A Weekend of Friendship

Or, when it rains it pours.

Astrid and I can probably count on one hand how many times we meet up with friends in a year's span, not counting our trips abroad or guests "tripping" here.

So when we have two days in a row on a weekend, hobnobbing with local friends, that's a big deal.

It happened last weekend.  First it was Saturday with dear friend Margreeth (from nearby Giessenburg), with whom we have had several happy memories.

First, we went to eat lunch at our nearby Metropole Restaurant  (now open for both lunch and dinner).

It's one of our favorite restaurants here in Gorinchem, a 10-min. walk away.

Since 2009, the restaurant has partnered with the Syndion group,

offering jobs to mentally-handicapped adults.

It so happens that Emiel (close to age 40 with the mental age of around 12-14)

has been a friend of Astrid's since he was 12.  We LOVE him.

And no one could be prouder of his job than he is!

He was delighted that I took his picture:  "Now I'll be famous!" he said.

Waiting is always worth it when you're with a friend.

And when the food comes, we're never disappointed.  N E V E R.

Margreeth had the burger (something we've not yet tried).

Astrid and I shared the carpaccio salad and the grilled salmon salad.

From lunch we walked another 10 minutes to our Grote Markt.

That's where the old city hall is, housing our city's Gorcums Museum.

It was Margreeth who convinced us a year ago to buy the annual museum pass, remember?

 We headed straight to the top floor to first see the exhibit of the Gorkum Martyrs.

I had no idea about this part of Gorinchem's history.

19 Dutch Catholic clerics and friars were hanged by the Calvinists in 1572.

These religious wars are enough to break your heart open.

Walking down the stairs to the next exhibit, I was lifted up a bit...

to prepare me for 100 years of the chair!

This exhibit of 90 chairs is compiled by French expert Leidelmeijer.

 You want to see chairs? 

 Can you imagine sitting in them?!

 Some of them, NO.  Some of them, YES. 

 At one point, I had to put my feet up (at 7 weeks post-knee-replacement!),

while the ladies continued on for one of the permanent displays I'd already seen.

Looking out back from the museum you can see the Grote Kerk.

Looking out front you can see the fountain and main square.

Pay special attention to the middle-left image with the wee little cart....

because that's where we ended our day, with our must-have treat.

Our Venezia Ijssalon opened that day for the rest of the year.

We wouldn't have missed it for anything.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

That was Saturday.

On Sunday, we walked to nearby Femke's and Jeannettes's for a delightful afternoon.

This was the second time to build our friendship around food.

And what we're discovering is that the bridges just grow and grow.

Femke is the gourmet cook.  Jeannette is following in her footsteps.

See what I mean?  And we didn't even start with this!

I didn't grab my camera soon enough for the fig and raspberry liqueur from France,

followed by a homemade cheesecake, thanks to Jeannette.

O.M.G.  Eat dessert first!  Always.  Whenever possible.
But don't forget to take a picture of it first!

As if that weren't enough, Femke comes out with a quiche.

I think we all could have died and gone to heaven,
in spite of the voodoo toothpick holder.

See how she/they display their cookbooks?  I love it.

J&F.  And as we left, the waxing moon smiled down on us.

Most weekends don't come packed with friends like this.

Are we lucky or what!

Open Monument Day

Every second weekend of September is Open Monument Day in the Netherlands when approximately 4,000 historical buildings and sites are open to the public free of charge.  We'd be stupid if we didn't take advantage of that, right????

So, last weekend, we took advantage of two places here in Gorinchem, within walking distance from our apartment, and then on Sunday drove to nearby Hoeven (next post).

Our goal for Saturday was only one place:  the Toll House on the periphery of our citadel walk.  Back in its day, ships passing by on the Merwede river had to pay taxes at the toll house to...pass by.  Hard to imagine?  Think about our toll roads in America, which is basically the same idea.

 This is what the Gorinchem layout (citadel) looked like in 1649.

This is what it looks like today, with the majority of Gorinchem's 35K population outside the citadel.

Astrid and I are lucky to live inside the citadel, which is the "old" city center.

From the citadel walk (bottom-center) you see past the toll house to our grote kerk inside the citadel.

Inside the citadel the toll house looks like...a house, built in 1598 (top-right).

The handy thing is you can tell what's open to the public by the Open Monument flag.

What we didn't know is that the toll house is now used by the Syndion non-profit group.

Syndion helps to mainstream adults with disabilities.

In fact, our favorite café here in Gorinchem, Metropole, hires disabled servers who wait on the tables.

(The café above is in the toll house, not the Metropole, for clarification.)
We LOVE the Syndion concept.

 So when we discovered the toll house is a place for the disabled to chill, we were thrilled.

Sometimes the "disabled" put the abled to shame, don't you think?

Thank God all this creativity has not gone to waste!

It makes me want to get out my own "paintbrushes" to start creating!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

It so happens that we had an appointment in the afternoon and started out on our way home after the toll house, to eat lunch and get ready.  But much to our surprise....

...we saw another Open Monument flag and decided to check it out.

Guess what?  It was the Freemason lodge of Gorinchem, which I never even knew existed!

Who knew it was a national monument!

And after all the years of "secrecy" I had experienced about the Masons, 

I was not going to miss this chance to see as much as I could.

Very nice gentlemen were available to tell us everything we wanted to know,

without giving away secrets, which they explained were more inside each individual person.

Know thyself.  Conscience.  The Eye of God.

Sounds like something we all want, right?

To see and enter what I thought was their Holy of Holies rendered me speechless.

The Square and Compass are everywhere, of course, the most universal freemason symbols.

 The Square is for virtue, to "sqaure our actions by the square of virtue with all mankind."

The Compass exemplifies "our wisdom of conduct, the strength to circumscribe our desires 

and keep our passions within due bounds."

So, why don't they allow women??!  HA!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 While coming and going, we saw all those things that are "old hat" by now.

But sometimes I pay attention to them again, as though seeing them for the first time.
(My new 1200mm camera helps, of course.)

This is where we live and we love it here.

How many times have you heard me say that?!

And while I'm on the subject of where we live,

here are some more weathervanes while out-n-about on any given day.