Our own Elfstedentocht: Stop # 4 Dokkum

(si prefieres leer ésto en español, sigue este enlace)

One of the Frisian cities that I intend to visit again next spring or summer is the town of Dokkum, which is the northernmost city in the Netherlands and one of oldest towns in the Elfstedentocht - the famous long-distance skating race that takes place in eleven cities in the province of Friesland. 

Closely linked to the city of Dokkum is the name of a saint: Boniface, or as he is known in Dutch, St. Bonifatius. He was a missionary who propagated Christianity in the Frankish Empire and reached what is today the Dutch province of Friesland. It was here in Dokkum in the year 754 where St. Bonifatius suffered martyrdom at the hands of the local inhabitants. 
Today,  spread throughout the city, there are reminders of this historical figure, such as the neo-Gothic church of St. Bonifatius -one of the seven that architect Pierre Kuypers built in Friesland. Also, in the outskirts of the town, you can find St. Bonifatiuskapel and well, which is said to have healing powers.

St. Boniface's Church, built in the 1870s by P. Cuypers.

St. Bonifatius chapel and well, in the outskirts of Dokkum.

The mitre in the middle of this square represents the path followed by St. Bonifatius during his mission in Friesland.

In this well-preserved fortified town, the rich past is still visible. Dokkum had until the 18th century a direct connection to the sea and was for a long time an important harbour.
At the Grootdiep, the former harbour of the city and gateway to the sea, we can still today see the Admiraliteitshuis, vestige of a time when the Admiralty of Groningen and Friesland was housed here and whose purpose was to protect ocean trade. In 1963 the building was converted into a regional museum showing mainly popular regional art, collections of ceramics and textiles from the Golden Age and a very interesting exhibition about St. Boniface, his work and life.

The Admiralty Wharf at Dokkum.

Another interesting building that one should not miss while walking around Dokkum is the exceptional Town Hall, which dates from 1610 and was restored and extended or renewed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Dokkum old Stadhuis is situated in the Kleindiep, which is also the turning point of the Elfstedentocht race.


At the local Tourist Information Office or VVV (address and website below) you can find different walking routes which will take you along the most important sights; but you can of course just walk around on your own, rambling along the canals and cute winding lanes or over the bolwerk, which was the old bastion of the city.

The Hope mill, dating from 1849.

Kids from Dokkum meeting for a chat on a Sunday afternoon.

A lady tending her garden in Dokkum.

Dokkum is also an ideal place to explore the area around this part of the country as well. Northeast Friesland is characterised by charming villages built on man-made mounds - the terp (mound) villages. To the south of the city begins the Frisian Woodland with its special landscape of half-open vistas crisscrossed by hedgerows and to the north and west, the wide open sea mudflats and the Lauwersmeer National Park, a unique area that offers both, protection for the natural habitat and plenty of opportunities for enjoying contact wih nature and water.

The Kleindiep canal or gateway with a view of the Zeldenrust mill.

Pretty houses by the canal in the city of Dokkum.

You can find my posts about three other Frisian cities here:
Stop # 1: Leeuwaarden
Stop #2: Harlingen

Stop #3: IJlst


Useful addresses:

Tourist information (for maps, routes, etc.)
Regio VVV Lauwersland
Op de Fetze 13
9101 Dokkum

Bonifatius Chapel and well (for information on visiting times, etc.)
Bronlaan 12, 9101 VS Dokkum - Phone nr.:06 – 109 14 645
Website

Museum Dokkum (Het Admiraliteitshuis)
Diepswal 27, 9101 Dokkum - Phone nr.: 0519 - 293134
Website

Of Dutch weddings, herring and (bad) first impressions....

(si prefieres leer esta entrada en español, por favor sigue este enlace)

A few days ago Argentinean blogger Ana O'Reilly, author of A pinch of this, a dash of that came up with the idea of having a "weddings around the world" blog series. When she contacted me with the suggestion of posting simultaneously about this topic, I thought it was a good opportunity for me to write about my first experience with party-making in the Netherlands just a very short time after arriving in the country. 

