Two cities and two Antique Markets

A weekend in mid-summer, sunny as it has been for the past few weeks. My own home town is quiet, deserted. People have gone off on holiday to places far and near, but mainly far. I love the relaxing pace which is always a characteristic of the summer vacation. Nevertheless, because of lack of people to socialize with – no choir, no choir practice, absent friends – a bit of entertainment in the weekend is always welcome.

 Flowers on the railings of the bridges

 The Tower of the Old Church

Bric-a-brac on one of the bridges

Saturday afternoon I went to Delft, a remarkable and beautiful jewel any time of the year, but on Saturdays in summer there is the added attraction of the antiques market along the picturesque canals. I love to stroll there, hunting for hidden treasures which, when found, are often too expensive to buy anyway. Of course there is plenty of bric-a-brac too, and things which I still have in my own house and are now considered cute and almost antique! The festive atmosphere attracts me, as it does many others. The bridges and street lamps are decorated with hanging baskets, bursting with colour, reflected in the water of the canals.

A stall on a canal and a stall round the Old Church

 Bric-a-brac along a side canal

 

 

 The Tower of the New Church and the Town Hall with the red wooden shutters

The market stalls go on and on. Besides, Delft houses very interesting and specialized shops, a famous museum housed in a medieval palace, two very big and splendid churches, the Old Church and the New Church, open to the public. The New Church is on one end of the large open market square, opposite the Town Hall on the other end. Alongside the square are many restaurants as well as rows of shops selling Delft Blue, the famous china and pottery, some fake, some original and hand painted. The latter come at a price and are popular with our many Asian tourists.

The tower of the New Church facing the Market Square and the Town Hall

Tea shops, sidewalk cafes, restaurants, Italian ice cream parlours, they all offer refreshments to the weary browser. And last but not least there is the flower and farmers market offering local cheeses, the most gorgeous bouquets, bread, fish, and of course vegetables. I only went for the afternoon, which I usually do, but again regretted not having gone for the day as Delft is so charming and has much to offer.

The Hague

On Sunday afternoon I repeated the exercise by going to The Hague which also boasts an antiques market on Sundays during the summer months. Here no canals, but mature trees on the Korte Voorhout, a part of the Hague flanked by embassies and former palaces and grand houses, temples of art and stately buildings. The antiques on offer belong to a more expensive segment and are really most interesting. Sometimes one can find a bargain, but it is a reassuring thought that most things are not within my range. Nevertheless it is a feast to browse here.

 A nicely shaded market

A woman surrounded by well-meaning friends trying on a vintage fur coat in a heat wave! 

At present the second attraction is an exhibition of the most amazing sand sculptures along the Lange Voorhout by international artists. Normally the grass under the double row of trees on both sides of the walkway in the middle is a well looked after, neat green lawn. However, because of the persistent drought, the lawns are a straw coloured yellow and covered with brown leaves. The heat comes with a vengeance.

 Some of the sand sculptures

 

 

 

  

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

The sculptures are amazing. In spite of the beach so nearby, they are made with river sand. I am quite ignorant for did not know until now that river sand, which is brought in for the sculptures, consists of square grains, whereas sand from the beach is round and so useless for building sculptures. Apart of course from the sand castles built on the beach itself, which are washed away with each new tide, and so won’t stay intact for more than 6 hours.

 A young harpist playing next to a sand sculpture

"Le Flaneur" on the yellow lawn

Before going back home I enjoyed a drink in the shade of the majestic trees, wondering if am considered just as outdated as apparently many of my possessions.

The beach in art and in real life

The trouble with retirement is that one is always “on holiday”, but because of that one forgets sometimes to relax. There is always plenty to do in the house or the garden, there are social obligations, etc. But now everybody seems to be on holiday, everything is on hold, and the weather has never been as glorious. For weeks on end we have had dry, sunny, warm weather. The downside is that trees are dying and dropping their leaves, normally lovely lush green meadows look like yellow straw, for we haven’t had a drop of rain for a month. The upside is that many people have gone off to spend their holidays in faraway countries, so that here even shopping and finding a parking space is very easy and relaxing. Parking spaces galore, and space in the supermarkets.

I have had some rather busy weeks, on the plus side organizing my own singing holiday which is still to come. But having work done in the house involved more upheaval than I had anticipated. In the end I decided to leave all the mess, close the door behind me and at least take one day a week off to do something enjoyable.

