The Hague 5. Gate of a time long ago

To which path dothest leadeth this remainder from a time before another time?

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The Hague 4. An Old Friend

Hej! An old friend! I greeted this rooster many times walking to the centre and after 10 years it is still on the lookout!

The Hague 3. 'T Hof van Eten

This is one of the restaurants of the 'court quarter' it's name is a word 'joke' which is lost in English. The suburb is called 'court quarter', the name of the restaurant is 'The Court of Eating'. In Dutch a 'hof' also means garden. So I could also read 'garden of eating' where it has a link with the garden of Eden. You can see the advertisement a woman with an apple and a snake, a double 'word-game'.

The street where it is taken:

Gift from Ethiopia

Yesterday I brought a visit to my friends Cornelis and Henja, Henja just returned from a trip for her work to Ethiopia. And she brought me a gift: an 'icon' of St. George! It is really great, hand crafted typical local 'iron work' and painted the familiar scene of St. George slaying the dragon.

Henja Visser is in charge of first aid projects and needed to go to Ethiopia to meet people and to see how the projects are doing. Unfortunately there a lot of problems concerning water, the lack of it that is. She has been to areas where water is significant more important then oil, another world problem on the pile..

I really love the icon, thanks for the gift!

The Hague 2. The bakery on Miss Ida Street

Besides the Royal Palace (The Hague is the capital of the governement and the seat of the Royal House) is the 'court quarter' (hofkwartier) located. This is a nostalgic area with lots of small streets, little shops and small restaurants, for a tourist it makes a great walk.
This shot is of the bakery at 'Miss Ida Street' (Jufrouw Ida Straat). They have got great bread and pastries. I bought a 'coffee bun' when I passed by. It is a bakery for the well to do, because I paid more than usual.

And a glance inside, notice they have a picture of the Crown prince and princess on the wall.

The Hague 1. Big or Saint Jacob Church

The Hague time! I will start with on of the skyline features, de Grote of Jacobs Kerk, the Big or St Jacob Church. I passed this building by on a daily basis.

The church is one of the oldest buildings dating from 1200. It is still in use by the Dutch Reformed Church, but for special occasions. It is indeed a very big church, from the inside it has a typical Protestant interior, white and with not much decoration.

It is a building you can rent for 'fitting occasions' so sometimes there is a book fair, exhibitions, meetings etc. I can recall there has been also a CD presentation, which actually was a huge party. When I passed by you saw party goers enter and the medieval windows were tinkling away due to the dance beat.

I have been there ones with a Christmas celebration that was a special occasion because the building was really jammed with believers. The Church is used by the Royals for weddings and baptisms.

The Hague Coming Soon

Coming next: entries about The Hague, the city where I did study years ago, for me it's sacred ground.
There is no Hague city blogger so I feel the freedom to do some entries.. :)

This is a taste on beforehand. I assume it is the same as all places in the world, the city has a symbol. For the Hague this is the stork. It is part of the official heraldic weapons. The story behind it is that storks used to build their nests in The Hague. There are no real storks in the Hague anymore but if you take notice you see storks everywhere..

Two cheese warehouses

Here it is the other former cheese warehouses. This one has gotten a good new destination, some kind of art store. This has been an art store as long as I remember. One with the motto 'less is more'. The shop window always looks empty.
Here is a 'peep' inside the shop (not very impressive).

This next building has been a cheese warehouse as well, located just besides the other one. I have a memory attached to this warehouse, years ago, it must have been 20 years ago, I passed by and took a look inside. I saw the racks with cheese on them; I can recall the strong smell of wax and ripening cheese. The building has been properly restored since it is declared a 'state monument'. I also took a look through the window, the building is empty and the wooden racks are disassembled and put against the wall. The system of 'state monuments' protects buildings with a legacy, but that makes them sometimes ending up as empty buildings without further usage.



I will stop my entries about cheese for now. I have been this saturday morning to The Hague, made some great pictures; so I will do an entry on The Hague for a few days.

Strange Insect

The climate issue imports the strangest insects...
Tomorrow I will have the picture of the cheese warehouse.

Munching Cheese

Gouda cheese enjoyed by humans and mice!

There is one picture more of a cheese warehouse I want to take, but I laked time to do so (it's still dark quite early), but a cheesy picture for today anyway!

