Rotterdam Lights

Tuesday evening after the Dutch Cafe was, in keeping with this ridiculously beautiful and unseasonable weather we are having, a really beautiful evening out, so, after going down into the metro, realizing that I had a 10 minute wait until the next train came anyway, and thinking that it just seemed particularly stuffy down there, I decided to walk to Beurs Metro, where I would be switching lines anyways.  It was such a nice evening for walking, and the general tenor of the whole area was just so conducive to strolling that I ended up walking all the way home, which was just about three miles.  The weather was perfect and it was just the perfect time to walk through town (I went the long way which goes around through the nicer/more business oriented part of town) because restaurants, but not bars, were starting to close so there were a fair number of couples strolling through town, as well as a lot of people out jogging.

The walking trip did make me wish that I 1) knew how to work the night photo settings on my camera, 2) had a tripod so I could take pictures at night without them turning out all jiggly looking, and 3) had even brought my camera with me at all.  Rotterdam has been designed to look awfully photogenic at night.  The cranes and ships in the Haven Museum are all lit up with colored spot lights (and there were quite a few people out taking pictures of it) plus almost all of the other buildings have decorative lights on them with stripes and designs in different colors and configurations.  The slant-y, leaning building that I have pointed out before, had all of its flashy green lights doing different pictures.  For a while it was doing a spinning globe, so that the different continents were going 'round and 'round.  Then it did a heart that would start out small, grow to fill the screen, and then go back to small again.  Then it had "1888" scrolling across the front of the building in numbers as tall as the building.  1888 is apparently the Dutch equivalent of "0"--it is directory inquiries.  If you look at this site, it shows a picture of the building with a giant heart on it.  If you want to see what Rotterdam really looks like at night (I am pretty sure that my pictures wouldn't look like this, even if I had taken my camera) you can go to this site to see a few pictures.

One other thing I noticed, as I was walking home, was that the Luxor Theater (a pretty famous theater in Rotterdam) is having, on October 11th, a concert of two of Carl Orff's works, the most famous being "Carmina Burana"--it is one of those pieces of classical music that everyone has heard, even if they don't know it, because it is used in television commercials all the time.  I happen to like Orff's oeuvre, so I am trying to decide if I should go and see it.  The super-cheap tickets are 25 euros and tickets go up from there to 48 euros, which is a little more than I really want to spend.  However, one hour before the show starts, they will give you a 50% discount with a student card (among other things) so, if any of the cheapo seats are still available, that might be a pretty good deal.  I wonder if I would have to get dressed up?  The Luxor Theater is nothing if not eclectic.  The program for the next month or so (which you can see here) covers everything from a flamenco-musical called "Zorro" to a Neil Diamond impersonator and last month they had a flying trapeze act in as well (and if you think that doesn't result in some dopey looking advertisements, you couldn't be wronger).

The Luxor Theater, looking north.  You can see the Erasmusbrug just to the right of the theater.  It is the tipi shaped thing over the road. 

Wat ongelooflijk mooi weer!

The title of this post means "What incredibly wonderful weather!"  It probably deserves an extra couple of exclamation marks, just because it is sooooooo wonderful. !!!!!!

This is what Google says my weather is right now and what the forecast is for the weekend.  I have been here for two months (exactly, tomorrow) and I have never seen three little sunshines in a row before.  And, since I am from Minnesota and in the Netherlands, I check it every day.  Usually multiple times per day.  Sometimes we wouldn't actually get rain, and sometimes it would be sunny in between rain storms, and there have been a few days where there was some truly lovely weather but I just have to say that this is superbly wonderful.  And, since I base my view of perfect weather on a very few perfect summer days in Minnesota and consider anything above 75 or so to be unpleasantly warm, you should know just how amazing this weather forecast is, that I am this excited.

Look at all those little, unobstructed sunshines!!!!

This is what Yahoo has for my weather forecast (please note that it is not that cold, it is just in Celsius).  They spoiled the picture with an entirely unnecessary partially cloudy moon, so that is why they get second billing here.  Right now I can literally not see one, single, solitary, tiny, white cloud out of my window.  It is just blue, blue sky as far as the eye can see.

I guess I don't mind partially cloud night times if I can have all of those glorious little sunshines during the day!!!!