Please, visit Ana's blog entry to read all about her and her Welsh husband Sean's wedding in Argentina. 
Also taking part in this series is American blogger Katie, author of  "Seashells and Sunflowers" You can read her story about her first Argentinean wedding party in her post: "Party 'Til the Crack of Dawn"

 I was still in expat baby diapers, so to speak, in terms of knowledge of the Dutch culture and way of life, when my husband came home from work one day, with the news that we had been invited to a wedding - his colleague Bas was getting married and the party was to be held in a restaurant just outside Zwolle. This was very exciting news! A party! The chance to dress up, get my hair done, wear a lovely evening dress which I hadn't had much chance to show off back in Argentina, and an opportunity to have nice food and dance...! I couldn't wait.

Our wedding day in Argentina, back in 2003.

A week or so before the wedding, my husband found my long strappy turquoise dress beautifully displayed on our bed and myself standing there admiring it. Was I going to make an impression, or what!With a look of surprise on his face, he turned to me wondering if, by any chance, I was planning on attending the Academy Awards Ceremony in LA? What did he mean, I asked - it was obvious that with the wedding just a few days away, I was just getting everything ready for the party, and this was the dress I was going to wear ... I still had to choose the shoes to go with it though, make an appointment with the hairdresser,  (painful affair back then, painful affair still today) pick my accessoires...
Next, when my husband opened his mouth again, my hopes of a red carpet moment at a Dutch wedding were cruelly crushed: people in Holland, he explained, or at least people in this part of Holland, did not dress up that much for a wedding but rather use normal everyday clothes; still smart, but nothing like that dress I was planning on wearing!

I was shocked! Did these people know what they were missing? What of looking smashing, what of all the excitement of finding the right dress, what of all the glamour and glitter?
In hindsight now, after years of living in the Netherlands and learning how practical Dutch people are, I can say they are indeed missing a lot, but not in a bad way. They certainly do not go through all the fuss and stress of finding the perfect Cindirella dress and shoes to match, and they definetely probably don't  throw away an entire month's salary on a single night for a wedding that is not even their own nor their sister's nor probably even their best friend's.

Guests who are not directly related to the couple, normally wear informal clothes to a wedding.

On the day of the wedding, I still made an effort to look my best, of course, even if I was not going to look as if I had just stepped down from a Milan catwalk. I had a quick lunch and started preparing early, since the wedding reception was to begin at 8 pm - a strange time to start a wedding party, in my clueless, non-Dutch opinion.
In Argentina, even if it is now becoming more and more popular to celebrate weddings in the morning and having parties during the day, the norm still is to have the ceremony at around 9 or even 10pm (like my own wedding); therefore, parties don't generally start until 11pm or midnight and they last until the following morning.

Upon arriving at the party, I left my coat in the cloakroom and walked right into the restaurant, eager to start my first Dutch wedding experience. So eager was I, that I blindly walked past the bride and bridegroom at the entrance where they were lined up, together with their direct family, to welcome guests to the party. Surely ignoring them completely, was not exactly the way to make a good first impression, was it?
My excuse of course, was that this line-up procedure was a total novelty for me. In Argentina the guests arrive  first at the party and are served  amuse-bouches and some kind of bubbly wine or cocktails while they wait for the happy couple to make their grand entrance.After this, the party can begin.

Our friends' wedding ceremony, held in the Burgerzaal of the City Hall in Zwolle.

After this first moment of embarrassment, I relaxed and started enjoying the atmosphere of the party. Nice music: check. People chatting merrily and having a good time: check. Food: .... food? Oh, no need to be alarmed; here was a waiter offering ... coffee! Coffee? That was rather unusual, I thought. Coffee before dinner? I drank my coffee and waited... and then waited some more.

