Southern California is home to the third-largest assemblage of Rembrandt paintings in the United States. "The Golden Age in the Golden State" is the fitting title of one of the current exhibitions that display Rembrandt van Rijn's work in California this month. A number of museums coordinated their shows in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Marino.

One of the highlights is "Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference" in The Getty Museum. This exhibition features drawings by 15 of Rembrandt's pupils in close comparison to drawings by the master himself. The show also features works of other Dutch painters taught by or inspired by Rembrandt such as Ferdinand Bol and Nicolaes Maes.

There are currently seven temporary exhibitions in Southern California:

• Through February 28: Drawings by Rembrandt and His Pupils: Telling the Difference (The Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA)
• Through February 28: Drawing List: The Dutch Visual Tradition (also in the The Getty Museum)
• Through March 7: From Rembrandt's Studio: The Prints of Ferdinand Bol (San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA)
• Through March 22: The Familiar Face: Portrait Prints by Rembrandt (The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA)
• Through March 22: Rembrandt Prints (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA)
• Through March 29: Exhibition: The Golden Age in the Golden State: Dutch and Flemish Prints and Drawings from the Huntington and Crocker Collections (Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)
• Through May 2: Rembrandt's Recession: Passion and Prints in the Dutch Golden Age (Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, CA)

There is also a virtual exhibition of Rembrandt's work in Southern California.

The Dutch town of Nijmegen is proud of two current art exhibitions in New York City with a strong connection to Holland's oldest city.

Since January 22 the exposition "Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves" has been on display the Morgan Library & Museum. On March 1 the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open "The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry".

Both shows display illuminated manuscripts with a connection to Nijmegen. The book in the Morgan library was created for Katherina van Kleef, a Nijmegen noble woman, the other manuscript was illustrated by three brothers from the city. According to Vanuit New York.com the major of Nijmegen, Thom de Graaf, will join a group of re-enactment actors on a trip to New York.

Hours of Catherine of Cleves

A 'book of hours', getijdenboek in Dutch, is devotional book that was popular in the Middle Ages. According to the Morgan Library, the Hours of Catherine of Cleves is the most important and lavish of all Dutch manuscripts as well as one of the most beautiful among the Morgan's collection. "Commissioned by Catherine of Cleves around 1440 and illustrated by an artist known as the Master of Catherine of Cleves, the work is an illustrated prayer book containing devotions that Catherine would recite throughout the day. The manuscript's two volumes have been disbound for the exhibition, which features nearly a hundred miniatures".

The Limbourg Brothers

"The Belles Heures (1405–1408/9) of Jean de Berry, a treasure of The Cloisters collection, is one of the most celebrated and lavishly illustrated manuscripts in this country. Because it is currently unbound, it is possible to exhibit all of its illuminated pages as individual leaves, a unique opportunity never to be repeated. The exhibition will elucidate the manuscript, its artists—the young Franco-Netherlandish Limbourg Brothers—and its patron, Jean de France, duc de Berry. A select group of precious objects from the same early fifteenth-century courtly milieu will place the manuscript in the context of the patronage of Jean de Berry and his royal family, the Valois."

Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves
Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY
January 22 through May 2, 2010

The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
March 2 through June 13, 2010

I know, I know, not healthy... but so delicious!

Tonight I made kroket for the very first time. It's a deep fried meat snack, and very popular in the Netherlands.

I compared three different recipes to create my own, and it worked well. The crust was great, the filling tasty. Not 100% like in the Netherlands yet, but very close.

Saturday evening we had a fun dinner with friends at home and the dessert turned out quite well. On Sunday morning I traveled to New Jersey.

In the plane I met a researcher from Penn State, and I gave him a ride from the airport to Princeton. The car, parked near the airport, was covered under a foot of snow which was kind of cool. The roads were are all clear. Pennsylvania is obviously better prepared to deal with snow than southern states.

In the evening there was a Super Bowl party which was a lot of fun; very diverse crowd of people.

Tonight I cooked koolraap -- rutabaga in English, as I recently learned. When I was a kid I didn't like it at all, but it was delicious. Simply boiled, with boiled potatoes and a meatball.

Today the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) launched a new marketing campaign in North America. The campaign is titled "Just be. In Holland." and means to appeal to every type of traveler.

According to the NBTC press release: "Whether your style is classic or contemporary, Holland has something for everyone, from iconic Dutch canals and windmills to innovative design shops and cutting-edge fashion."

To mark the launch of the campaign various contests are held on the website www.holland.com with prices such as a Dutch Batavus bicycle, a trip to the Netherlands or having a fresh bouquet of tulips delivered to your home for a year.

Various promotional activities will take place in New York City, such as themed subway cars that represent Holland's cultural, classic and contemporary aspects and street teams will be deployed at the Grand Central and Times Square stations each week to distribute Holland-themed giveaways

Conrad van Tiggelen, Director, NBTC North America, looks forward to engaging with potential travelers for the launch of the new campaign. "The new 'Just be. In Holland.' campaign epitomizes what repeat visitors to Holland already know--that Holland is a place where you can truly be yourself and discover a world of authentic and modern experiences, whether you are interested in art, culture, design, fashion or architecture."

Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions
www.holland.com/us

Sunday the world was still covered in snow. We went for a walk at the Al Buehler trail, around the Duke golf course. It was beautiful. We even saw a few runners, braving the icy conditions.

When I cleaned the car on Saturday I used a kitchen utensil to get rid of the snow. Worked pretty well. This is a rental, our own car is at the airport in Philadelphia.

The car.

The Al Buehler trail, covered in snow.