So, I am now leaving and going to find something to sit on (it will be hard--all of Rotterdam is taking up just about every bench and stoop that I saw on my walk home from school) and just try to soak up some vitamin D while the getting is good.

Het Laatste Dutch Cafe (The Final Dutch Cafe) and Dutch Cuisine

This Tuesday night was the final Dutch cafe.  A couple of other students from my class came as well, to say good-by to our teacher whom everyone liked a lot.  There was also one of the ladies who is in charge of the Language Training Center.   She said that although the LTC won't be doing the Dutch Cafe anymore (at least for students) there is some talk of the Erasmus Student Network taking over and starting up a Dutch Cafe instead.  Since ESN is the author of such events as "Cafe BED" (which runs from 10pm-4am every Tuesday, offers 1 euro drinks--the cheapest booze in the Netherlands, as far as I have heard--plus the occasional free shot, featured the delightful ad campaign "Will you go to BED with me?", and which is known for having inebriated students littering the floor in piles of vomit) I am guessing that the new Dutch Cafe might have a little different flavor from the old one.  But I guess we will just have to see.  Maybe I will have to see if I can weasel my way into the faculty and staff Dutch Cafe.

I asked about "Haave" (which was I word I couldn't translate from one of the windows of the Pilgremvaderskerk).  They said that they weren't familiar with that word.  However, there is a word "have" which means "creatures", as in all kinds of animals/living things.  So it could possibly be translated as "Salvation for His creatures comes only from God in Zion" or something similar, which would fit with the creation of the Dutch State/reliance on God's providence/etc. in a Matthew 10:29 type way ("Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.")

Also, the cafe was nice enough to bring us authentic Dutch hors d'oeuvres/snacks, on the house, since we had been showing up every week.  Everyone thought that was pretty nice, although since that was the last night, now it will look like we just grabbed the free food and ran.  There were three kinds of snacks, all deep-fried, so you have to know they started out right.  There were chicken nuggets that were just like McDonald's chicken nuggets (people seem to really like McDonald's around here).  There were also small fried meatballs that tasted kind of like a slightly spicy curried chicken, but I don't know what the actual name of them is.  The other thing was Bitterballen.  I do not know what the name exactly means but it is kind of like a thick, white, sausage gravy, deep fried in a crumb coating.  This makes it a little difficult to eat neatly.  It also means that there is a MASSIVE quality difference if you get one when it is fresh and hot or if you get it when it is cooler and has started nastily congealing.  However, Bitterballen (they are sometimes called croquettes) are ubiquitous.  You can get larger versions of them in hamburger or brat shapes and then you eat them in a bun.  They are pretty tasty but I don't think I could eat a whole sandwich made out of them.  I saw some one eating one of the sandwiches and the inside gooey stuff was oozing everywhere and was not a very pretty picture.

Kinderdijk Molens

A little while ago I posted about the University sponsored trip on the Pancake Boat to Kinderdijk.  Well, after a longish lull, this is the Kinderdijk section of that trip.  Kinderdijk is an area where there are still loads of windmills.  People still live inside them and they still sometimes use them to help regulate the water levels.

The name apparently comes from a story about how, after a big storm or after some flooding, or something like that, some folks came along and saw a cat sitting in a cradle that had wedged up on the dike.  Assuming that they would find something sad, they went and got the cradle and found a live little baby inside and figured that the cat had kept the cradle from capsizing and had kept the baby safe (although I am going to go out on a limb here  and say that that was from purely self-interest and not out of humanitarian motivations).

There was a storm coming in while we were there (fortunately, it didn't hit until about three seconds before I got to the metro station, so the whole trip was super windy, with really interesting clouds coming in, but still quite dry).

This was the first place that I actually saw any wooden shoes.   This is apparently a highly tourist-oriented area.

These are the large screws that regulate the water levels in the polder.  It is mostly run by electricity nowadays.

















I do not know why there is a little cut-out goat on top of this hay bale, but I thought it was pretty cute.

Do you notice the Holstein cow grazing in the field by the canal below?

We were supposed to get to go into one of the windmills to look around and see what it was like inside but the mill-owner wasn't there, so we just went wandering around, looking at the mills and checking out the canals.

While we were out walking around, I talked to a couple of girls who are on an exchange program from a university in Austria.  One was Austrian and the other was from Munich.  They were a lot of fun to talk to and both seemed very German.  Somehow, and I am sure that it will thrill some of you to hear this, we got onto the subject of German beverages.

