Avant Garde Art and dinner in the water Tower

After breakfast, Graham and I take Frankie for his morning walk, while Lilliane takes a shower. It is still raining and a blustery wind is blowing in from the sea, less than ideal dog walking weather, so Frankie has to make do with fetching his ball, that Graham throws down the banking, repeatedly, for half an hour. The three of us are pretty wet by the time we get back, but hot tea, a shower and a change of clothes, soon repairs the damage. Today we are going to see the "Avant Garde" exhibition of the Triton Foundation's collection at the Kunsthalle and we manage to secure the last parking space available by the gallery, which sits opposite the Natural History Museum and directly accross the park from the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, where we saw the "Road to Van Eyck", yesterday. The rain has stopped for a while and we manage the short walk to the entrance without getting wet, it seems as if last weeks downpour in Beverley may have followed me across the North Sea. The exhibition includes a lot of major artists, most of whom either are, or were, ahead of their time. There are paintings by Degas, Monet, Toulouse Lautrec, Matisse, Manet, several Picassos, Jackson Pollock Andy Warhol, and Van Gogh, just to mention a few and also sculpting by Henry Moore and Ai Weiwei. We wander happily round the exhibition for an hour, and as it approaches lunchtime the gallery starts to become busy, so Graham and Lilliane retire to the cafe, whilst I continue for a little while longer. They both have annual memberships and can return several times to see the exhibition, while for me it is a once and only opportunity. I fall into synchronous viewing with a very tall man, at least six foot six, but with tiny, size six, feet. I, on the other hand, am only five foot nine, with size ten and a half shoes and my feet look even bigger, as I am wearing winter boots. The tall guy, being Dutch, speaks perfect English and is much amused when I comment that we must have picked up each other's feet when we were born. There are over sixty exhibits, and I walk round a final time to select my favourite pieces, before Joining the others in the cafe. These are Degas' "le petit dejeuner apres le bain", Odilon Redon's "Reverie" and Jean Paul Riopelle's "Ariane". Graham and Lilliane are eating lunch when I arrive, a couscous salad, but as there is Dutch Apple pie available, I choose that, accompanied by a large black Americano coffee. Outside the rain is hammering down again, but it stops long enough for us to walk across the park to the Boijmans Museum, to buy a calendar for Felicity. When we arrive I find my memory is playing tricks and the calendar I thought was of the exhibition, is of Dutch primitive artists, but doesn't include Van Eyck's "Annunciation", but does have other pictures of his. I opt instead, to buy a poster of the exhibition for her and then spend ten minutes in the library, to pursue connections between this image and the Christkind, but without luck. We retrace our steps and return home, via the supermarket, where I buy more rye bread and wine. Graham takes Frankie out before darkness falls and then we watch a DVD of Willem Breukner, purchased after the concert. It includes a collaboration with the Mondrian strings, and Yoyo Ma, but the clip that pleases me most, is of Willem and the Kollectief, playing outdoors in summer to children, who are encouraged to join in and have fun making music. We have to leave the disc half way through, as we are booked into the water tower restaurant for dinner at six. The restaurant is only a mile or so away, down the riverside, and is on the ground floor of what used to be a late 19th century, brick built, water tower, as it's name suggests. It is Graham and Lilliane's favourite restaurant, Mediterranean, with a large Portuguese influence and easy to see why, it is unpretentious, the staff friendly and attentive and the food absolutely first rate. Lilliane, starts with Tuna sashimi with Wasibi, Graham has scallops and I chose the mushroom tart with truffles and goat cheese salad. By now the restaurant has filled up and everyone seems like a regular, looking forward to eating and chatting over pre meal drinks, a pleasant, happy buzz of conversation, provides a nice ambience, and quite soon our main courses arrive, filet steak with Roquefort for Lilliane, a portuguese cod speciality for Graham and a filet of veal with cream, peppercorn sauce for me. Each plate is returned to the kitchen clean, before we settled down to dessert, a white chocolate tart with Macadamia nuts for Lilliane and a caramel baked apple for me, both served with fresh vanilla ice cream. Graham passes on dessert, but has a taste of ours. We finish the meal with coffee and liquors, and leave the restaurant shortly before nine. I may have eaten a more enjoyable meal, but I really can't remember when. As we drive home, the sky has cleared to the West and a large, gibbous, moon is shining low in the sky, a fitting end to another wonderful day. When we arrive indoors, Frankie is waiting for us, and it is agreed we will have just one nightcap and call it a day at ten. Graham retires at half past ten and Lilliane and I shortly after eleven. Outside it has started to rain again.