A day trip to The Netherlands (Utrecht/Amersfoort)

Theres some interesting story about that little statue on the right..

I hesitate to go on memory, for fear of misremembering the story or confusing the statue with another one..

But if I am right, its a statue of a student who, back in the 20s or 30s, took part in this traditional student fraternity thing where for one day, you were a famous historic person. He chose a poet, and stayed in role through the day..

problem is, he never stopped. Went to the mental asylum.

(I do hope I have this right).


Ive always wondered about that statue on the Dom Square... its so positively.. well, Soviet.

Well, let's go out of the museum and get some fresh air .... ooops, that's ...




.... shoking, as noticed on the neighbouring house! :wink:

walter :
your entry brings back many memories of holland .

when we visited in 1977 KLM presented us with two lp's :
"take holland home" - barrelorgen music(de tuurk and jupiter , and carillon music from the westertoren ,
the other lp is :
"remember holland" with the "jaap valkhoff orchestra and the freddy dyke singers " - from "holland my land by the see" to "i'm in love with a kitchen queen" - all sung in dutch , of course - and still put on the turntable .

below is a link to a german site with barrelorgan music (drehorgel in german) for anyone who is a fancier of that kind of music .
...BERLIN STREET ORGANS AND MUSIC...

even though it was raining when we were in amsterdam , we made sure to visit the flowermarket and listen to the organ . it was raining quite hard - notice the tarp on the organ - but we stopped , paid our "guilder" and listened to the music - that night we had dinner at the "krasnapolsky" courtesy of KLM !

hbg

thumbnail :


btw are there still street-organs or are they all in the museums now ?

Hhhmmmmmm....

Well its a nice story.

But the statue is of Francois Villon, the French poet.

It was however gifted by the "student corps" (fraternity), so the story I just recounted may still be connected.. was Villon the poet whom the hapless student imitated? Or is the whole story bunk?

To be continued..

I noticed three different streetorgans during the time I've been in Utrecht, hamburger.


Thanks, btw, nimh, for your aditional comments. That's very much appreciated!

The following photo is the one part of which was posted already earlier :wink:

My final photo from Utrecht to be posted here



A couple more will come, from 13 miles away Amersfoort

Yeah, de Winkel.

Was always (perhaps still is?) the best club - or ok, the only decent club - in town if you wanna go dancing through the night on club (house) tunes... All the other places are a) top 40 pop / "classics" b) alternative or c) cheapo / classless. (Well, with the exception of the shortlived "new" Vloer).

This place always had good DJs, and the place itself - a former bank building - has enough monumental, semi-decadent grandeur (high mirrors, cushy benches on the side, monumental ceiling) to give a nice vibe.

In the daytime its an overpriced grand cafe type thingie. They have - or had - tango days or the like on Sundays though. And in the basement a fairly cosy tapas place.

Daytime waiters and waitresses wear the standard outfit, which for the waitresses however, in an odd turn, included these ridiculously short skirts. I knew a coupla girls who refused to work there for that reason.

Theres a continuing controversy over this place - apparently, the owners only ever got the permission to convert the old, empty bank building because they committed themselves to making it a place of cultural events. But apart from the club parties and the occasional Sunday dance, they never really did anything. So the city was putting pressure on and off on them to either change course or face closure or some other punitive measure.

Dont know how that shook out in the end, if it did.

I know two ladies who go to Holland twice a year, when the ferry company is offering cut-throat rates, in order to obtain cheap tobacco.

I don't think the architecure concerns them in the least. The shops and the weather and escaping from the rigours of their diets occupy their attention most.

Do you think I should try to show them the errors of their ways?

Well, this story remains a mystery, though there's a hook.

What I found was that the student corps gifted the statue of Villon to the city in 1961. And in those days, the corps did indeed organise an annual masquerade, which was spun around a historical figure.

It was apparently a big deal for the city, and when in 1961 the masquerade was themed around Villon, "the inner city of Utrecht was wizarded up into a French medieval town".

So yes, the frat boys of those years did indeed stage a masquerade, the main figures of which presumably spend weeks practising the person they were going to be - and one of those masquerades was themed about Francois Villon, the poet.

So the story might well be true..

Enjoying the combo of Walter-pics and nimh-commentary...

Yes, me too. Thanks, chaps.

It gives one itchy feet.....

So I drove a couple to Amerfoort from Utrecht - which hopefully bring some comments from dutchy (when he's back, he gave some already via PM).

A church tower (without church) is there ...



.... as well as a 'gracht', too

And of course bicyclettes

Hey Walter, in the foreground of the picture on post ...366 there is a pair of granite stones and a long slab on the ground between them.

(Reminiscent of the meridian at Greenwich)

What's that about?

I'd looked it up, McTag ... but can't remember what it is about

Another bad luck is that by accident I deleted my pic of the famous "Koppelpoort"

So here's one pitched from the web

Back to my own photos.

The marketplace

The old Lutheran Church in the town centre



and again a view towards the church tower

Some really nice house, I think