A enlarged picture on a museum wall, of fishing boats beached in front of the Kurhaus

So yesterday I entered the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague just as it opened its doors. Lots of free parking, no large groups of tourists yet and space to look round at leisure. The museum has several expositions going, but I was particularly interested in the one with paintings of the so called “Haagsche School”, a group of painters around 1900 who were very interested in the sea, the dunes, and the old fishing villages. They concentrated on Scheveningen, still an authentic fishing village, and although in name part of The Hague, a different place altogether. It was the village of the fishermen, who lived in small cottages, or hovels, working hard to earn a living. The women would mend the fishing nets together, sitting in the dunes, and trade the fish caught by the men. All women wore the local costume. It was the norm. I come from authentic “Scheveningen” stock, and I have never known both my grandmothers dressed in anything but that local costume. They did not have anything else, it was their everyday wear. They both lived in the actual fishing village. When I was young, almost all women wore that costume. My mother never did, but some of my aunts did, although they changed into “civilian” clothes later. We never lived in the old part of the village, but in a greener, residential neighbourhood.

A collage of part of some of the paintings on show at the exhibition

At the time of those painters Scheveningen had no harbour or port, and the dunes were uninterrupted. The vessels had to be pulled on the beach with horses. Thus the boats had a very special round shape, as it would be impossible for a ship with a sharply pointed keel to rest on the sand. The ships were a constant source of inspiration for the artists. So were the sea and the always changing, ever fascinating skies. Sometimes the hard life of the fishing families was pictured as romantic and pure, but more often than not the hardships and the poverty were also depicted. I love those paintings. Partly because I recognize so much of the village as it once was, the lure of the sea and the skies, the ever-changing clouds and the special silvery light.  Of course I knew Scheveningen when it already had a double harbour, a safe place for the fishing boats. They began digging the harbour in 1914. In my youth the quays would be full of wooden barrels for the fish. I’ll never forget the smell of tar, tar for the ropes and the boats.  Is that why I love Lapsang Souchong tea, which has the same tarry aroma? Who can tell.

One of the paintings used on the wall between two rooms

Nowadays, Scheveningen is promoted as The Hague on Sea. Expensive apartment buildings are blocking the view of the harbour which now mostly houses expensive yachts and sailing ships. The local costumes have disappeared during my lifetime and are now only worn on special historic festivals or by choirs. The local population is pushed back to special cheaper housing, the harbour the playground of well to do tourists and others. But the artists of the Haagsche School, Maris, Mesdag, Israels among others, they still can charm me with their beautiful paintings.

So I enjoyed my morning hours in the museum and left when the usual groups of women with a very loud speaking female art historian as a guide started blocking the view.  

In the afternoon I kept my eyes closed to the mess in my house, read a book in the shaded garden, fell asleep and relaxed.

 

 

 

 Early in the evening I went to the beach, the real one, not painted. The wind came from the North-West, so it was quite cool which was lovely after this very hot day. No jellyfish at all this time. They are only there when the wind comes from the East. Tide was far out, so it was a pleasure to walk on the hard and wet sand, my feet in the water. The water was remarkably warm, especially for the North Sea which I usually find far too cold for a pleasant swim. I only walked for 1,5 hours whereas I usually walk some two hours. But the tide started coming in quickly and I was even cut off at a certain point and had to retrace part of my steps and make a detour not to get soaking wet. I wasn’t wearing a bikini! The sea can be treacherous. Anyway, when I got back to where I had started, it was high tide and not even a narrow strip of hard sand was left. I was just in time. Otherwise I would have had to walk through loose sand, which is very tiring. The sky was beautiful and promising, but I did not wait till the sun had completely set. Instead I headed home to water my pot plants and enjoy the still warm evening with a glass of something in my own garden. 

Elburg and Pipe organs

Another visit to a former Hanseatic town or rather city, Elburg, a real jewel, small but perfect, walled, moated and gated. It still has a rope maker, a smithy which unfortunately since my last visit has been turned into a museum, a herb garden, a splendid local and regional Museum in a former nunnery, and in its former synagogue a Museum of the Jewish past of this city, a past when Jews were completely integrated in the life of this small town. Without being sentimental it gives us films and pictures about the twelve families who lived here and who were all forcibly taken away to perish in a concentration camp. The website of the museum also has photos of these victims of WWII. Unfortunately, I had no time to visit the museum this time, as I arrived late in the afternoon.  But I have been there before.