I mentioned "Rrrradler."
The girl from Munich said "What?"
I said "Rrrrrrrrrradler!"
The girl from Munich looked very uncertain.
The girl from Austria said "She's saying "Rraddddlllerr.  I know, because I knew another American who said it that exact same way."
"Oh," said the girl from Munich, "yeah, rraddddlllerr."

I did, specifically, ask how "Radler" ought to be pronounced and what I was doing wrong.  They both said that it wasn't, in fact, an issue of how the "r" is rolled.  Rather, it is a question of how the "d" and the "l" get rolled together.  SO, even if I still can't order a Radler by myself, and even if other people can, it still isn't an issue of how well one rolls one's "r"s.

We had a fun time, though, talking about the superiority of German food over Dutch food and, especially, the terrible, relative, horribleness of Dutch bread and "bratwursts".

Pilgremvaderskerk, a.k.a., Oude Kerk

When I went to Schiedam for the Open Monumentendag festivities, I stopped at Delfshaven, which is conveniently located on the way to Schiedam.  Delfshaven was also participating in the Open Monumentdag.  The Pilgremvaderskerk, or Oude Kerk (Pilgrim Father's Church, or Old Church)  was one of the places that was open extra hours and had special stuff going on for the weekend.  I stopped here on the way out because it opened earlier than most of the things I wanted to see in Schiedam and I figured by the time I walked through Schiedam I wouldn't really enjoy more walking around on the way back.

There was a little museum in the back of the church that had a Pilgrim Fathers Presentation.  There was a video that could be played in English or Dutch, and several different displays around the room.

This is a tile painting that shows the Pilgrim embarkation at Delfshaven.  There was a long history of ship travel between the Netherlands and America after 1620, with the Holland-America Line of ships which used to be one of the premier lines.  It is still in operation and, as far as I can tell, is still well regarded.  Every now and then you will seem someone carry a bag with the Holland-America logo on it.

If you look at their logo below, though, you can see that they hearken back to their old roots.

They had several different displays of Puritan paraphernalia as well, including this pretty plate, the ship shaped cake server and the itty, bitty, tiny "Mayflower" in the bottle.








Even in the church, there were all kinds of memorials of the Puritans.  There were two maritime themed stained-glass windows.




The first commemorated the sailing of the Speedwell, on which the Pilgrim's departed Delfshaven on the 22nd of July, 1620.  If you notice date differences, it is because the English didn't change to the new Gregorian calendar until much later than the rest of Europe and so a lot if the dates in the 17th century can be off by 10 or so days.













The second window commemorates the founding of the Dutch State.  It says (I think) "The port of salvation comes only from the Lord of Zion, 9 September 1574."  I am not certain because "haave" is not a word I can find anywhere in modern Dutch dictionaries.  But I am going with a blind assumption that it is etymologically related to "haven."











There were also stained glass windows that depict the six days of creation.  The text around each picture is a quote from Genesis--"in thus and such a day, God created . . ."

There were large plaques that were on all of the walls around the pulpit.  Some showed different Puritan documents.  This one shows the Ten Commandments.  You can't really read them very well, but you can tell from the density of the text that the Puritans didn't hold with any abbreviations for the purpose of making posting easier.  When they refurbished the church they had to repaint each of these boards, by hand, with tiny paint brushes and gold paint while set up on scaffolding.







There were also boards that had the names and tenures of every pastor who has served at the church for the entire history of the church--so a little over 400 years worth of pastors.  They also have a gallery of picture of former pastors but they don't have pictures of everybody.

There is a display of the original church bells from the church.  The large bell is  chest high.









There were also models of the Mayflower and the Speedwell out in the the sanctuary, with teeny little sailors working in the rigging.

The plaque on this ship says
"The 'Mayflower', the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth in September 1620 on their way to America, from England to Cape Cod."

This one is the Speedwell.  The plaque on this one says: "The 'Speedwell'. the ship on which the Pilgrims sailed from Delfshaven to England on July 31, 1620 (July 22, 1620 according to the Julian Calendar)."

This is one of the grave markers that line the entire floor of the sanctuary.  The weird "F" symbol looks very familiar but I can't remember what it is from.  Perhaps it is a Masonic symbol?  Although the grave markers are about 2 feet by 6 feet, it looks like they were doubled-up because most of them had "Hier leijt . . ." messages at the top and then had a second engraving at the bottom of the slab.

