"MY THIRD MIDDELBURG TRAVELOGUE...." Top 5 Page for this destination Middelburg Travelogue by eden_teuling

ANOTHER interesting and well-kept building that is also on the HERITAGE LISTis this MONUMENT .

It is named :ST. JORISDOELEN and on top of it you can see Saint Joris fighting the DRAGON.
Next photo is a close up, to make things clear to you.....

This jewel was built in the year 1582, yes 1582, no typos here! So it really is very old and kept in good shape. Of course this too is on the HERITAGE LIST......

It was the place for the RIFLE / SHOOTING CLUB for ages......

During the 19th Century it lost its function as a GUILD HALL and from that time on it housed several offices, it once was a job centre and now a number of lawyers have their offices there.

The day I took this photo I could stand in the (not deep and empty) pond of the fountain which was not working: repairs!!

The square in front of the St. Jorisdoelen is triangular and there are 3 MAGNIFICANT, MAJESTIC RED BEECH TREES, of which you can only see one little leaf, top right..

In an old book I have a print of the moment the trees were planted, more than a century ago....but you will understand that I can't scan that to show it to you.....

ST. JORISDOELEN MIDDELBURG

there he is: SAINT JORIS, fighting the dragon.....

JORIS is the Dutch word / name for GREGORY and this Saint fighting the dragon is a LEGEND....

DE DAM AND DE GRAANBEURS MIDDELBURG

This is DE DAM with the GRAANBEURS and in the background the LANGE JAN.

The HARBOUR, connected with the sea used to go on along these grand houses but part of it was filled in during the 18th Century and DE GRAANBEURS (CORN EXCHANGE) was built.

Some 40 years ago there was a little row of very old houses opposite the grand houses you see at the right side so that they formed a narrow alleyway together, but they were broken down ....

At the end of THE DAM, in the photo top left is the beginning of DE LANGE DELFT, one of the PEDESTRIANS ONLY areas : shopping streets.....inviting places.........and with cane chairs on the many terraces (in summer) to drop down for a drink and a rest!

ZEEUWS MUSEUM ABDIJPLEIN MIDDELBURG

This is the part of the ABDIJPLEIN where the ZEEUWS MUSEUM is housed (as you can see, the words Zeeuws Museum are on the façade.)

I love those red shutters, the spires, the stone tablets all over the place and.....especially the trees.......life would be so utterly dull without the colour- and movement bringing millions of leaves......trees, srubs, bushes, flowers: they MAKE OR MAR a city/town/village/square/house......

I would die would I have to live in a desert, a real one or a city that we often call "the desert of stone"......I wouldn't be able to breathe!

LANGEJAN IN BETWEEN NIEUWE KERK AND KOORKERK MIDDE

This is the lowest part, the part where you can enter to climb the tower, of DE LANGE JAN.

This tower is in between the NIEUWE KERK & DE KOORKERK.

Enter here and explore the places: wonderful organs, the herb garden, temp. exhibitions and much more....there are occasional concerts given too!

A real joy to roam and walk there, especially when you take your time....

LOST PEOPLE, HOMELESS

The last exhibition I went to see there was this one: a collection of 800 clay figures walking and walking......

They stand for the millions of people that have no homes, no home-country anymore, no place to stay and, worse...no place to go.
Nowhere welcome, nowhere invited in, just being on the move for the duration of their lives....

Walking there amids all these 800 (some 40 cm. in height) figures, with heads and eyes down, shoulders as well as arms hanging down, tiredly walking in row after row and being forced doing so for ever and ever, I felt their tiredness, their despair, the hopelessness and cold, their hunger and feeling of being cast outs, non existent.....made redundant......a reality in clay, but at the same time REALITY in the flesh

THE ORGAN WITH CHERUBS....

this JUBILANT ORGAN with the many CHERUBS.

Wouldn't they be made of wood, they would be frolicking and goofing around and disrupt the SERVICES held in this church.

I have never heard this organ but it looks as if the sound must be OVERWHELMING

A REAL BEAUTY.......here in Middelburg in the city centre.....

MY PROVINCE'S COAT OF ARMS: LUCTOR ET EMERGO...

On the ABDIJPLEIN you will find this COAT OF ARMS .

In LATIN you can read the words: LUCTOR ET EMERGO which means: I fight and struggle but....will always emerge.

And that sturdy, indefatigable Dutch LION is standing in the water, the water that surrounds our province and most of our country, the water that is our friend and foe, the water we fear and love and will always respect, the water that is our life....

How about sunny days at our white beaches?? How about a lovely fish-dish??

Hear..........the sound of the waves nibbling away at our shoreline...... sweetly lapping against the hulls of ships, cradling the yachts, surfers and swimmers....

Follow me, there are still 2 more travelogues waiting for you........