sketching Workshop: Wir malen Crailsheim

We had a very fun time sketching in Crailsheim. The weather was not a sketchers dream as it was raining the whole day, but we decided to stay at the museum and found lots of things to draw. My thanks go to Mrs. Lindner of Stadtmuseum Crailsheim for her support. 

Our main goal was to go on treasure hunt, and we drew our motifs with pencil first on watercolour paper. Later we wanted to emphasize a few important lines with the help of an ink pen. I did a short watercolour demo on technique to teach them some important technical skills and explained colour mixing. 

As the works were finished we joined some calligraphic work onto our watercolour sheets to describe the things we saw and sketched.

My students did very well and I thank them for the fun learning, sketching and creative day experience we had together.

Wir hatten eine schöne Zeit beim Workshop "Wir malen Crailsheim". Es war leider sehr regnerisch, weshalb wir dann einfach im Museum auf "Schatzsuche" gingen. Es gab unendlich viele mögliche Motive und man könnte mehrere Tage dort mit Zeichnen verbringen - sehr interessante Objekte. Herzlichen Dank an Frau Lindner vom Stadtmuseum in Crailsheim für ihre Unterstützung. 

Ein extra Dankeschön an meine Freundin Annette, die uns mit Ihrem Fachwissen als Malerin so wunderbar unterstützt hat.

Wir malten die Motive zuerst mit Bleistift auf Aquarellpapier vor und betonten später einige Linien mit Tuschestiften. Dann machte ich eine Demonstration einiger Aquarelltechniken und erklärte die Möglichkeiten der Farbmischung, damit wir zum Aquarellieren das nötige Handwerkszeug parat hatten. Später fügten wir noch einige schöne Schriften zu unseren Skizzen hinzu, um unsere Objekte, oder Jahreszahlen und den Ort zu beschreiben.

Das Niveau war bei diesem Kurs sehr hoch und die Ergebnisse konnten sich sehen lassen. Die Bilder haben meine Erwartungen übertroffen. Herzlichen Dank an meine fleissigen, begabten Malschüler für den sehr kreativen Tag.

Back to normal life

The watercolour you see shows a small part of my garden. I am happy that I can enjoy my garden again as...

I am back from my 5 day trip to Amsterdam. Seems like very much longer. I am full and need some time to understand what I learned. It was good to try new styles of watercolour painting during the last few days in Amsterdam, but in my todays garden watercolour I am back to the colourful style I usually do to relax. 

Normal life has me back and that is everything else but easy after a few days within the extremely creative crowd and like-minded artists at the Urban Sketchers Symposium Amsterdam 2019.

My head is full of memories and new ideas and I am full in a good way, but tired at the same time. We did not get enough sleep - nearly none and wanted to enjoy every minute of togetherness. 

It was wonderful to meet artists from Asia, Australia, Belgium, Holland, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, the US, England, Slovenia, Switzerland, Egypt, Lebanon, Austria, France, Portugal and and and....Bringing all these people together is a extremely good thing. People you would normally just know from the Internet become friends. 

We drew and painted and had art talks with no interruptions but a bit of sleep and eat. The hardest part was to say goodbye to friends after the end-ceremony.

Next year the Symposium will be held in:  HONGKONG

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Way home

The above butterfly stands for the quiet and the beautifully coloured natural place I live in and is kind of a synonym for the flight back I did that very day. You see I am happy to go back home from the big city of Amsterdam to my more quiet small town place at home. Good to see the world, but good to be back as well.

On a sleepy early morning I leave my hotel at 4 in the morning and board a KLM flight back home from Amsterdam to Germany. It feels like I miss my artist friends already and I am kind of torn apart from one world to the other.

In the same time I am happy about what awaits me at home as well and to see my dearest again.

New adventures are already in my head and my next travels are in a planning stage so after the trip is before another!

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Closing Reception

Closing Reception at Muziekgebouw on Saturday

After the final photo with crowds of Urban Sketchers and one with the German Gang (see photo) we made a very long walk to find the end location. We entered the Closing Reception hosted at the Muziekgebouw, surrounded by a fantastic sunset view of Amsterdam. 

The Symposium Closing Reception celebrated the end of one Symposium and welcomed the next, with the announcement of USk Symposium 2020's host city.

Also included in the evening's program was the Silent Auction, where everyone could bid for a chance to bring an original piece of artwork home, and the Raffles Draw, where anyone could try their luck to bring home fabulous art materials, generously sponsored by event partners. For those with small luggage it was difficult to take more stuff home...

Of course, not forgetting, a wonderful evening of camaraderie amongst the Urban Sketchers family and their friends. Me and my close friends with workshop passes did not stay very long. We just wanted to say good bye to our sketching friends, take a few last photos together and have some final talks. 

