Every once in a while, an event takes place which is impossible to miss. One such was the Vermeer Exhibition held in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. ODs are a cultured bunch and when something as rare as the biggest ever collection of Vermeers is exhibited in one place, tickets are bought, bags are packed, accommodation secured and off we go. Tuesday 16th to Friday 19th May.

Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632 and died in the same city, having pretty much never left it, forty-three years later. Today he has only thirty-five paintings attributed to him and twenty-seven of these were on display in the Rijksmuseum when we visited on Thursday 18th May.

The exhibition which ran from the beginning of February to the beginning of June was sold out within days of being launched. We were lucky enough to purchase tickets.

OD trips like these serve several purposes; the first obviously, to satisfy the reason for the trip in the first place, in this case the exhibition. But it is also for ODs and their wives to spend time with each other and get to know those who did not share the same years at Bishops. It also provides an opportunity to cast our net slightly wider in terms of history of our target destination and so decided that not only would we visit the exibition in Amsterdam but also make a detour to Delft to get a better and close-up look at Vermeer's life and times. 

Interspersed in all this were some very "gezellige" meals and drinks, and being able to meet with young ODs — Campbell Frost (2011S), Murray Robertson (2011F), Will Makin ( 2020K) and Michael Foxcroft (2011W) — based in The Netherlands.

To see the pictures of the trip, click HERE