The opera house, lit up at night.
This past weekend, I took an adventure to go watch Jumping Amsterdam at the Rai Arena in the centre of Amsterdam. I have to say it is one of the nicest indoor venues, with a good sized warm-up arena, which we all know is usually one of the difficulties at indoor shows. It had great vendors, and I really enjoyed watching the Grand Prix. The best part was that at the end they had a mini sushi restaurant set up. You could sit at the bar and have this little conveyer belt come around with everything imaginable. I was in heaven.
I was staying with Joanne, another Grand Prix rider who rides for Georgia and is currently training with Sjef. Later in the evening, Joanne and I went to the opera. I had only been to one opera with my dad a few years ago, to Madam Butterfly, which is a classic. This time we went and saw something a bit more modern. It was called the Knighting Gale and the Three Fables. The first part was in Russian and the second in Chinese. The singing was fantastic and the scenes were very well-played. They had acrobat demonstrations and in the last half they had scenes with water. They had designed the stage so that half was “normal” and the other half was water – really incredible how they managed to combine it. They did some scenes with people swimming. I really enjoyed the show.
After the opera, we went out for dinner to an Argentinean restaurant. I don’t go to Amsterdam very often, which is silly because I had forgotten how much fun the city is and it’s only an hour away so I must make for of an effort to go and explore there. I want to check out more tourist things. The ballet opens in February, and I’ve never been. Joanne also likes ballet, so hopefully we can still reserve tickets and check it out!
In the morning, I went for a swim with Joanne’s eight-year-old daughter and then headed back home for my kids.
Vitall is off right now. He got bitten on his nose by his neighbour across the way. I guess they had been playing, but the bite is right by where the nose band goes. I got some special cream from the vet, so hopefully it clears up quickly so we can get back to work.
