A little disappointed, I wandered aimlessly, and by chance stumbled across a colourful setting that ran all the way down Veemarkt. It was full of blow-up pirate ships, bouncy castles, blow-up helter-skelters, carousels etc., with hundreds of kids having gleeful fun while smiling and laughing parents looked on. Everything was manned by folk dressed as pirates. Roadside cafes overlooking the scene were swamped with beverage drinkers despite the cool, windy and occasional rainy weather. It really was a heart-warming sight to behold, and would uplift even the most down at heart.
Pirate Fair
|
The Kleine Noord and Grote Noord streets had many stalls crammed along their lengths, selling arts and crafts, bric-a-brac, cheeses, sausages and the likes. On one of the stalls, a small circular tin bath containing water had a small metallic toy boat clicking along inside it. I was immediately captivated by this and picked one up to examine its workings, and ended up chatting with the stall owner. Apparently these were the sort of boats children played with before battery driven boats became common.
For the scientifically curious, the operation is as follows. A burning wick, fuelled by olive oil, heated up a small container (boiler) sitting above it, the top end of the container being a bimetallic strip. The burning wick heated up a small amount of water in the container, in turn heating the strip, which would suddenly flip into a convex shape, and as it cooled, it would flip back to a concave shape, hence the clicking noise. Small pipes coming out of the boat allowed air bursts from the flipping action to be pushed out through the water, hence providing propulsion. Ingenious!
"These were common in Holland 60 years ago," the man told me. "I have never seen any in England," I replied. "I believe they were also common in England too," was his response. Hmmm... I must have been brought up in a deprived part of the country.
I struggled around a few more shops, I am not the best lover of shopping, and bumped into Rex and Meryl. The lad had been successful in buying a pair of shoes, of identical make to a pair he had bought in Holland on one of our earlier trips.
A joint decision was reached, we would have salad on board this evening, so we bought the necessaries in one of the supermarkets. On the way down to the Roode Steen, we stopped off at the Koepelkerk (Dome Church), a three-aisled basilica with galleries and a dome. It was built in 1879-1882, designed by architect A.C. Bleys, in a neo-Renaissance style and dedicated to St. Cyriacus and St. Franciscus. Since the feast of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, June 29th 1868, the two parishes of Hoorn were united into one parish. The main church was the church in the Achterstraat, dedicated to St. Cyriacus, and the chapel of ease to the Church of St. Francis at the Achterom, hence the dedication. In the tomb under the altar were enclosed relics of the holy martyrs Restitutus and Placida. But the jewel in the crown for this church was the magnificent collections of stained-glass windows, some old following traditional themes, but also an excellent portion of modern stained-glass.
Koepelkerk Interior - Stained-Glass Old and New, and Looking Up to the Dome
|
We did reach the Roode Steen in the end, and took a welcome break at an outside cafe for coffee. The stalls were still doing brisk trade, and to add to the magical atmosphere, a middle-aged trio were pushing out songs from yesteryear. Cafes corralling the square were busy, particularly when rain tried to dampen the square. I discussed with my shipmates my woeful experience of searching for Dutch cheeseboards, and Meryl came up with the excellent idea of buying cheese as presents; obvious choice really. Soon I was sampling the goods on the two cheese stalls in the square, and homed in on suitable candidates.
While we sipped our coffee, Rex and Meryl told me how they had visited the 18th century Dutch Cape Horners Foundation building that Rex and I had visited two days earlier. Today, two old fellows were on hand to tell them the history of the building. It had originally been an orphanage, and is now rented out as flats. The trustees of the orphanage kept two rooms at the front for their meetings, one for men and one for women. The room Rex and I had visited was the former women trustees' room. Today, Rex and Meryl had the privilege of visiting the other room - I was quite jealous.
Whilst returning back to
Duonita we took refuge in the doorway of an old people's home (we could be classified as old I guess) from another sweeping rain sodden squall. Rex assured us the weather was going to improve. Hmmm..... famous last words.
Poor Meryl was suffering, not only from the cold she was still getting over, but she was complaining of a terrible pain occurring in a biscuit sized area of her scalp; it was as if a knife was piercing the scalp. She smiled bravely but it was clearly causing her grief.
