Garderen Sand Sculptures 2019: Do You Remember....

My birthday gift from Astrid last week was the 2019 sand-sculpture exhibit in Garderen, NL.   We visited last year for the first time, when the theme then was the Dutch Masters, remember?!  I ended up posting the "test" at the end on famous Dutch sayings, which you can see here.

This year's theme (which they change every year) is "Journey Around the World."  Totally worth every sand sculpture!  I'll come back to some of that later, I'm sure, but like last year, I want to show here the "test" at the end where you have to guess what the sculpture represents from something in the past (for the Netherlands or the world).

What follows is the year order of each sculpture but NOT in the order we saw them in the route.  Some of them you can guess but most are ones only the Dutch would know from their own history.

So....

Weet u Nog?  Do you remember?
(You'll notice the film roll in many of the sculptures.)

1945:  Liberation from WWII.
For the Dutch it's celebrated each year on May 5.

1952:  Opening of the Efteling theme park.

1953:  The Flood Disaster.

The North Sea flood affected the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK, with 2,551 deaths.

1955:  The first black and white TV, with everyone in front of the tube.

1957:  Introduction of A.O.W. (state pension in the Netherlands).

1960:  Natural Gas Field found near Slochteren in the Groningen Province, NL.

1963:  Invention of the cassette tape.

1963:  The assassination of President Kennedy.

1963:  The unforgettable coldest winter of the century.

1964:  Dutch Anton Geesink wins Gold in Judo at the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

He was the first non-Japanese judoka to win Gold in the Olympics.

1968:  The Fables Newspaper was created, a children's TV series based on fables.

1969:  First moon landing.

1972:  Invention of the dial telephone.

1973:  Car-free Sundays because of the oil crisis.

1974:  Introduction of the maximum speed limit.

1975:  Introduction of the seat belt.

1976:  Dutch comedian André van Duin as Willempie.

1977:  Dutch musician "Father Abraham" and the Smurfs.
He has written ca. 1600 songs!

1977:  Train hijacking at De Punt border between Groningen and Drenthe.

Nine hijackers took 50 people hostage for 20 days.  Two hostages and 6 hijackers were killed.

1980:  Beatrix becomes queen of the Netherlands.

1980:  Dutch Joop Zoetemelk wins the Tour de France.

1983:  Dutch committee against cruise missiles.

1983:  Kidnapping of Freddy Heineken, CEO of Heineken brewing company in the Netherlands.

1986:  The 12th province of the Netherlands, Flevoland, was put into service.

1989:  The fall of the Berlin wall.

1991:  Introduction of the Kok quarter gas tax.

1997:  The last skated Elfstedentocht, due to lack of cold-enough weather.
The Dutch hope every year that it will happen yet again!

1999:  The Millennium Bug, a.k.a. Y2K.

2001:  Attack on the Twin Towers in New York City.

2002:  Introduction of the Euro; farewell to the Dutch Guilder.

2002:  Assassination of Pim Fortuyn, expected to become the new Dutch Prime Minister.

2004:  Puppet lion Loeki de Leeuw's last time on TV.

2005:  Sparrow shot at Domino D-Day.

He caused 23,000 of 4 million dominoes to fall during the setting of a world record.

The shooter was fined €200 for illegally killing an animal of a protected species.

2007:  Bokito attacks a woman visitor.

She visited him at least 4 times a week and claimed she had a special bond with him by smiling,

even though she was repeatedly told that gorillas interpret smiling as aggression.

2018:  Two Chinese pandas arrive in the Netherlands.

It really is a route you take, winding around all the sand sculptures.
And that's only the side show...totally apart from the rest of the "Travel Around the World" exhibit.

See why it makes for such a good gift...for whatever occasion!