Zuidlaren, NL, and It's Famous Statues

In conjunction with my happy birthday last week, Astrid and I drove on an overnight trip to Zuidlaren and Groningen over the weekend, 230 km north of us to the provinces of Drenthe and Groningen.  Actually, in the coming and going, we traveled through 6 of the 12 Dutch provinces (South Holland, Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Groningen and Utrecht)!  Gorinchem, where we live, is in South Holland province.

[Groningen is another post, where we went to see a Jan van Haasteren exhibit celebrating his 80th birthday.  He's the jigsaw puzzle man, remember?  We also had an unexpected stop on the way in Westerbork where 102,000 Jews were "assembled" for transport to Nazi concentration camps during WWII.  That, too, is another post.]

This happy post is about the village of Zuidlaren where we spent the night.  What a delightful, cozy, clean, charming village of ca. 10,000 people.  I fell in love with it.

But long before we got to Zuidlaren (at 4:30 p.m.), we stopped late morning for our koffie break.

It's the treat we give to ourselves when we make these road trips.

Latte macchiatos always seem to call out to us!

Now insert on your back burner at least 6 km of walking in the afternoon before reaching Zuidlaren.

As we drove into the village on its main street, we saw two of its famous statues.

This one was the first and is called the Berend Botje statue.

It's a nursery rhyme depiction of Berend Botje who sailed out with his boat from Zuidlaren...

and eventually went to America, supposedly, since he was never found again.

Astrid was repeating the nursery rhyme throughout the trip!  :)

The second statue, a block from our hotel, is this horse-market sculpture.

Every October in Zuidlaren is Europe's largest horse market with 350 market stalls 

extending 2.3 miles from the center of the village.

Horsetraders come from Germany and Belgium, as well as the Netherlands.

The statue depicts the time when buying-and-selling deals were "closed" with a simple handshake.


ADDENDUM:  I've added this YouTube after publishing this post.
At around 1.5 minutes, you can see the famous handshake!

It wasn't surprising, then, as we walked around town, to see many references to horses...

and that famous handshake!

But we were hungry...and had seen an Italian restaurant while driving into town!

Remember that 6 km walk on your back burner?

I guess carbs were what we needed because that's all we wanted,

accompanying our very nice Warsteiner German beer.

We both have a weak spot for spaghetti carbonara and lasagna, a rare chance to eat for us.

And then we walked some more, finding the village synagogue

where you can read the 15 names of residents sent to Nazi concentration camps.

After our earlier time in Westerbork (another post), this was additionally sobering.

Zuidlaren is also known for its many village greens, called brinken (middle-right),

with their stands of trees.

The next morning, Sunday, before driving to Groningen (another post),

we drove to Zuidlaren's only windmill, De Wachter (The Guard), from 1851, now a museum.

It's where the original Berend Botje resides, which we had arrived too late to see that Saturday.

And just outside the windmill, along the canal, is De Jonge Wachter (The Young Guard), 

a paddle steamboat built in 2000.  Both mill and steamer were at rest/closed that Sunday.

But we had seen enough to make us very happy campers,

along with the many weathervanes throughout the trip, several in Zuidlaren itself.

The turkey (middle-right) is the first we've seen, in the Westerbork area.

Happy Birthday to me, right?  It really doesn't get more fun than this.

Growing older and better, that is!

The Dike Synagogue in Sliedrecht, NL

Sometimes we hear/read about something and decide to follow it up...just like you, I'm sure.  In this case, our new-found friend, Janny, told us about the monthly open house for De Dijksynagoge in Sliedrecht (of all places, where Astrid happens to work) this past Saturday and Sunday from 2-4 p.m., 18 km from home.

So, it was a no-brainer.  We put it on the calendar and went on Sunday.

It's the only synagogue in the world built on a dike.

In fact, Astrid heard it's the only synagogue outside of Jerusalem built on a mound.

It was built in 1845 but was dismantled and rebuilt in 2002 when the dike was reconstructed.

It was moved 80 meters west from it's original spot.  Leave it to the Dutch, as I always say!

(Pay attention to the horseshoe hedge in the back on the lower level.)

Can you see how bright the space is?

And how gezellig...the English word is "cozy" but it's more than just cozy.

You immediately notice the important things...even though I don't know what they're called.

For me, this would be the "altar."

And the "pulpit," plus the menorah (lampstand) and the "light."

Astrid found out the menorah was made by our woodcarver friend, Adrie Bezemer, 

from a 1000 yr-old piece of oak wood.

