Are You Sure?

“What are you going to do with that thing?” someone, a reader, asked me a year ago.

She meant this blog of mine. I had a little plan. Then I heard of self publishing and my little plan seemed a little closer. I wouldn’t have to chase a publisher down, that would save a year of my time.

“The Bee’s Tour of Gouda, Buzzing Through Vinita’s Lens” will be published in March of 2012. It’s a guide-blog-magazine book of Gouda for visitors. Gouda’s city center is easily walked and there is a heritage site right in town, the stained glass windows of St. John’s Church. While stained glass windows are not for everyone, or have some sort of connotation of dusty church visits, these windows are truly spectacular. I asked friends from out of town who came for a visit a few years ago about their memories of the church windows. “The colors, the greens, the blues,…it was like Italy.” they said. Well yes, one of the 16th century makers of the windows was rather influenced by Rafael.

Interestingly enough my friends did not mention the history of the windows which I find fascinating. Actually the history of the birth of the Republic of Holland is hanging in those windows, the fight between Spain and the Low Lands, Philip II and William of Orange, the fight between religious points of view, the Catholics and Calvinists, it includes pirates and boats, merchants and colonists. It is remarkable that this is forgotten and that the windows are mainly revealed as Biblical stories with a somewhat forgotten political agenda that make for beautiful art. Partly because they are still part of a very present Protestant Church. But that’s all part of the fight you see, who was what and when during the Reformation and what about now? It’s said in the previous (English) guide books of Gouda, that since the windows were paid for, the newly formed Protestant church let them stand and did not remove the “Catholic” icons. There’s a little more to this it seems to me, it’s not that simple. In my tour I take you through Gouda and explain in an easy short manner as you walk the streets what was going on, what you’re looking at and not just with text because there are photographs.

Vinita Salomé is a professional photographer ( http://www.vinitasalome.com) and she is the other half of this collaboration, “The Bee’s Tour of Gouda – Buzzing Through Vinita’s Lens”. (We wanted to include both our blog names in the title.) She set off enthusiastically with my list; she told me she very much enjoyed the route. Then a few weeks after her grand start I got an email from her, “Are you sure about the sculpture walk?” she said after she’d seen a few of the works of art, a legacy of the 1990’s. The sculpture walk is a bit of a little joke. “It’s a real treasure isn’t it?” I replied. Well people you’ll have to be the judge yourself. You don’t have to go out of your way to view the items; they’re mentioned as you visit other sights. Good sights well worth seeing of course. I feel the sculpture walk puts the more interesting things in better perspective, by default at times.

Of the eleven works initially placed on the sculpture walk only nine remain. Vinita couldn’t find the one near the Red Lion Windmill. She asked the old man who works at the old fashioned flour and sugar warehouse (formerly a 19th century ice factory) nearby. He looked at her like she’d lost her mind, who would actually look for that thing? He was probably thinking just this thought after her question left her lips. Then he seemed frankly glad to tell her it had left when the junk yard next to it had been cleaned up for a new housing construction. I couldn’t blame him, that particular piece was called “Untitled” and looked like a cement truck had back fired a large heavy fart-like object. Then there were some red seats aligned alongside it in a sort of pro-socialist film setting. But the windmill nearby is lovely, just restored, and it even works these days milling products to be sold in their shop.

We have a Facebook page for our book. You can keep abreast of the book's developments there and comments are most welcome!

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