This is the grave stone on which I sat when I went to church here.


These are the doors as you see them as you exit the sanctuary:



This door lintel says "Bewaart uwen voet als gij ten huize gods ingaat."  Which is from   Ecclesiasties 5:1 and says "Keep they foot when thou goest to the house of God."

This door lintel below says "Eere zij God in de hoogste hemelen."  This is from Luke 2: 14 and says "Glory to God in the highest."

There is a plan of the church posted on the outside of the church.  When you go into the church, you go into the little vestibule to the bottom right of the cross-shaped nave.

What was really entertaining, though, was that this old and sedate looking plaque was right next to this plaque:  advertising what appears to be an Hasidic Jewish rock concert by a folk-music group named "Unicorn."

Mapping Global Order and other fun school things

This week has been very, very busy.  The school schedule here is a little weird because you essentially have classes in 8 week chunks, plus an exam period, so all of the assignments that would normally be stretched out over a 15 week semester are all now due in the first 8 weeks of the semester instead.  While I appreciate this little help with not procrastinating, it does cut into my "fun" time a bit.  This week was especially busy.  Between last Thursday and this past Thursday I had three papers (about 15 pages all told) and two presentations, plus a bunch of fairly boring readings to do.  This coming week should be easier since I only have one paper due.  The week after that I only have two papers due and a mid-term exam and I will be starting (probably) my second Dutch class, so that week might be a tad busy as well.

This term, everyone in the Master's program is taking one class together, although they are divided up into a Dutch class and an English class.  For the other three terms, there is a little more flexibility because half of the courses we take will be Research Workshops and Thesis Conferences.  Also, I think that the Dutch and English tracks separate a fair bit as well.

I have two courses this term:  "Mapping Global Order--1600-2000" which is about Empires and what they do and how to stop them and how to get rid of the US Empire because it is impinging on the (finger's crossed) European Empire of the EU.

My second course is "Historical Culture in a Globalizing World" and it is about the way people remember things and think about history.  The text for this was actually pretty interesting (it is called "Time Maps") but it is often a bit disconcerting to read through books like this (the author is a Jewish guy who grew up in Israel) to see people trying to figure these things out from an evolutionary stand-point--"When did people first remember that there was a yesterday and expect that there would be a tomorrow?" "When would they remember that they ate yesterday and that they ought to eat something today?" "When would they stop forgetting that they had left-over bronto-burgers going greenish at the back of the cave?"  (Oh, wait, people still forget about the leftovers at the back of the 'fridge so I guess that's going to be never . . . sorry about that Mom.)

NeboKerk (18 september 2011)

I went to NeboKerk again last Sunday.  The sermon references were I Timothy 3: 15--"That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" and Nehemiah 8:1-13, with an emphasis on verse 10-- "Then said he unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared:  for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry, for the Lord is your strength."

Mostly the sermon was about enjoying the Lord's day but just today I saw, on Facebook, this article about the duties of the Sabbath, as referenced in the Sabbath-keeping decisions of a professional athlete, which I thought was quite interesting as well as being marginally related.  And Ben, this guy is from Glasgow, Scotland, so you just know he's a good guy.

Another interesting connection was that they had a special prayer for Prinsjesdag and the Dutch government.  Prinsjesdag is the official opening of the Dutch Parliament which seemed like a very good idea.

Prinsjesdag occurs on the third Tuesday of September every year.  It is full of pomp and circumstance and, if I had gone to Den Haag and fought the crowd, I might have even gotten a first-hand glimpse of the Queen or her fancy carriage on the way to open Parliament with a speech.  You can see the official homepage of the 2011 Prinsjesdag events here.

The Queen opens parliament by reading a "state of the nation" address and then the Finance Minister also gave a speech.  I listened to the speeches on Radio Nederland, which is kind of the Dutch equivalent of NPR, and was able to follow somewhat.  The Queen has a very nice  speaking voice and spoke very clearly so it was pretty easy to understand her.  The speeches weren't very positive.  Apparently they figured that things were going to get worse, economy-wise, before they got better.  You can see a picture of the queen reading her Troonrede (the official mane of her speech) here.  There is a very large photo gallery of the events that you can look through, if you are so inclined.

