Happy Thanksgiving…

History Is Just Around The Corner… #2

Remember when I was driving through Van Diemenstraat and the last wall painting was of… Willem Barentsz [1550-1597], he was a Dutch navigator and explorer, a leader of early expeditions to the far north. [In English his name is mostly written as Barents].
A cartographer by trade, Barentsz sailed to Spain and the Mediterranean to complete [...]

History Is Just Around The Corner… #1

Discovering the world didn’t stop with Columbus. While traveling the city I came past this wall painting on Van Diemenstraat. Mr. van Diemen [1593-1645] was the Covernor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Van Diemen’s nine years as Governor-General were successful and important for both the colony and the commercial success of the East India Company. [...]

Once Hidden Now In “Plain View”…

A Hidden Church or as we in the Netherlands call them, een schuilkerk (Dutch – house church; plural – schuilkerken) is a kind of church that is not recognisable as a church from the outside of the building. They were built in large numbers during the time of the Dutch Republic for use by Roman Catholics, [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #3

The Miracle of Amsterdam
A few days before Palm Sunday on March 15, 1345 a man in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam received the Sacred Host when a priest administered the Sacrament of the Sick to him. In his sickness he vomited, expelling the Host which was caught in a basin and thrown on to the fire, [...]

Place of Silence in a Noisy City #2

Begijnhof
Until 1578 Amsterdam was almost completely Roman Catholic, with two large parish churches, six chapels and many monasteries and convents. Every year the worship of the Sacrament of the Miracle [see tomorrow] drew thousands of pilgrims to the city. A fair grew up alongside, ensuring a flourishing economy.
In Amsterdam the Protestant reformers were particularly opposed [...]

Dutch and the City

From Harlem to Brooklyn and Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue, the Dutch influence on New York City life is all around you. The Dutch and the City not only share a history; today groundbreaking Dutch designers, fashionable artists and innovative architects continue to inspire many New Yorkers. As you walk around the city, you’ll find Dutch [...]

Royal Visit to NYC

The upcoming NY400 Week celebrations will be highlighted by a unique six-day visit of the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima of the Netherlands to the City of New York. It brings back memories of another Royal Visit, fifty years ago. Her Majesty Queen Beatrix – then Princess- stole the hearts of the New Yorkers [...]

One Small Step…

One small step for men, a giant step for mankind.
The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the Moon. It was the fifth human spaceflight of Project Apollo and the third human voyage to the Moon. Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot [...]

♫ Fly me to the… ♫

Today in 1789

220 years ago, a mob of 20,000 people storms the Bastille Prison in Paris, killing its personnel and freeing all seven prisoners incarcerated therein: four forgers, an accomplice to murder, a nobleman jailed for incest, and an insane Irishman. The warden is decapitated and his head carried around on a pike.
And so began the French Revolution.

One week ago…

in a land far, far away… my vacation ended.
Chicago And Beyond – My Vacation 2009 can be found on Picasa. From the original 805 photos over 400 ended up in this file. Have a look and give a comment.

40 Years Ago Today…

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City.
They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when gays, lesbians and transgenders fought [...]

May 5th, Liberation Festival

Yesterday it was Remembrance Day and today we celebrate Liberation Day.
On 5 May the Dutch celebrate the end of the Second World War at the Museumplein (Museum Quarter) and reflect on the imprisonment of millions of other people around the world today.
Artists and actors, performers and cooks, volunteers and many others: they offer a wonderful [...]

2 Minutes Silence

Today is Remembrance Day in the Netherlands and on the Netherlands Antilles. 
The fallen civilians in the Netherlands, but also those who gave their life in our former colony Indonesia will be remembered, next to military staff in Europe and Asia during WW2. Also all military staff and civilians whom have fallen after 1945 in conflicts [...]

Attack on Dutch Royal Family

HRH Princess Maxima and
HRH Crown Prince William Alexander
just after the attack

What started as a normal sunny Queens day ended unexpectedly just before noon local time in Apeldoorn, the city the Royals visited.
A 38 year old caucasian Dutch man drove his car at full speed through the barriers into the public who where watching the tour. He missed [...]

April 30, Queens Day in the Netherlands

On April 30, her Royal Highness Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will ceebrate her 71st birthday. Her official birthday is on January 31,
April 30 is a national holiday. It was Queen Juliana’s birthday, but when Queen Beatrix became Queen, she decided to keep 30 April as a day of national celebration. She did so [...]

Best Business Deal Ever Made… in 1626

In 1626, the Dutch bought Manhattan by giving the Native Americans goods worth 60 guilders. At least, the Dutch thought they had. Dubbed by Fortune Magazine the best business deal ever made, evidence of this misinterpreted transaction is provided by the Schaghenbrief letter, now on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The exhibition is part [...]

Shared History, Shared Values

April 2009 marks 400 years since Captain Henry Hudson departed Amsterdam on a Dutch East India Company ship, the Halve Maen (Half Moon). That September, Hudson sailed up the New York River that now bears his name. Hudson’s voyage attracted Dutch traders to the area, leading to the establishment of diverse, relatively tolerant settlements: New [...]

Holland on the Hudson

Tolerance, a Real Dutch Treat
The popular idea of the 17th century Dutch settlement New Amsterdam is that its inhabitants muddled around for a while, then made room for the English so the real history of the 13 colonies could begin. “That is not true,” says Russell Shorto, writer of The Island at the Center of [...]