Meanwhile, I was introduced to some of my husband's colleagues and I had a chance to talk a bit to most of them. There was a band playing live music which I thought was a brilliant idea and is not so habitual in my own country. Many of the guests were singing along, while in the centre of the room, a group of women were dancing on their own - that is, without partners. My husband doesn't like dancing, so I looked at them with a bit of envy, for I was dancing in my head all the time. I considered walking up to the group myself and joining in, but I wasn't sure what the right thing to do was in these circumstances and after my first blunder with the hosts plus family line-up, I was afraid of making yet another mistake.

Arriving at the place where the wedding ceremony was to be held.

 After eight years living here in the Netherlands and having attended enough weddings by now, I still find it odd that in this part of the Netherlands, it is mostly older couples with an obvious ballroom dancing background or women that dance at weddings or parties in general, while the men stay apart drinking beer and talking.
At a wedding I attended last year, I decided to ask a (Dutch) friend, why this was the case and he replied that indeed, men usually prefer to step outside (weather permitting) to smoke, drink and talk for the duration of the party, while the women inside dance on their own. He also pointed out that he normally only asks someone to dance when he goes to discos or clubs while on holidays abroad, but never in the Netherlands.

Back at the party and some time afterwards, the waiter came back with pretty snacks and my face must have lighted up at the sight of the food. I was so hungry by now, that I could have taken the whole tray that he was carrying and gobble all that food at once. Instead, I picked some sort of crostini that tasted very good, and waited ...

When later (a lot later, actually) the waiter showed up again with the second round of snacks, I said no, for I didn't want to eat too many snacks - I wanted to wait for dinner. My husband instantly saw what I was doing and, in a whisper, he warned me that .... dear Lord, I could not believe what I was hearing, there was not going to be any dinner!

After doing some research aftewards and asking around, I found out that here in the Netherlands, it is customary to invite only family and close friends to a wedding dinner and then have a party with friends and acquaintances. But how was I supposed to know this? In Argentina wedding parties usually include a three-course dinner, a buffet sweet table with different sorts of cakes and desserts and because the merriment lasts until the following morning, it is also usual to offer a "breakfast" of either pizzas or -the most common choice- a flambée whole.... leg of beef! Think "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" to get the picture....

Snacks it was to be, then! And they did look appetising, so even if I was not going to get a full meal as I had expected, I was going to enjoy the party food. More talking and more females-only dancing was done, before the third round of snacks came along. By now I was nearly starving because I hadn't had anything to eat since my quick lunch hours before the party. I quickly scanned the pretty hors d'ouvre on the tray and I picked one without thinking too much of what it was made of.

The minute I bit into it I knew that I was going to regret it. Unlucky choice of snack I had made! The gelatinous, soapy texture of the thing in my mouth told me that I had taken a bite of the one Dutch delicacy I had been avoiding to eat since arriving in the country: hollandse nieuwe, which is actually ... raw herring!

A hollandse nieuwe snack, that is, the first young herring of the season. Photo credit: Jerulobe for Wikipedia.

At that moment, someone addressed me or included me in the conversation with an intonation which meant I was expected to answer. How could I, when I was still trying to figure out what to do with the rubbery piece of fish I had in my mouth? I was not going to swallow it, that was for sure. I managed to give a quick answer trying hard not to gag in the guy's face (that would not have been very red carpet moment!) and  rushed to the Ladies' room with the intention of getting rid of the ... newly discovered delicacy. 


Needless to say, I was forced to spend much of the rest of the evening visiting the same Ladies' room time and time again, because despite drinking gallons of water, cola and other beverages, I did not succeed in washing out the taste of the bit of raw fish from my mouth.

So much for having fun and enjoying my first Dutch wedding...Like Groucho Marx once said, I had "a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

cordobeses, just as we are...

(si prefieres leer esta entrada del blog en español, sigue este enlace)

The peatonal, or pedestrian shopping area in Córdoba, Argentina.

