A strong wind whistled through the town and scudding clouds sped overhead. When I saw the harbour master in the morning he piped up, "Did you get a surprise visit yesterday?"
"I don't know, we were over on Vlieland most of the day," I replied.
"Some customs officials were doing their rounds," he informed me.
"Perhaps they would not have bothered us because of Bexit," I joked.
At that he burst into fits of laughter, finally managing to utter, "You did the right thing, voting to leave. You did the right thing," and he carried on chuckling.
Typical Harlingen Town Houses
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I needed to get Rex some thermal back bandages plus provisions, so I headed off into town, admiring some of the old buildings and streets on the way. As I walked down Schritsen I noticed many of the dwellings and businesses had paintings and sculptures in their windows. This was all part of the Harlingen Festival, and I was most impressed how this approach to displaying art had really got the locals involved.
Nutstraat
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On the way back I took a diversion through the quaint Engelse Tuin (English Garden) on a bend on the Noordoostersingel. The L-shaped pretty garden looked innocuous as it curved around the bend over a small hill. However, during WW II this would have been a different picture. A bunker hidden below the grassy mound was thought to be the hub of a communications network connected up with bunkers at Kornwerderzand, Terschelling, Vlieland, Zurich and probably also Koehool. It was part of the Atlantic Wall, a thousand kilometre long defence line, constructed to defend the Germans against an allied invasion. The north-western end of the park was the Franekerpoortbrug where
Duonita was moored.
Noordergracht from Engelse Tuin
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Later I took Rex for a ramble through the same gardens and back to Voorstraat where we entered the Hannemahuis Museum for a browse. The young woman on the desk was extremely helpful. A gaggle of noisy ladies walked in shortly afterwards, seemingly more concerned with loudly chatting away than taking in the museum.
The Hannemahuis is one of Harlingen's earliest houses, the oldest parts dating from the middle of the 16th century. In the first half of the 18th century the house was inhabited by the Scheltema family and when their daughter, Lijsbet, married Sjoerd Hannema in 1743, the house came to belong to the Hannema's. In 1744, Sjoerd and Lijsbet replaced the facade with a modern clock facade. In 1825 two warehouses were demolished next to the house, where another family member, Sjoerd Jacobus Hannema, built the left-hand part of the house. Leendert Jacobus Hannema was the last cousin of this Harlingen merchant's family who lived in the house. In 1957 he founded a part of his house as a museum. He died in 1964 and declared the house to the municipality of Harlingen , which continued the museum in accordance with the will. The whole house was then decorated as such.
Grote Kerk
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The museum deals primarily with the town's maritime heritage, in particular its role in the whaling industry which brought so much wealth to Friesland in the 1700s. Other exhibits cover such other noble pursuits as silver crafting and Jenever (Dutch gin) distilling. Objects have been collected and exhibited, closely linked to Harlingen's history and art history, such as pottery, maritime objects, ancient paintings, photographs, silverware, various old documents and furniture . There is also a Simon Vestdijk room, where in addition to a number of other matters related to the writer, his complete works can be seen in first impressions. His hometown plays a central role under the name 'Lahringen' in several books. The main part of the Hannemahuis is a permanent arrangement. In addition, regular exhibitions, such as a current art exhibition which we explored, are held.
I also took Rex down Schritsen to show him the artwork on display, but he was singularly unimpressed. Indeed he suggested I rapidly produce sketches of Harlingen, which he would sell as my agent - a born organiser. Hmm.... his back must be getting better I thought.
In the evening we ordered what we thought would be an average sized meal at Wally's on Voorstraat. It was colossal, we could not manage it all.
