Wageningen

Another Saturday, another city, another water tower, another adventure: Wageningen. Don't worry if you can't get your tongue around it because I still stumble over it myself: VA-hen-ing-en. It's a historical and university town of Food Sciences just 50 km from our apartment here in The Netherlands.

When I got excited about seeing it a week ago, it was for the water tower, windmill and Grote Kerk. Astrid never once mentioned what it's historic significance was until we got there. Hold that thought.

As we often do, we head into the city center and get our bearings. Right away we start looking for a quaint little café for our late-morning koffie and appeltaart. It's our photo-hunt treat every weekend we're out-n-about.

And there it was, the Hotel de Wereld (Hotel the World):

And that's when Astrid told me why it was important.

"May 6, 1945, the German general Blaskowitz surrendered to the Canadian general Charles Foulkes, which ended the Second World War in the Netherlands. The Generals negotiated the terms of surrender in the Hotel de Wereld."

On the spot I said to Astrid, THIS is where we need to have our koffie. Such a memorable place!

So we did. Outside on the terrace, overlooking the May 5th Plaza.
That important day was a month before the day I was born on the other side of the Big Pond.

BTW, the koffie in the glass is a latte macchiato, my koffie of choice whenever I can get it...since Germany days in Hannover so many years ago!

A block or so away from the hotel, we passed the Roman Catholic church on Bergstraat. No amount of Googling has helped us find the name of it, which is why I've mentioned the street:

It so happens the church was open that Saturday morning because a group was preparing for a monthly Eucharist service the next day. But I want you do see this YouTube I found of the interior. Remember when I told you a couple posts ago that the catholic churches seem so dark to us? This is without doubt the darkest church of any denomination Astrid and I have ever seen:


The lights weren't on when we were there either. So strange. I really don't understand it, do you? But we were still glad to see it and get our education, so to speak.

As we continued walking to the Grote Kerk and City Hall, we passed the kind of architecture that still blows me away. The spires, the clock towers, the old, the new....

....and all the fun things that make our photo hunts...well, fun!
That middle left image, incidentally, is a stork's stand built as an open invitation for any stork to build its nest, if it would be so kind. It's a rare and protected bird here in The Netherlands, one we have actually seen more than once, sitting high up on a roof/chimney.

As we neared the city-center's plaza where the Johannes de Doperkerk or Grote Kerk (John the Baptist or Great Church) and city hall stand, we first of all saw the Saturday market in full swing, all around the church....

....then we started to hear music as we rounded the corner to City Hall, and this is the band we saw playing:

That's City Hall with the city's lion coat of arms and the Grote Kerk in the background. It didn't take us long to find out what all the hubbub was about....


Are we lucky or what!
If you recall back to when Astrid and I got married in February, you may remember that we, too, were married at City Hall and by a city-hall official, licensed to perform wedding ceremonies. In The Netherlands, whether you get married in a church or not, you are required to be married by a city hall official at city hall (very few exceptions to the rule). There is a definite separation of church and state when it comes to marriage.

For one brief minute or two, we were there at the right place at the right time! We really did feel lucky.

After that, there was only one thing left to see on our list....

De Vlijt Molen = The Diligence Windmill, built in 1879 as a grain mill.
See how much Granny Towanda (our granny-apple green car), too, loves windmills! I think she can spot them with her eyes closed. And lucky for us, that day this mill was open for business....

I don't often show you images of a mill's interior because they're usually not open, not a business, or someone's private residence. When it's a working mill that sells its own produce, we're all in for a treat. This is where you can buy your own corn meal, for instance, which I have done elsewhere. It's like another world, another time.

Okay. That's enough for today! On our way home, we stopped at the Blauwe Kamer nature reserve but I'll save that for another post...along with all the apple and pear trees loaded down with fruit everywhere we go right now. That, too, is another story...as is the dining table we just bought with 6 ladder-chairs for €50 at the nearby thrift store. We're on a roll.