We preferred to see our close friends (without a pass) before we all had to fly back to our home countries.

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - watercolour portrait sketch - P.

During the Symposium I did two pencil drawings of my friend P. (one frontal and one from the side) but never had the time to throw colour onto them. Now that I did it, I have to confess that it does not look very much alike. The positive thing is - like that I have to try and retry again which is very much fun to me...

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Workshop LK Bing

Thank you LK for the great workshop. We went to our location with the help of our nice dutch volunteer Yvette. LK told us about his colours and his mixing methods and gave us tips on tools and materials.

After a short demo he first made us do a thumbnail sketch of the area in front of us with the church, the buildings, the tram and the people. He offered us some watersoluble ink pens for that one. The ink and the watercolours gave a lot of texture to the paper and created a wonderful pattern.
Above you can see my own thumbnail sketch made with watersoluble ink pen and I used only prussian blue to darken and connect. The ink pen made a lot of violet patterns when touched by watercolour.

Then he made a demo on larger watercolour paper and after that it was our turn. He toned the paper beforehand with colour in order to get closer to some classical mood. 

We had about 40 min. for the larger watercolour - here to the left is mine - and hurried to get it done.

Difficult conditions for this one as while we were drawing a guy from Amsterdam Street cleaning surrounded us several times with his kind of very loud vacuum cleaner. He was very curious about what we did. I feared that he could suck in our colour tubes from the ground...but they somehow survived... 

After one-to-one talks and tips from the master about our finished pieces and the group photo, we went back to the venue at Zuiderkerk to meet our friends. What a great workshop and beautifully done printed handout, explaining his technique. 

My thanks go to LK, a true master of watercolours.

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Reflections on the Ground

I was very much interested in the reflections on the ground and the lighting situation of the building with that watercolour.

Bei diesem Aquarell interessierten mich die Reflektionen auf dem Boden und die Beleuchtung des Gebäudes.

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - The Colours of Amsterdam

The colours of Amsterdam in my opinion are very dark compared to the more southern countries.

I would say a lot of grey, brown, brick red and black in the houses...lots of green plants in the streets and greyish and dark dulled brick-red colours on the ground.

Translated into watercolours I would see the following colours:

- brick red / 
  rosé /potters pink
- burnt umber 
- ultramarine
- indigo
- cerulean
- naples yellow 
  or a light grey
- dark grey 
  or neutral tint
- different greens 
  for the plants

 


This is a completely different colour range compared to at home...

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Workshop Demo Reham M. Ali

Demo of Reham Ali

Her workshop is called:
Fearless Watercolours 


And that says it all. She is a professor for arts and a great teacher. Her joy is contagious and her drawing and painting skills outstanding. She shared her passion with us and this was one of the best teaching moments of the Symposium to me.
 
To the left you can see her sketch and below her watercolour painting of the Zuiderkerk entrance.
 
Thank you Reham for sharing this experience.

USk Symposium Amsterdam - Sketchwalk - Amsterdam Boats

In the end of Sketchwalk 5 we came to some kind of park and could see the boats to the other side of the quay. I just had time to do the following sketch into my large moleskine:

The colours came later as my companions wanted to go further...

You see what a difference the colour does to a simple drawing. This always amazes me.

USk Symposium Amsterdam - Workshop Jane Blundell

Workshop Jane Blundell: Setting the Tone, Creating the Texture

Jane explained her colours to us and gave us the missing colours we did not have in our own palette out of her tubes. We first did some simple squares filled with the colours of her watercolour palette. She described them to us, informed us how to create texture and patterns and then let us draw the house opposite which might be one of the oldest warehouses in Amsterdam. The house was a good motif, but the small space we had and the busy spot with a parking car blocking the view of most of the sketchers seemed a bit strange.

In the beginning we used the plain colours one after another. In the very end she informed us more about the interesting stuff of colour mixing - and "schwupps" the workshop was over.... This part could have taken a bit more in the time schedule as I am quite interested in that...time was so tight...

I was satisfied with my drawing of plain colours - not too much mixing required at that stage (...done in quite a different style than I am usually painting - but that is great for learning new approaches to the medium). We all thank Jane Blundell for her teaching, her help and for sharing our group foto of that day.

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Drawing no. 4 of 5

You might already know this sight, but this is my drawing number 4 of 5 (Workshop drawing). During the workshop I did not watercolour it. Later I did. This one is done a bit differently as I used a cretacolor pencil in the black parts of the initial drawing before watercolouring. If you look at it closer you can see the super spreading / washed-out and granulating effects mainly in the light blue parts which are only possible in watercolour technique (btw...it was a Sennelier light blue).

