A memorial, a temple and a blipmeet

Down the plain from the Reijksmuseum and just opposite the Stiedelijk is a stunning, yet chilling, memorial to all those who died in Ravensbruck concentration camp. This is a detail of one of the panels on it, and further photos of this striking structure can be seen here..

I had arranged to meet up with two other Blippers who are based in the Netherlands. Willemien (Hello again) who lives in the Hague and Kelly (Random bits and pieces) who is from the US but has been living in Amsterdam for many years now. We had agreed to meet at 1pm in the cafe of the Stiedlijk museum and Roland was a bit puzzled as to how we would recognise each other. Rol and I were the first to arrive so when we sat down I quickly whipped out my camera, plonked it on the table and started beaming at all the women who came into the cafe. Particularly those with cameras!

Before long one of the women who had returned my smile came over and said 'It's you!' This was Willemien, looking wonderful in purple and very soon Kelly joined us. We chatted about this, that, the other - why we take photos, how we came to Blip and the great connections that are made via this wonderful community - and our time together flew by.

Kelly left for another engagement, Roland and I had planned to visit the Van Gogh museum and Willemien went off to the Vondelpark. Our plans were changed though once we saw the massive queues so we decided to take a canal cruise and then have a wander around Chinatown.

Supper was taken at the Pancake Bakery - another of our favourite haunts - just along from the Anne Frank House.