Back from the Netherlands
15 05 2008I am now back from the Netherlands, where I have been spending time doing some Bavinck-related research at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. Getting direct access to Bavinck’s handwritten material was amazing. I even came across notes he had written for an address at a Sunday School party!
It was incredibly useful to spend time with Dutch Bavinck scholars and ask them lots of questions. Having the opportunity to actually speak Dutch was great fun too.
The picture above is of a statue in Den Haag. If I remember correctly, the base of the statue had some kind of Dutch rhyme written on it.
Dutch cheese (kaas) is very good.
Everyone cycles everywhere. With hindsight, I should have taken my rollerblades - this country is flat!
The excellent Mauritshaus art gallery and the Dutch Prime Minister’s office in Den Haag.
Even the trains are double Dutch in a double decker style.
The statue’s name is ‘Jantje’ and the poem is a well known old nursery rhyme . Jantje is probably Jan I, duke of Holland in the late 13th century.
In Den Haag daar woont een graaf,
en zijn zoon heet Jantje.
Als je vraagt waar woont je pa,
dan wijst hij met zijn handje,
Met zijn vingertje, met zijn duim,
Op zijn hoed draagt hij een pluim,
Aan zijn arm een mandje,
Dag mijn lieve Jantje.
Why are you carryng a baby?
There is another rumour that you have exhumed Bavinck’s bones and they are in the bag.
Met geweld kan de kat de kerk ompissen!
Rachel,
That’s right! Jantje. The nursery rhyme is very sweet. Den Haag is erg mooi!
David M,
Two words: Amsterdam, pickpockets! I am impressed by your Dutch as well. Wat knap!