Monet’s “Blue House in Zaandam” and a sketch of a man with beard. Peter the Great’s House.

I guess I did not do enough walking yesterday, so we walked to downtown Zaandam. I photographed one of the houses Monet painted. It no longer looks the part, as you can see. There are about 35 Zaandam houses by Monet. There is a map you can use to see them all.

 I saw one of Monet’s houses today, and it does not look the part, as you can see.  The port is still there but there is a house in the way.

Peter the Great lived nearby for 8 months, studying ship building.  The house was saved from collapse and is inside a building.  It is so badly sagging that when you enter you lose your balance.  It’s like being in a fun house with many crazy angles.  He was there to learn military ship building but found that the lack of written plans here to be counter-productive to his purposes and so went to England where they used plans.  He later returned to visit the village.  His landlord refused to see him, as Peter had lived there 8 months without paying any rent.

While Peg was shopping I did a few sketches while having coffee along a canal.  These are miniatures, about  2″ x 4″ in pen and ink:



 Of course I have to do these sketches surreptitiously, and the people usually move a lot, so it is quite challenging.