You're Never Lost If You Don't Care Where You Are: The Trip that was: October 5, 2016/2017/2018

2016

This was a special trip-- to a province I hadn't ventured into yet! The province of Zeeland, a series of islands and peninsulas that are as far west as you can go in the Netherlands. Most of the land is below sea level and prone to severe flooding until they controlled it with a series of dijks and water management projects in the 1950's. If the coat of arms is a drowning lion, I probably should not have went there. But I did! And it was dry and beautiful!

We started in Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland.

Yes, the Civic Guardsman is wearing goggles. And No, I can't explain anything else about it. Geen idee, as the Dutch people say.

Once voted the second most beautiful building in the Netherlands, we couldn't miss an opportunity to tour the Middelburg City Hall (Middelburg Stadhuis).

Beautiful, right?? But this building was gutted by fire during World War II. Only the outside remained most intact. It's all rebuilt and new, made to look like the original building.

The "New Church". I guess if you keep rebuilding it, you can always call it that. Ha. Originally built in the 14th century, destroyed by fire in 1568 and rebuilt. Destroyed again during World War II, and restored again. What's old, is new again. Over and over and over.

Middleburg Abbey. Also gutted by fire and World War II bombings . Many of the Abbey buildings were destroyed.

This has something to do with Cannons that were made in Middelburg in the 17th century by Michael Burgerhuys and his son Johannes Burgerhuys. The cannons were found by fishermen off the coast and returned to square, in tribute to the makers. There are two of them there now, but apparently only the one found in 1986 was on display when we saw it. The one found in 2011 was added later. Yes, I had to google this for the blog. I have NO memory of the cannon. I tend to ignore heavy artillary.

After leaving Middelburg, we moved on to Veere, another village in Zeeland.

The Grote Kerk . Except it's no longer a church, but an event center and exhibition space.

Veere City Hall.

Having a wee biertje in the shadow of City Hall.

If anyone ever made a statue of me and my beloved Dutchboy...

2017

I have no idea where we were. This is the only photo I have from that day.

2018

The Fries Museum in Leeuwarden had a fantastic Escher exhibition. They also had a set up, where you posed yourself and it took this photo and emailed it to you. I'm goofy enough to think this is so cool.

Again, horrible to admit, but I have NO idea which town this is. It is possibly Leeuwarden, because of the photo of the Escher exhibit at the Fries Museum. But it doesn't really look like Leeuwarden?? It's somewhere between there and Oudemirdum, though, because it's the same trip! The beer was brewed in Utrecht, though. And it was good! Almost thick-- it's unfiltered. Check out the second photo!