In my class on Monday, the teacher told us that if we went to Den Haag we could see the Queen riding around in a Golden Cage.  He mentioned it a few more times before realizing that people seemed a little perplexed.  Then he had to describe what he meant before we realized he meant "carriage."  Then, when we went to the Dutch Cafe that evening, the teacher had a newspaper that showed a picture of the carriage and, when she was explaining what had been going on English, she had to ask for the English word for carriage.  It was interesting to see that same tiny gap in English vocabulary in two people who otherwise have pretty impressive vocabularies.  I suppose, though, that there just aren't that many times, anymore, when you need to know the word for carriage.  If you want to see a picture of the carriage (which is very, very gold, by the way), you can see it here.

St. Liduina's Basilica

One of the places that was open during the Schiedam Open Monumenten dag was St. Liduina's Basilica.  Or, more formally, de Basiliek van de Heilige Liduina en Onze Lieve Vrouw Rozenkrans--The Basilica of of the Holy Liduina and Our Dear Lady of the Rosary.

It is one of the buildings that is not normally open to the general public.

That little girl in the pink, by the way, was having such a good time playing in the fountain.  It was the kind that alternated spraying out of different holes, with different pressures, and she was dancing around all over the place, shrieking and laughing and having the time of her life.

St. Liduina is the patron saint of Schiedam and also of the chronically ill.  According to Dutch Wikipedia, she is thought to be, perhaps, one of the first recorded cases of multiple sclerosis.  According to the church's webpage (which you can visit here, if you like) St. Liduina was a medieval lady who fell and broke one of her ribs while skating on the river.  The rib became abscessed and poor Liduina was bed-ridden for the rest of her life.  But, if anyone who was sick or lame came to her, she could heal them.  She was proclaimed a saint in 1890.  And, in 1990, the St. Liduina Kerk got upgraded to a Basilica.  I don't know what the difference is but apparently it is a pretty big deal.

This is a picture from a book on the lives of the saints showing her fall.

Apparently, Thomas A Kempis wrote about her as well, so I guess that she is kind of a famous saint.  And still famous enough, that she has her very own Facebook page here.




On marginally related note, there is a street called Thomas A Kempisstraat in Schiedam.  And I thought it was interesting enough to take a picture of but, apparently, not interesting enough to walk across the street to get a good picture of it.




The Basilica has a very nice approach.  This is across a large square from the center of town that leads straight to it.  The big, modern looking building on the left is the Nieuwe Stadhuis.  It is pretty boring but it is quite huge.  The building on the right is just a bunch of shops and restaurants.

This is a photo of the Nieuwe Stadhuis.  The public library is also here.









And here Ben, just for you, is a picture of me.  I intended to  take a picture of the engraved seals that are on the automatic sliding glass doors (which just seems so wrong, somehow) but none of them really turned out. But, I did accidentally end up with a picture of me sight-seeing, so, there you go Ben.  I am not just making it all up.  =-)


Also, I kind of like the view of the square that you can see reflected.


You can see how close I was cutting this trip, too.  The church closed at 5 (or 17:00) so I just barely made it.

I am still not quite sure to make of the interior.  The best way I can think of describing it (and trust me, the photos don't do it justice--I think I need to figure out how to do the white balance on this camera) is to say that it looks like a 70s take on Baroque.  Everything is in soft pink and green, including the bricks.  It was pretty, but it was not your typical church decor.  And what made it especially odd was that the floor was made some 70s-looking rust and black and cream tile, which didn't really match the rest of the theme that well at all.

I don't have any picture of the front because there were little old people sitting in the church praying and it just seemed kind of rude to get in their way.  I asked the supervisors who were keeping an eye on things before I took these pictures and they were fine with it but I didn't want to bother the people more that I needed to.





This is the plaque from the front of the church.  The yellow and black striped flag is the official flag of Schiedam.

NeboKerk (11 september 2011)

On Sunday I went to the NeboKerk again.  It was their Children Focused Sunday.  So they had special music, sang lots of younger-type songs, and had a gospel-message type sermon that was especially directed toward children, from Ephesians 1:17:  "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."  This was part of their equivalent of a VBS program (although I didn't quite catch whether this was the conclusion or the kick-off for it).