And yes, there is even a wee balcony from which you can get an overview.

From there I could better see the skullcaps all men were required to wear.

There was even a grab-bin in the lobby for visitors who didn't have their own.

Back out in the lobby we took the stairs past the Star of David down to the ground floor.
(That piece of broken plaster exposing the brick means it's "never finished"
until the temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt.)

Remember, this synagogue is on a dike, so the back floor is below the front entrance above.

That's where the  museum is.

I can imagine how proud the Dutch Jews are of these artifacts.

The backdoor off the museum takes you to the garden inside the horseshoe hedge.

Everything grown there is mentioned in the Bible, with names and verse locations.

Totally worth the experience and most educational.

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It so happens you can see the 1886 Sliedrecht water tower from the synagogue.

And there were plenty of weathervanes in the area to make me happy,

including the second cat vane I've seen within two weeks.

It was my 71st birthday the next day, Monday, so let's just say I was a very happy camper.

As you know, it doesn't take much!

TRIER, Germany: Part 2

So, to carry on from my last post, here's what we saw the rest of our day in Germany's oldest city, Trier.

Besides the Porta Nigra and the Kaiserthermen Roman baths, it was the Dom, Trier's Church of Our Lady cathedral, where we spent our most time.  It is Germany's oldest cathedral, from the early 4th century, and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

Before we saw it up close and personal, we saw it from afar all day long.

 Later, when we stood in front of it, we couldn't get it all in one frame!  It's HUGE.

And as you'd guess, there's a lot going on all around it, no matter where you are.

Like a wedding, for example, when we passed by in the trolley car!

Inside, of course, is something else.

The nave, towards the altar, shows the Baroque chapel above,

supposedly holding the Seamless Robe of Jesus, from shortly before his crucifixion.
See all the people waiting in line to peek in!

Like all the other tourists, we climbed up behind the altar to the chapel but weren't allowed to go in.

We used the opportunity to look back to the opposite end of the nave, to the west-end choir.

Back down on the main floor, we were able to view the choir's Baroque 1196 stucco-work in the vault.

How many times have I told you that the museums we go to in Europe are these cathedrals!
What more could you possibly need?

It's true!  We're always short of eyes.

We briefly went outside the main nave to the cloisters, to get a different vantage point.

But it was this boy with his mom inside the nave who stole my heart that day!

I thought of grandson Nicholas, now 13, lighting a candle for someone...maybe for me?

 The rest of the day we wandered around and saw more churches, of course...

St. Paulus Church (left), St. Irminen Monastery (top-right), the New Synagogue from 1957 (bottom-center), and the former Clarisse convent of St. Mary Magdalene (bottom-right).
Just glimpses.

And since I'm on the subject, niches everywhere in Roman Catholic country....

...sacred and secular.

And gable stones...

...and other fun stuff.

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

...even if I do show an image more than once in 2 different collages.  HA!
It's true:  I often don't know if I'm coming or going.  :)

By now it was time to go back to the car, but first, we wanted to see the Moselle river
with its Römerbrücke Roman bridge from the 2nd century AD--Germany's oldest bridge.
The bridge itself, of course, is much newer but the pillars beneath are O.L.D.
Nearby, a railing along the river bank sported a few love padlocks...something I now "collect."

 And then walking a bit further down the river, we found one of 2 old treadwheel cranes
for loading and unloading river cargo, this one from 1413.
Doesn't it remind you of a windmill, kinda sorta?



And as we say in Dutch, Dat was het.  That was it.  Trier.

We got in our car and drove into Luxembourg for the rest of our trip...

Good-bye, Trier.  Hello Luxembourg!

And now the Luxembourg Trip is done!  In case you missed the other posts (in order of posting but not in order of when we saw them on our trip), nine posts altogether from our 4 days, including this one :

Eschfeld, Germany: the St. Luzia Parish Church
Clervaux, Luxembourg: the Church and the CastleBELGIUM: Bastogne and La Roche-en-ardenne
The Luxembourg-Trip Picnics
LUXEMBOURG: Echternach
Germany and Luxembourg Border Skirmish
Luxembourg City
TRIER, Germany: Part 1

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As an FYI, Astrid and I fly to America on Saturday for our annual trip to see family and friends.  (Now you know why I wanted to finish this Luxembourg trip!)  We'll be gone for almost 3 weeks, back on October 23rd.  And if I'm lucky,  I may even post something before we return, but if not...you'll know why!