This Week in Wijnjewoude 2018: Week 33 So good we saw them twice

The Giants visit Leeuwarden

Sometimes I really appreciate the Dutch/Frisian sense of humour...

This on "crowd sizes"...

So, we were part of the "biggest crowd ever" - in Leeuwarden on Friday and again on Sunday. Janny had this on her "must do" list all year and I must admit, I was happy to tag along.

Janny even suggested "going early", much to my surprise.

So, we had parked the car, jumped on the "pendelbus" and were in Leeuwarden by 0800hrs!

I later gleaned that the story behind the Giants' visit was that they were "wandering the streets of Leeuwarden, looking for each other".

(Mostly) my own photos...

When we arrived all the Giants were "sleeping". The girl had the dog on her lap. Huge speakers had the sound of snoring/deep breathing and the girl's chest was moving in and out with each breath.

Now, the Giants themselves are pretty amazing, but as usual, I was more intrigued with the scale of the organization to "make it all happen".

Leeuwarden was closed to all traffic, even bicycles! Parking was arranged at several locations on the outskirts, all colour-coded and with lines of "pendelbuses" waiting to ferry people into the city. (I figured that pendel is related to pendulum - meaning going to and fro - although I preferred to call them "pedalbuses"). Trainloads of people were also arriving as we walked past the station.

Our bus tickets were numbered in the 200,000 range, so I will be interested to see the estimated crowd sizes.

(Edit: Monday's newspaper has the estimates at 100,000 for Friday, 160,000 for Saturday and 170,000 for Sunday).

Our vantage point, not quite as good as the boats. We had thought of taking our boat in but I think it would have been a futile effort...

The Police "stealth" boat had things under control... literally pushing small boats back as they tried to sneak under the bridge...

So, on Friday and Saturday, the Giants roamed the streets of Leeuwarden.

The largest of the three was the "Diver". He started Friday morning waiting in the canal...

The Girl awoke at 1000hrs and "had a shower" - one of the workers climbed on top of the rigging with a giant shower rose and she moved and washed herself under the running water...the crowd had obviously increased by this time!

At 1100hrs The Diver was lifted out of the water and hoisted onto his traveling rig to begin his walk.

I hope the video is not too long (25secs)...showing how the Diver "walks"...

The Girl. the Diver and the Dog all had different routes on the Friday and Saturday and by Saturday evening they had "found" each other - accompanied by much merriment and music! - at the Exhibition Buildings, where they slept the night awaiting their departure on Sunday.

On Sunday, we had a roadside spot - where we waited for 3 hours! for all three of the giants to walk past - all over in about 10 minutes! But exciting, nonetheless. They were walking to a ship where the Diver had started on Friday. They would board the ship and head homewards through Leeuwarden, presumably back to France!

Sunday AM

Not my photos...

...also shows the "walking" mechanism - pulling down on the ropes lifts the legs up - requiring teams of rope pullers on each side.

Au revoir...

Note: The name of this boat/ship is the same as the original name of our boat; ie this is Stanfries X - ours was Stanfries XV (I don't know if there is any connection as I am yet to discover the meaning - if there is any).

Meanwhile, back at the farm...

Friday was a busy day as we had to leave Leeuwarden early so that we could attend the funeral of "our" boy. I'm not sure if I mentioned last week that his mother also died in the fire - so it was especially moving to see the two caskets in the church.

Sometimes, "routine" is a much-needed thing...

From the Newspaper

(With an Australian Connection)

Watercrassula is a problem weed - from Australia (not sure what it is called there but the Google Translation is "water crackers").

Obviously a huge problem in the Netherlands with all its water and waterways.

From naturetoday.com

The first observation of watercrassula ( Crassula helmsii ) in 1995 was the start of a slow but exponential increase in the Netherlands. The Australian plant species occurs in a wide variety of water types and grows both in the water and on the banks. Control of water crackers is necessary: every 10% increase in water cracklings results in a 5% decrease in indigenous vegetation and a negative influence has also been demonstrated on indigenous zooplankton and fauna.

From the Newspaper (2)

Nw Europe.

Of the Northwest Countries (Netherlands, UK, Germany, Belgium) the Netherlands had the best economic growth in the last quarter.

.
The Netherlands was 0.7% the rest around 0.3%. This is partly due to a spurt required to catch up with the others: They were earlier out of the economic crisis.

Building\construction sector doing best. Exports increasing. Households spending more. 4 years ago there were 7 people seeking work for every job; now only 1.4.
Permanent jobs are now more on offer.

Increased Wages have not yet followed!

From the News...

An Olympic Gold Medal swimmer is attempting to swim the 200km Elfstedentocht Route - for charity. A lot of people wanted to swim stages with him, but Public Health officials have warned against it due to high levels of e.coli in the water!. "Poep bacterie" as it has been referred to. Not only from boats (probably very little these days), but also from other sources such as runoff from cattle manure - which is spread on the land at different times during the year. The low rainfall has meant that the water has not been flushed out.

In any event, I was reminded of a sign that I saw a few years ago...on a public beach "Shit doesn't belong in the water" - but it was actually a dog ban - with a note to "don't feed the birds", "take your rubbish with you" and "don't do "it" in the water".