NIJMEGEN, HOLLAND

NIJMEGEN (ny men gen)

Romans had a military camp in what is now the city of Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands. Close to the German border, the city is situated on a range of hills near the River Waal. The surrounding area of hills, woods and polders, creates a varied countryside. The waterfront set against the backdrop of the city center is a splendid sight. Past and present gracefully mingle where historic buildings are interspersed with fine examples of modern architecture.

We were docked in the Waal River. Modern apartments lined the river front. We walked through flood gates that were installed after a 1982 flood.

Before starting up the hill our guide told us, “During Operation Market Garden in WW II, 20,000 paratroopers were dropped into the city to secure the bridges. It was a very foggy night, and with the troopers everywhere it was pretty much a fiasco, but they did secure one bridge. Later Allied bombers mistaking the city lights for Cologne bombed the city killing 3000 people and leveling one-third of the city.”

Everywhere we went we found a clock on each side of the towers in the cities /villages. The double eagle goes back to Roman times.

The hill was not a steep climb. We stopped at a wartime Jewish memorial at the equivalent of a small traffic circle on the narrow cobbled streets.

With a university and a higher educational vocational school much of its 160,000 residents are young.

Stopping at St Steven’s Church, it was explained, “Notice there is no statuary on the church façade. When all the churches were being destroyed the priest removed all the statues and buried them. Years later they were recovered and put on the school/ monastery across the street. See the twelve apostles standing proud there.”

Construction on St Steven’s Church began around 1254. The building started in Romanesque style but was completed in Gothic style. The Renaissance-style tower was built in the mid fourteenth century and has dominated the city skyline for centuries.

Along the way the guide stopped in front of a coffee shop with sign of a marijuana leaf over the door. I immediately recalled on my first trip to Amsterdam that we were told, in Holland pot and soft drugs are legal. But beware--you buy coffee in a café and pot in a coffee shop, where there is no coffee.

In the pedestrian square we stopped by a statue across from the weigh house. The statue is of a young orphaned girl who lived with a stepmom and sister in the woods. Each market day she was sent to market to sell goods they had scrounged in the forest. One day she was told not to return until everything was sold.

Going through the woods a highwayman robbed her of the goods. She sat down and cried. Then suddenly the devil appeared and gave her money. She ran off and lived with him for seven years. She returned to the village one day to see a play that turned out to be a religious one, and she realized what a sin she had committed. She went to the priest to confess and was sentenced to wear a chain around each leg until they fell off. Seven years later the chains fell off, and she spent the rest of her life as a nun.

The Dutch seem to have stories or legends for many of their statues.

Behind the statue is the ornate Gothic 15^th century town hall. I understand the inside is not remarkable.

After the walking tour we spent some time wandering the huge Saturday market that extended for blocks. Showers were intermittent, so we scooted into a store or two along the way to wait them out. The main street ran parallel to the harbor, so at any perpendicular up street we had a nice view of the harbor below.

One vendor gave us a stroopwafel sample. They were yummy, and we each bought a package to bring home. I actually managed to get them home unbroken to share with friends.

Nijmegen is an interesting and sweet little town where we found very friendly people.

DELFT PORCELAIN

                                       Famous Delft Ware

            I would guess that most of you are familiar with the well known blue porcelain known as Delft Ware. And it is not a far reach to figure that it might come from a place called Delft in the Netherlands. Today I’ll talk about the porcelain.I talked  about the delightful city in early November '13..

            During the 13^th century Delft was a   long-time home port to the Dutch East India Company.

Several small Dutch facilities produced tin-glazed pottery known as Majolica in the 16^th century. The Dutch East Indian Company began importing porcelain from China in the seventeenth century, and it, especially the blue and white, became very popular. The imported Chinese porcelain meant competition, so the Majolica-producing factories started to imitate the Chinese porcelain, plus travel time meant long waits for specific pieces of pottery from China.

            The famous blue and white porcelain known the world over was first produced in the 17^th century. From about 1615, the potters began to coat their pots completely in white tin glaze instead of covering only the painting surface and coating the rest with clear ceramic glaze. They then began to cover the tin-glaze with clear glaze, which gave depth to the fired surface and smoothness to cobalt blues, ultimately creating a good resemblance to porcelain. By 1640 Delft potters began using personal monograms and distinctive factory marks. Many factories were established in beer breweries that had stopped production after a large explosion.

            Delftware ranged from simple household items--plain white earthenware with no decoration to items with fancy artwork. Pictorial plates were made in abundance. Delft potters also made tiles in vast numbers over a period of two hundred years, and still today many Dutch homes still have tiles that were made in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

            Today artists work 3-5 years training to paint the porcelain before they are allowed to paint on their own. Delft ceramics have been an important export product for more than 400 years.Royal Delft, established in 1653, is still entirely hand-painted according to a centuries-old tradition. In the1600s there were 39 factories producing Delft pottery; today three remain with 20 painters.  

            We visited one of the small factories, De Candelaer, where the owner explained the pottery process. Especially interesting was how to spot a fake opposed to  real delft.

            The fellow told us, “Clay for genuine delft is imported from Cornwall, England and arrives in powder form. The first firing takes 9 hours at 2000 degrees. Then it is 24 hours before the mold can be opened. It takes 8-10 days for a piece of pottery to be completed. It is microwave and diswasher  safe.”

            Before leaving the facility and the interesting presentation on the famous blue porcelain most of us helped the city economy. I did my part by doing some Christmas shopping!