On occasion of the last elections that took place here in The Netherlands in June last year, the difficulties that had to be overcome in order to form a new Dutch government prompted me to think about my home country and how differently the Dutch and the Argentineans react to events that shape the way we live in. While in Argentina we tend to be more intense and make a big deal out of anything that happens to make the news at the moment, in the Netherlands people mostly listen,  discuss more or less extensively -albeit dispassionately- among family or friends, draw conclusions, and finally go on about their daily business.

I kept thinking about this later and I realised that being passionate and intense is a characteristic that all Argentineans share. We are passionate about politics, about football, about food, about our national heroes. But what about people from my home town -Córdoba- in particular? What are the things that make us stand out from the rest of our countrymen? How can a cordobés be recognised as such by other Argentineans? What are we like?

A very friendly cordobés taking a moment to pose for the photographer.  Photo: Claudia Gibson

Funny is the first thing that comes to mind. From the moment we open our mouths to speak, we put a smile on our interlocutor's face, for we speak Spanish with a very particular accent. The melody has a slow cadence that comes from a lengthening of the syllable preceding the stressed one, so that (to give an example that non-Spanish speakers will understand) mi amigo (my friend) becomes miaaaaaaamigo.
Argentineans from other parts of the country try to imitate or even mock us, especially when telling jokes; what they probably don't know is that they don't always succeed in copying our accent. This is mainly because sounding cordobés takes more than just getting the phonetics and the intonation right: it takes a certain cordobés quality. The nature of this cordobés quality is rather complex and a well-kept secret which I am not at a liberty to disclose so publicly...

Well, maybe just a little, or there would be no point at all in writing this post, would it?

Being funny, then, does not just imply speaking in a particular way, enlongating the words in the right place or even using typical cordobés jargon (which we naturally have) but also acting and reacting in a funny way.
Cordobeses have a special ability to make quick, witty and funny remarks in every situation and circumstance of everyday life, whether it is a relaxed moment with friends, while standing in line at the bank or in the middle of a serious and solemn occasion; and the melody with which they make such responses generally makes the remark sound even funnier.

Two cordobesas protest -and make fun at the same time- about the increase in the price of public transport in the city of Córdoba by wearing a bus token in a very creative way. Photo: Claudia Gibson.

Reflecting on this characteristic of the cordobés quality, I came to think of my own father. My dad is a cordobés through and through. He has a thick cordobés accent that not even living outside Córdoba for most of his yong adult life could take away.
He retired from the navy still young and returned to the Córdoba of his childhood to stay. He has been living now in the same house for the past 29 years and he is very friendly to all of his neighbours and they all seem to like him, too.
He likes talking a lot, so that every morning when he goes out for groceries it will take him at least three hours to be back home, simply because on the way to the supermarket and back, he stops at least a dozen times to talk to the neighbours... usually people he never bothers to mention by their real names to my mum or me when he reports what news he heard from señor R. or how señora M. is doing. As a true cordobés, he is good at making up funny names for every person he knows.

My dad, drinking mate by the river in Entre Ríos, Argentinia.

I normally find this habit of his amusing and I even make use myself of those funny names when it is my turn to mention some of the neighbours. These names are not meant to be derogative or uttered in a disrespectful way - it is just a trait that comes with our cordobés genes, I suppose.
My mum, on the other hand, thinks that this habit of his is quite annoying, since she claims to never know who he is really talking about. Surely is not that difficult to call people by their actual names? Why does señor G.  have to be Mr. Fridge-door Egg, or señor S., Mr. Neat Hen?
Well, señor G. seems to spend quite a large portion of the day standing at the door (just where you normally have a place for eggs in the fridge) of his house checking out what is going on in the neighbourhood; he is like the watchman on the street, if you know what I mean.
Then there is Mr. Neat Hen, a man who seems to have a habit that does not provoke the slightest blush on his part when he, (and I can't believe I am telling you this here) "arranges his eggs like a very neat hen would, while he's talking to you," my dad explained the first time he came up with the name. And there is also Mr. Badly-hidden Soldier, who is totally bald, what apparently makes my dad (who was in the military for 30+ years) think of a soldier whose "helmet" you can see, thus, he is unsuccessfully hidden behind the barricades or he has not camouflaged his helmet properly with leaves, like soldiers normally do.

