Whit Monday
2020, June 1st
This is a
strange year and the first time in my life I have been alone during Whit Monday.
On Sunday at least I was invited to sing some hymns for our last pre-recorded church
service. So I met a few fellow singers life, and not via Zoom!
Monday was
very unusual. I tried to remember if I had ever been alone on Whit Monday, and do
not think I ever have. As a child it was a day for a family outing, and we
would do something special. It often was a glorious day, late spring or early
summer. I remember once that we rented a rowing boat and my father took some of
us rowing on the river Vliet, near Leiden. In the picture I have I look very
formally dressed. But I think in the morning we first attended a special church
service. Not a formal one with a sermon, but a kind of Songs of Praise, with
lots of music. I loved that. Something similar would be the case for Boxing day
and Easter Monday. But Whitsun seemed lighter and sunnier, which perhaps it was.
It is the closure of the church calendar, and the beginning of summer, a season
of light. I remember my mother bringing some food with her in the boat. Not a
copious picnic, but some nice treats.
Or we might
go to the Zoo in Wassenaar, taking the train which then still ran from Scheveningen
to I think Leidschendam, or even Rotterdam, and stopping on a viaduct near the
Zoo in Wassenaar. We would walk the rest of the way, which wasn’t far. On the
way back we walked the whole way. Or perhaps it was the other way round and we
took the train when we were tired after our time in the Zoo, and walk to the
Zoo when we were still fresh in the morning. The Zoo has disappeared, and so has the train, which
they thoroughly regretted decades later. Part of the train track is nor a road.
When I was
still living at home as a child and a teenager, I often took part in organized day
hikes or walks on Whit Monday, which has always been a public holiday here. There
were various distances to choose from. The walks went through the dunes, and
estates in Wassenaar which were normally not open to the public. I loved that,
and collected the medals, which are still lurking somewhere in a dark corner. We
would have a logbook in which besides the date, the length of the walk and
other relevant information, we wrote about things which happened or things
which we noticed during those walks. I still have one of those logbooks. When I
browsed through it, it struck me that the dunes had a far more varied and richer
fauna than nowadays. On one walk I saw a lot of pheasants and partridges, as
well as rabbits which were then very common. They were decimated and almost
totally wiped out by an disease, and never have come back full force. The
pheasants have mysteriously vanished as well.
There was
the last year of secondary school, when I stayed at home and did not join the
walks, studying for my finals, hearing the music of some bands in the distance
and seeing people walking through a nearby street. I sat in my parents’
bedroom, with the French doors of their balcony open, basking in the warm sun.
If I lived in that house now, I would make it my study and sewing room. It was
light with bay windows at the front and the balcony on one side.
As a
student we might stay for free with a few friends in a cottage owned by an
uncle or father of one of them, in a nice part of the country. It was fun. They were usually simple cottages
and we spent most of our time walking to the nearest village or town for food,
preparing it, heating water to wash the dishes, and talking about life in
general. If we had bikes, we would ride them.
When I was
working and still single, I might go to see friends in England or elsewhere, as
the period of Ascension Day to Whitsun was long enough to go away. Or stay with
a married brother or sister.
Once married,
we might rent a self-catering cottage in Holland and cycle in a nice part of
the country. Later we would go to Italy, driving down at leisure and renting an
apartment somewhere rural within easy reach of a railway station so that we
could spend a day in either Rome or Florence. The trains were cheap as they were
subsidized, and very modern in comparison to our own trains. We saw a lot of Italy.
Once we rented a house on the peninsula at the end of the Laguna of Venice,
Punta Sabbioni. We could walk to the ferry in 10 minutes and so go to Venice
quickly, seeing the San Marco for the first time from the Laguna. It was magic.
In the afternoons, after a nice al fresco meal, my husband would go back to the
house to read in the garden and I would wander around the less trodden quarters
of Venice, taking pictures and drinking in the atmosphere. My love of the
Italian language and way of life began there, or was fuelled there.
Or we toured
through England, Scotland and Ireland, seeing friends, staying in B&B’s,
crossing to Ireland to rent a cottage and invite Irish fiends to share it with
us. A landbridge ticket made it possible to cross from Holland to England and on
to Ireland and back via various routes and ferries.
Another
attraction was Germany, the Eiffel in particular. It isn’t all that far away,
and we would go for long walks, of which there is an excellently signposted network.
Or we might
be on a long and exciting trip through the USA.
Later,
single again, I would visit friends, meet American friends who were touring
Europe in Prague, go to Bologna or Paris for a long weekend or midweek. Follow
a course in Puglia about architecture, all in Italian. Or have a singing
weekend somewhere, either abroad (Florence, Coventry, Dublin)) or in our own
country. I would spend time in the second home of a niece in Germany. Or I
would go and see friends in England. I also took my father to England after my
mother passed away, and we rented cottages in Cornwall and Yorkshire, meeting
friends on the way, or staying in B&B’s. Spring is the perfect time for holidays.
Everything is fresh and lush, and tourists haven’t swamped the tourist spots
yet. Besides, renting a house is a lot cheaper. Or we both stayed in the house
of my niece and her husband in the HunsrΓΌck, Germany.
Friends from
Canada or the USA might come and we would explore together, driving into Belgium
and France, discovering quaint towns and castles, churches and cathedrals. Or just
cycle in Holland.
Cows and sheep
A heron
So, a lonely
Whit Monday was a first. Although the lock-down is slightly less strict,
possibilities are still limited. But I did go for a two hour walk through the
many small parks surrounding my home. And it is amazing what one can see in a
series of small suburban parks in a built-up part of this country. The pictures
are testimony of that.
A stork foraging and later on the nearby nest
A young family of swans
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