Summer in Amsterdam, and poetic Franui performing at the Holland Festival

Bad weather, far too cold and too wet for even an Dutch summer, see my photos of an afternoon spent in Amsterdam.

Amsterdamis built alongside a big stretch of water, the 'IJ' (sorry, not translatable). 

Nowadays the Central Station separates the centre of the city from this water. In the heydays of Amsterdam the quays and industrial harbours were built along the 'IJ'.
Now with most of the industries gone they're redeveloping that forgotten part of the city and some very interesting things are happening here. 

The Docklands, separated by a small canal from the city centre, now host among others the cities main Library, the music academy, the cruise terminal and some really good restaurants, plus very desirable (= very expensive) apartments in the renovated (or rebuilt) warehouses. 

The Java Island, formerly Docklands breakwater, is a feast of special and sometimes quirky housing, all built under architecture. A small stretch of land, cut through by canals, with houses looking out on the water and green, leafy, communal gardens in the middle. Lovely to walk this Saturday - even with  (strong) winds and drizzle every now and then.

In the evening we went to a concert (part of the Holland Festival) of a group called 'Franui'. This group comes from a tiny village in the south of Austria: Innervillgraten, set in the mountains that divide Austria from Italy (Alto Adige or South Tirol). 

And what they did was play the traditional roots of Mahler's music like it was played in his time.

Now we have spent a lot of time in all parts of Austria (and Central Europe, for that matter) and we are reasonably well acquainted with the traditional music of that area. 

It's an intriguing combination of rather heavy footed brassband - like the so-called Ländler, or country dances - plus marches and other uptempo music (think the Strauss family), Kletzmer, the Jewish music and the music of the gypsies (that also has a lot of Kletzmer in it). 

The music has an uplifting jazzyness in it that brings a smile to your face. 

And here we had a group of seriously talented musicians, who rewrote Mahler's songs to this energizing music. They were terrific. I sat beaming for an hour and a half, and no, that was not because of the wine we had consumed earlier ;) 

A great evening in rather cold and windy Amsterdam. Oh well. For us: Dutch summer. For you: something else than the sunlit stuff in the tourist guides.
Enjoy the photos and I hope you all count yourselves lucky!