Me with my mum and dad in Argentina.

This habit my dad has, has caused me more than one embarrassing moment during my yearly visits to Argentina, when I stay at my parents' house and the neighbours stop me on the street to welcome me back.
They all seem happy to see me again, and they are eager to know if I have had a good flight, how long I will be staying, if I am ok and things like that... I like engaging in small talk with my parents' neighbours -everyone is so friendly and genuinely interested; but I always feel panic seething in my head while I desperately scan my memory to remember the person's real name. After all, despite being a cordobesa myself, it would not be very polite to greet señor S.  with, "Heeeeey, Mr. Neat Hen, long time no see, how's the family doing?", while I try not to notice that he is actually, being neat again... And just for the record, in Argentina people normally kiss when they meet, for example, on the street - never shake hands!

First day of the year ...

... with my feet in the IJssel*

(si prefieres leer este post en español, por favor sigue este enlace)

First sunset of 2011 by the Buitenwaarden Wijhe (Overijssel).

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had good fun celebrating New Year's Eve and that you welcomed 2011 in high spirts and good health!

After a lazy brunch on this first day of the year -and the decade-  we decided with my husband to take a short ride along the river IJssel and see what kind of images winter and nature would gift us with. We didn't have to go too far from Zwolle to find a delicious spot near the town of Wijhe.

In comparison to other rivers in the Netherlands, the IJssel is less accessible. Most of the towns and cities by the river have nice sandbeaches, but between one town and the next, it is quite difficult to get close to the water. That is why the Dutch Forestry Commission or Staatsbosbeheer in Dutch,has set up beautiful locations along the IJssel where you can get really close to the water and enjoy the view of the river and its habitat.

There are ten such spots of the Met je Voeten in de IJssel (which means, "with your feet in the IJssel") route and they can be indentified by cute signs like this one:

the "with your feet in the IJssel" sign marking one of the locations by the river in the Buitenwaarden Wijhe.

Riding out of Zwolle, we took the N337 and just 2 km north of the town of Wijhe, we found the parking place for the Buitenwaarden Wijhe, one of the locations set up by the Staatsbosbeheer.

Not knowing what to expect, I first got out of the car on my own, hoping to take a few shots and head back to the car as soon as possible. I first sighted the dijk (dyke):

People taking a New Year's stroll on the dyke at Buitenwaarden Wijhe.

Then of course, my eyes were drawn towards the sun and the water. The land between the summer and winter dykes get generally flooded at this time of the year and you get your feet definitely in the water if you wander off the marked foot- and cyclepaths:

With a bit of sun, Dutch skies turn into beautiful paintings.

I found an information board describing the habitat of De Buitenwaarden and discovered a mill in the distance. Could it get more Dutch than this? Educational and bucolic at the same time:

Flooded meadows by the IJssel, an informative board and a mill in the distance.

A mill in the far distance as seen from the dyke on De Buitenwaarden Wijhe.

I was truly mesmerised by the effect of the sunlight on the frozen water:

Abstract art for free on the IJssel river.

We then moved on a few kilometres down the N337 (the IJsseldijk) and stopped at another spot where it was possible to stroll closeby the water.
The whole area of the IJssel washwaters is one of the richest in bird life and we spotted hundreds of them!

A few amigos...

... and then two amigos:

 

We kept shooting away and enjoying the last moments of sunlight by the IJssel:

Finally, at around 16:35 of this, the 1st day of the year, and the decade, we took the last shot of this beautiful natural area by the IJssel river - it was time to head back home:

The sunset in a beautiful spot along the river IJssel, near Den Nul, province of Overijssel.