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Sketching with friends

We made our way through the streets of Amsterdam. We found the right spot in front of another beautiful bridge  and a few boats on the canal and sat down on kind of a trottoir and enjoyed the morning sun.

I forgot to take a photo of the area and we were already walking to the other side of the bridge as my friend reminded me to take an on-the-spot-photo...

(on this photo there is not yet a real big sign of the bridge as I did not have enough time to finish...back at the hotel I drew the rest of the bridge mainly with the blue cretacolor watercolour pencil I got out of the gift-box.)



I will talk about my next workshop in Amsterdam shortly so stay tuned...

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Amsterdam Sketchwalks

We decided to do sketchwalk 5, which was close to the greenhouse of Amsterdam (to the right of my watercolour sketch) in the area of the Botanical Garden. Our Belgian friend Deb joined us and we had a good time fighting against ants and flies in the heat of the afternoon. In my painting the most interesting part for me were the red and white barriers upon the bridge in front. The strange glasshouse building of the botanical garden is only indicated by lightly coloured areas to the right of my painting. After a short hour we stopped as it was extremely hot. We needed a drink...

If you are interested in the locations of the different sketchwalks you can get the details on www.urbansketchers.org

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Workshop Uma Kelkar

Workshop Uma Kelkar

Rhythm is A Dancer: Learning to employ repeating motifs to bring in various moods in your sketches. 

 

She already welcomed us with music and the whole teaching was like music to me.  What a clever workshop and clear teaching method of Uma Kelkar. I loved the energy, the power and her clever advices and enjoyed every minute. 

My drawings here are not in the right order, but I put my most liked up as no. 1 (which was my kind of limited colour edition)


 




















Her advice of "speaking your drawing" first  before doing anything else was executed by us in another different drawing. The drawing she is holding in her hands is mine. She did explain everybodys paintings in a detailed manner and gave us tips and good advice. Before we began our paintings she gave us two words each (I arranged to the left of my sketchbook the words I became) and according to these I had to try my direct watercolour painting (see sketchbook in Umas hands).

I was quite happy as I was feeling more comfortable than I first expected I would (...you know it is a bit like exam situation...). In my opinion it was a successful day to everybody in the workshop as WE LEARNED A LOT (...and this is what we came for!). Thank you so much Uma.

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - The Goodie Bag

The Symposium is not only drawing and learning it is also a lot about the materials we use. Art material talks everywhere. People compare and have a look on the new stuff their companions are using or the "candys" the art material manufacturers bring to the Symposium. 

Thank you Sponsors - what would be a Symposium without a Goodie Bag to try new materials and have those precious art material talks, the exchange of ideas and the possibility to buy art materials directly on site.

We test the material made by the manufacturers and as bloggers spread the word of what we think about it. This in my opinion is a good thing for everybody (for us is the fun trial part and for the manufacturers to spread their ideas and to get some feedback).

For example I tested all different kind of watercolours we got last year and made some blogposts about them. I will do the same thing and try all the colours inside the bag, but it will take some time to get everything set. 

Also I fell in love with a new to me sketchbook last year and ordered quite a number later for some of my drawing friends and me...you see the word is spread...;o)

Although I work much more with watercolour, this time again I was expecially happy about the nice box of Cretacolors I spotted first while unpacking. There has been a different one in last years' bag and I finished them very fast and had to order some more later. 

The Carandache material is totally new to me and I will try the pencils soon, as I had a good talk with Adrian from Carandache.  Lots of new creative adventures await me, I gotta go ...

USk Symposium Amsterdam 2019 - Helio Botos Folding Sketchbooks

It is hot these days in Amsterdam and we urgently needed something to drink. There is this new stuff: Cold Coffee with ice cubes - which tastes better than expected and refreshs the body. While drinking,  I did a sketch of famous Helio Boto who btw brought me two of his extremely precious hand made special folding sketchbooks. He made them by himself expressly for me with Arches paper for suiting my kind of drawings. So beautiful! 

I don't know if he already got a name for this kind of difficult folding structure.

He used a very nice fabric for the outside and an indication on every page with arrows for the drawing direction as you can close the book at normal sketchbook opening size if you sit and draw somewhere - so you won't need more space than a normal sketcher does with a usual sketchbook. This is pure luxury. You just need to know in which direction to draw to later get the complete picture view. 

Such a clever idea and complicated thing to prepare. I think I will have to carefully think over to maybe draw just the sites of one city or a main theme onto them in order to have a complete picture of a certain place. 

These Sketchbooks are extremely precious to me so I will still need my time to think about what to draw onto them. 

Many thanks to you my friend Helio and his wife for your precious gifts. 

My dear readers, please have a look at his site (link) and you will recognize his paper folding style and his great drawings (he usually uses different paper than me).

...more of Amsterdam tomorrow...