Gouda Cheese Central

This is the dilapidating building of the Gouda Cheese Central. Gouda cheese does not necessarily comes from Gouda but is made by Gouda cheese standards. So Gouda cheese also came from Woerden. Gouda is a city close by, just 15 min by train (the next stop). Holland is really just a very small densely populated country.

Read some more on Gouda cheese at wikipedia.

Cheese History Woerden

I don't know much about the cheese history of Woerden, apart from some common facts. Cheese, the typical Dutch cheese, traditionally was made by farmers. They would sell it in the closest town, where it would be sold by merchants to others, probably to other towns and cities. Locals would buy it directly from the farmer. Woerden used to be a rural area where a lot of farming took place. When production was taken over by industry the traditional cheese making disappeared, leaving the warehouses.

This is an odd one, in the middle of centre, build around the 1920's slowly dilapidating, a cheese warehouse. The building is private property of someone who doesn't want to sell, to the mischief of Woerden. So quite an unusual site for The Netherlands, land is so valuable and expensive that it is always used, especial in towns.

Here is a link to another warehouse, which has been kept in good state and transformed into a housing complex.

Goose

Woerden has a goose colony. One day they arrived and decided to have the centre of Woerden as their living space. Each year they are growing in number and more present. I have created the habit of greeting them when I walk to my car in the morning. Sometimes I feed them, since I started to do that they recognize me from far and make a lot of noise.

Cheese Market

Each saturday there are cheese market stalls in the centre, selling mainly our local cheeses. In the recent years I have developed a taste for old cheese. The coming days I will do some investigation on the cheese history of woerden.

La Gro Barristers

I like this advertisement, original, it says 'La Gro Barristers' against the yellow background of the office it looks pretty good.

Cows

From Woerden Daily Photo

In front of the cheese shop: two cows. A very Dutchy image, Woerden was (is?) a cheese city. In the past the farmers made cheese, now this is mainly done by industry. Since I started to take a better look at my surrounding due to Daily Photo I keep discovering formare cheese storing buildings. I will take a walk and picture some of them...for you!

Just a street in the centre

Shot of a quiet street in the centre.

Heineken in Silver

I like this advertisement. A white black building with the simple silver text stating Heineken. I saw this on my way back from the interview (a job at the University of Twente) while I was still traveling back I heard that I was the second of 27 candidates. That means that I just did not got the job... :(

It would have been a great job, but well, hey other chances will come... :)

Theatre Entrance Lantern

This lantern is above the entry of the theatre of Enschede. I have been there today for a job interview. Enschede was heavily bombed during the war, so there is not much historic to see but I liked this lantern.

Stupid Commercial

This commercial is about a black cheap, which makes a career among humans on two feet and then joins a telephone company where he feels accepted. I think it is one of the most stupid commercials I have ever seen. I don't understand the marketing related to it, either the humorous aspect.

If you like to see the commercial: 'born to be cheap', and let me know what you think.

Three under one roof

I am better again, but still on the couch for a day. So I will post a picture from my 'archive'. I have chosen for today a picture of a set of three houses under one roof. The houses must have been build arround the 1880's. In time convenient alternations have been added except for one of the houses, so you can see how it used to look like.. more or less.

A photo with no subject

A photo about nothing. Today I caught the flue and remained in bed all day. :(

Whitish Mill

We have snow and freezing weather like the rest of the Northern world; the mill with a thin white layer.

Villa

This is another villa in the same type as previously showed, in the same street, just besides the one I have posted about yesterday. This one is hidden behind trees and bushes and is only visible in winter when the leaves have fallen.

Something is curious on this villa, it is right in the middle of centre, but you forget that it is there and there is never activity, however there are people living in the house..

Villa

The right side is very tranquile though, with the Old Rhine slowly passing by.

Villa

This house is nice vila in the centre, it is bought by a man who always dreamed of living there (I spoke him when we was attending the garden). The house was build for some city council member in the 1800's. It is indeed a nice house, but what you don't see on this picture is that there is always a lot of traffic passing the house in the front and on it's left side.

View on Centre

A view of the centre.

The other type of clothing shop

I also took a piek at the other type of clothing shop, but only at the window pane....:)

SALES

It's SALES time, I am the kind of man who buys his cloths for the next year during this time, at one shop if possible. So there I go today I really have to go to a clothing shop... :(

Taken from the Castle

The holiday season is over so I will continue with my entry on the villas. When I sneaked into the castle, I took a picture from the top window. You can see the row of villas I talked about on the right.

Happy New Year!