The Jewish Museum is on the left

Elburg is always a delight. The main street leading from the harbour through the gate to the other side of Elburg, was crowded with day trippers on this warm summer day. But the parallel streets were very quiet. No parking inside the city walls except for inhabitants, but there are free car parks, a rarity nowadays, just outside the city ramparts.

 The harbour with the Fish Gate, the entrance to the city, in the background across the bridge

 

A better view of the bridge across the city moat with the Fish Gate at the end

The harbour is home to historic wooden barges and fishing boats, which are very picturesque against the backdrop of the city gate and the bridge spanning the moat. 

 The tree lined city walls, looking down into the "city" of Elburg. A walk around the town would be my favourite evening excercise.

 

 Looking at and through the Fish Gate from the town towards the harbour

I intended to take some pictures, visit the rehoused Pipe Organ Museum and ultimately go to an organ recital in the big church there. My blogpost about Elburg dating from 2011 stated that the Organ Museum was housed in a “tiny, rather dusty place, more like a shed”. Since then it has been relocated in a monumental building, once the townhall. There is plenty of space to display all types of pipe organs, from very small portative organs, even smaller than the ones we see St. Caecilia playing in many a cartoon and painting, to very large ones. 

 Two portative historic organs. 

The one on the left above is very tiny but still needs two people to play it

Below a different type of bellows at the back of this small portative organ

 

 There are miniature models of famous Dutch pipe organs, there are cabinet organs which look like a chest of drawers or cabinet when closed, portable house organs, etc. It tells the history of pipe organs, how they came into existence, from bagpipes to pan flutes, and how they developed into the big organs we know nowadays with multiple manuals and many stops. On request the organs can be played. 

 A beautifully decorated house organ

A cabinet organ. When the doors are closed it looks like an common cabinet.

The various rooms in of the museum still have their original fireplaces, of stone and marble, beautifully decorated. A special room has been built in the inner courtyard of the museum to house a big organ which was a gift of a private owner. Being an architect, he did not like the original classic organ case which he thought rather dull and sombre. Instead he designed a very colourful organ case for it, an almost cubistic and most unusual case. It can be admired and heard, as it is regularly played.

Another example of a cabinet organ

I only had an hour to look around the museum before closing time, alas. When I left the museum, there was time left to meander a while and explore this fascinating town with its narrow streets and interesting houses, including a secluded herb garden, before sitting down in one of the numerous cafes for some much-needed food.

 A very small chest organ, portable. 

 Several images of St. Caecilia

The organ with the modern case in the specially built room in the courtyard

 The church tower by day and night

The organ recital - the reason why I had come to Elburg in the first place – started at 8 pm in the big and interesting church which dates back to 1395. Originally of course a Catholic church, after the Reformation and Iconoclasm it was turned into a protestant church. Most of the interior was whitewashed obliterating frescoes and paintings. A few paintings have resurfaced. Its pipe organ, from a later date, is very well known but I had never heard it being played. Since an organist friend of mine was giving this recital, I was eager to attend the recital and hear the organ.

  Church and organ

 Details of the organ case

The size of the church is amazing for such a small town. The organ as well is big and the front beautifully decorated. The sound it produces is very varied, from powerful with trumpets blasting, to a sweet and melodious singing tone. Because of the choice of programme, all the different possibilities were skilfully used and presented to us listeners.

 

Some of the paintings in the ceiling

Afterwards we - the organist, his assistant and I - were invited for drinks in the adjoining building, a former orphanage at one stage, now owned by the church and rented out to the residing organist. What a joy to live in such an historic building with this wonderful view of the church. I hope he realises how fortunate he is!

light of the setting sun

When I left, the tower of the church which before the concert was bathing in the golden light of the setting sun, was now illuminated. Once through the gate the silhouettes of the fishing boats were sharply outlined against the orange sky, a striking image.

In spite of having to drive down home through the dark and uninteresting “polder” around midnight, I had had a very enjoyable and interesting day which was really worth the effort.

Some impressions of Elburg: doors and windows.

 

 The former orphanage

  

 Reflection

 Right: A typical pump and pavement