On a related note, I am now the proud owner of a Dutch Bijbel!  I found an old, school Bible, the kind that, as appears on the name plate, were given as school prizes a long time ago.  This particular one was given to a student named Rienus van der Hulst at a Reformed Sunday school in Rotterdam on Christmas Day in 1925.  It is a little worn and the spine is held together with scotch tape but that just gives me an excuse to finally go buy some of the fabric that they have at the market, so that I can make a Bible cover.  And they have some really, really pretty fabric at pretty reasonable prices.

I got the Bible at the Blaak Markt on Tuesday out of one of the flea market type booths.  I just stopped by on my way to the Official Welcome stuff the school had for the international students and just happened to see some books and, after I had looked through the books and seen nothing I wanted, as I turned to leave, I just saw the Bible under some magazines out of the corner of my eye.  It costs 1 euro (or about $1.50) which is a pretty terrific deal as, even used, the Bibles I have seen have been over 30 euros ($50).  The one downside is that this is the good, solid, old-fashioned Statenvertalling Bijbel, which is the kind I kind of wanted anyways but is also the kind that none of the churches I have visited uses.  I will have to keep an eye out for some of the newer translations as well, I guess.  Although they will be much less historically interesting.  If you think that this Bible managed to survive not only the obliteration of Rotterdam in the war but also 86 years (almost) and ownership by a little kid, the fact that the binding is coming apart all of a sudden seems pretty minor.

By the way, for those of you looking for baby names, Rienus is an old fashioned name (or at least an old fashioned spelling) of a boy's name which means "from the sea."  Which makes all kinds of sense for a Dutch baby.  Anyways, it's a unique name--your little Rienus would probably never meet someone with the same name. . . (and also, no "J"s . . .)

De Bonte Koe Chocoladekunst

Because of the Open Monumentendag at Schiedam, there were concerts going on all over town.  There were organ concerts in at least three of the churches and there were vocal performances in at least two different studios.  Apparently cobblestone streets and brick and stone buildings make really terrific accoustic chambers because, as I was walking along this one street, I could hear a very nice operetta going on.  Inside a studio there were a couple singing something classical sounding (I didn't recognize but that just means it was The Ride of the Valkyries or something equally ubiquitous).  They were all dressed up and all of the people inside, who looked like they were at some kind of dinner reception, where all dressed up in evening wear.  And then there was a whole bunch of tourists and sightseers, in jeans and t-shirts, grouped around the door, listening.  It was a lot of fun.  That room was right next to "De Bonte Koe Chocoladekunst" store: "The Colorful Cow Chocolate Art" store.  So the whole time I was looking at the displays here, I could hear the singing going on next door.

These suns are vacation themed.  The dark chocolate one says "prettige vakantie" which means "nice/pleasant vacation."  I don't remember what the bigger one says.

The little houses are Jenever-flavored bonbons shaped like the old Jenever building (where the Jenevermuseum is located).  You can buy sets of these in special boxes with different flavors from the different kind of Jenever.




I saw a few people buying them so I think that it must be a pretty popular product.











They also had white chocolate sculpture/buildings.  These look very Dutch.  Also notice the little modeled tulips in front of the houses?  I don't know how you would go about eating these.  It is kind of like the gingerbread house dilemma.  You would probably hate to wreck it until it got too gross to eat.








I think that these shoes are pretty spiffy.  They are solid chocolate.  I think a shoe chocolate mold would be a lot of fun to play with.








These giant clams stuffed with bonbons were pretty but what I especially liked was the box of rusty tools (although why somebody thought rusty tools sounded appetizing is another whole question).  They are molded out of chocolate and then dusted with cocoa powder to get the rust effect.  It was very effective, too.  I did a double take.






One thing I wasn't really sure about was the memorial chocolate plaque.  While I guess that there are chemical reasons why eating chocolate would be good during the grieving process, I am not sure that this would be the first thing that I would think of doing.  Especially with the primitive portraiture.  What is especially odd, though, is that, not only did someone want to order this, but the store thought that this was the kind of thing that people would want to buy and that displaying this would be a good way to garner business.



De Bonte Koe is actually a store, not a museum, but they had a nice display room set up that you could walk through, besides the actual store and a little cafe, and there were a lot of people just wandering through and looking at stuff.  Apparently it is a fairly big draw for the city (or at least they get a lot of business from tourists) because they had advertisements in the tourist information material.