Finally, today is the auction we’ve been waiting for, the auction premises appears to be an old church, but it works very well for holding auctions. It began at 9:30 this morning but the couple things that interested us the most were right near the end of the proposed schedule. So we made no attempt to be prompt, showing up an hour or so after the start. It was a good thing too because they were just over halfway through the lots leading up to where we were interested. So we had time to size up the crowd. There wasn’t any crowd, maybe 30 people. But there were also phone and internet bidders being covered by the staff. And to be fair, the interest was good and most of the price estimates were reached. A few went unsold and a few went for low bids, but to balance that out a few went for multiples of the estimated high range too. When we finally
reached the items that Deb had interest in, one went for about half again the high estimate when adding in the buyers premium. The other went for exactly the high estimate, so no chance to fleece the natives today. For the record she wasn’t bidding on a purse for 800 euros, crazy but not stupid. We did find out that it works just like Druout in Paris. You walk in and if you see something you like you can bid on it. If you win they collect on the spot, unless you’re a local who attends all the time and then they put it on your tab. There were a few people in there who were also looking to buy at the right price, they too left empty handed. Unfortunately
We left the auction just before they were finishing the morning session and walked back to the apartment. We decided that we had too many unfinished bits of food; pizza, cheese, sausage, olives, etc. in the refrigerator. So that became lunch, plus we had a bottle of champagne that was a welcome gift when we arrived. That had to be addressed as well, we definitely didn’t want to be carrying it with us to Amsterdam. After lunch Deb was champagned out and wanted to catch up on our domestic chores so she stayed in while I went out for an afternoon constitutional.
It was a very sunny day and very temperate so I decided to go by the building we last stayed in a couple years ago. If I plotted our various apartments
from our previous visits on a map we would be within a 10 block radius I’m certain. After seeing that apartment I turned left and walked up through a new neighborhood. Except it wasn’t really new, I had walked up this way before. So when I got to the street that fronts the main train station I turned the opposite direction from the station. I then walked uphill several blocks to a spot where there was a major traffic junction and checking my map turned to the right and down another hill. That put me just below the art museum we visited a couple days ago. Then I angled out to the seafront and walked back towards the apartment on the promenade. I did stop for a little break to look out to sea and watch the clouds on the horizon. It was late afternoon and they were luminous in the late light.
The view from the promenade, nice clouds.
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