Week 21 A Blast from the Past

Week 21

Pumpkins....

.....going better than last year, although I have snails for the first time! Must be Global Warming.......

Pumpkin (or zucchini??)

Aussie Visitors

Frank Ward and Pam. I hadn't seen Frank in at least 25 years - but I could still recognise him!. When I was Superintendent in charge of Training, I apparently "suggested" to Frank that he should become an instructor at the Training College. For better or for worse, Frank now says that it "changed his life". After a few years he went on to work very successfully in the private sector as a trainer/instructor.

In more recent years he and Pam have had one of those jobs that "somebody else" always seems to have - managing/maintaining a heritage-type property in France, whilst travelling here, there and everywhere, it seems. Ownership of the property has recently changed hands but the new owners are happy for Frank and Pam to "holiday" there for as long as they want - this year from April to November - on an extended visa. As usual with Aussie visitors, it seems to leave me feeling "empty" when they leave.... but we have a "plan" to visit them in France and/or have them back for a boating holiday..... we shall see how things turn out time-wise.

At de Stripe - our local restaurant

A tourist day......

Clog Factory

People Leave their old clogs here....when buying new ones.

Dokkum

Photo from 2014...our boat centre left

Windmill at Birdaard

It feels "high"......

Amazing wood working skills... 

Contemplating a "boating" holiday.....

Ben

A little while ago Ben won a prize for eating insects. The prize was a VIP night at the opening of the new rooftop terrace of his hotel.

and the Student Club.....

Ben's time at the hotel finishes this weekend. He has arranged another room in Amsterdam, for a month. He will then come "home" for a month and then he's off to Hong Kong! We're all going down to Amsterdam today (Sunday) to clean up the room and move him to somewhere in the "Jordaan" district....

Jordaan District in Amsterdam
History of the Jordaan

The Jordaan area was created at the large expansion of Amsterdam in early 17 C., as the district for the working class and immigrants. The population increase during the next centuries was enormous, caused by the stream of political refugees, mainly English protestants like Fleming, Spanish and Portuguese Jews and French Huguenots. They all mainly settled in the Jordaan. It was a poor district with small houses and slums, every little room stuffed with families and lots of children. The entire area was one ghetto with open sewers, canals served for both transport and sewer, and no running water. Around 1900 about 80 thousand people lived in the Jordaan, nowadays there are about 20 thousand.

During the 1970-ties the city council had serious plans to demolish big parts of Jordaan and replace them with large ugly modern blocks of flats. There were many protests against this idea. City protectors, such as Monuments Care (Monumentenzorg), were against the loss of the historical town while inhabitants of the Jordaan feared large rent increases. Thanks to their resistance the plan was modified, there came small-scale projects which would repair the neighbourhood, without damaging its original character.

A large renovation started. It is then that the Jordaan was discovered by a new generation occupants: artists, students, and young entrepreneurs. The old inhabitants moved to other neighbourhoods and cities like Almere. Partly through these new inhabitants the Jordaan has changed from a slum area to a district for artists, still living on low rent, and the rich who bought the very expensive renovated houses. Nowadays the Jordaan is an oasis of peace with a labyrinth of narrow streets and little canals, nice for strolling around courtyards, art studios, and monumental buildings with stone tablets, old-fashioned ‘brown’ pubs, boutiques and galleries.

For those who might be interested, this link has a webcam which can be clicked to show different locations, including the Anne Frank House.

http://www.jordaaninfo.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=41%3Awebcam&layout=blog&Itemid=70&lang=en