_______________________________________________
*translation of "met je voeten in de IJssel" - the name of the route along the IJssel river.

The beautiful stillness of the Dutch winter

 (si prefieres leer este post en español, por favor sigue este enlace)

Once again I spent the Christmas holiday in the Netherlands, far from Argentina, summer heatwaves, and (sadly) from my family. But it was not as bad as it probably sounds - spending Christmas in the Netherlands always gives me the chance to pay more attention to the surroundings and to enjoy the beautiful winter landscapes in and around Zwolle.

In the winter the stillness in the air is overwhelming - even the birds are silenced, except for the geese when they fly off at sunset. The crisp cold air makes your cheeks glow and the bones of your face hurt until your eyes well up with tears. Still, once you manage to open your eyes wide enough, winter in the Netherlands rewards you with fairytale pictures like these I captured on the Zalkerdijk on Christmas Day and in the Milligerplas in Zwolle on Sunday.

A view of the Elektrakabel and ABN-AMRO buildings on the right from the Zalkerdijk and across the frozen waters of the river IJssel.

A solitary sheep grazing in the frozen pastures of a farm, near Zalk, outside Zwolle.

The sun is almost ready to set on Christmas Day.

Geese flying over the Milligerplas in Zwolle.

Feathery reeds waving in the icy cold breeze over the Milligerplas.

The sun gives a timid silvery light to the water and the snow in the Milligerplas.

The stillness is broken, though, when you get close to one of the many frozen canals in the neighbourhood and find children having lots of fun skating or sledding on the ice.

Christmas - Córdoba style...

At home, we keep Christmas traditions from both sides of the Atlantic.

During my recent stay in my home town in Argentina I had the opportunity to attend a concert given by a singer who is originally from Córdoba: Jairo. Born as Mario González in the north of my province (Córdoba, same name as my city), he became known in the 70s but his career started actually in Spain, not Argentina. His fame increased on both sides of the Atlantic and became quite popular, composing and interpreting songs about everyday life and things. Along his career he has sung, among others, to Argentinean foremost writer, Jorge Luis Borges and to the maximum tango legend, Carlos Gardel. He also performed in some of the most famous theatres around the world, including the Olympia in Paris. 

As a sample of the recital we attended that evening and to warm up our souls for Christmas, I am posting here two songs by Jairo: Carpintería José (it means, "Joseph's Carpentry Shop" and tells the story of the Nativity with Joseph being a regular man who is about to become a father) and the Ave Maria, which he sang in French and in Spanish - the last part without using a mike, so that the audience could appreciate the great  accoustics of the Liberador Theatre of Córdoba. Enjoy!!

Source: YouTube

Made with my smartphone @ Teatro del Libertador, Córdoba.

Have a beautiful Christmas Eve and a very Merry Christmas Day, everyone!

Santa Claus is coming to town

 (Si prefieres leer esta entrada en español, por favor sigue este enlace)

Today I want to share with you a video I received as Christmas greetings from my friend Nicolás. Besides admiring his ability on the rollers and his excellent physical condition, in it you also get to see different sights of his city: Rosario. Here is the video:


Rosario is the third most important city in Argentina, after Buenos Aires and Córdoba -my city- which is the second largest. I couldn't resist mentioning this piece of information, since it has been a long standing tradition for residents of Rosario and Córdoba to argue which of the two cities is the second largest in the country... 

At some point during the video, you get to see big silos or grain containers painted in diffferent colours. These old silos have been restored and today they house the MACRO - Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Museum of Contemporary Art) of Rosario. I visited the MACRO in 2008 during my holidays in Argentina and here is the photo I took of the curious building: 

The old grain silos house today the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rosario.

In future posts I will be showing you more places in Rosario, a city I like a lot despite not being as beautiful as my home town, Córdoba (ehem!).