We stayed with about half a dozen other campers in a farmer’s field, set aside as a “mini-camp,” outside Middelberg, the capital of Zeeland, the furthest southwest province of the Netherlands. We took a bus into the city center. Once again, the city center was very old and impressively large; also impressive was the Abbey, just off the centrum: three churches, side by side, a quad surrounded by monks’ quarters, and very old pulpits and pipe organs. It also has a fanciful monument remembering FDR’s “Four Freedoms”: freedom of speech and of religion, freedom from fear and from want. The connection is that FDR’s ancestors came from Zeeland. After we took the bus back to the campground, we rode our bikes into Veere, a small village that has become a sailing harbor when the dyke project in the 1960s cut off their access to the sea and ended their fishing economy. We visited an old church which hasn’t been restored but instead turned into a concert and community place. An unexpected twist.
It has rained all day Tuesday, as we traveled to a campground on the outskirts of Breda: we picked this campground because it has a laundry--a good way to use a rainy day--but found that the only washing machine is not working! So we’ve done nothing more than shop for groceries today and listen to the BBC discuss the US House’s rejection of the bailout bill. Much of the coverage has been on the level of “does this represent the failure of market capitalism?” It was interesting hearing a European banker or politician say that American politicians had to act responsibly and pass the damn thing: it was clear that a congressman from Kansas wouldn’t be at all impressed by the admonition and might even be angered by it...much as Europeans must be by American blowhards lecturing them.
We interrupt this report for breaking news:
This just in--
TWINS LOSE!!
In a development that sent stock markets reeling around the world, the Minnesota Twins lost their playoff game to the universally despised Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. Right-thinking enclaves throughout the world mourn. Except in Breda, the Netherlands, where patrons of the McDonalds couldn't understand our anguish.
More later, but not about this.