Rock Mobster - Blogabond

The kids are tired, Polly's purple lump has swallowed her eye (oh my!) and today the Tucson clan stays on the boat. The clouds are back to help us with that sunburn, and we set out this morning for Sint Jansklooster (Saint John’s Parish), Zwartsluis (Black Locks, for the locks on the Black River), Genemuiden (I have no idea: my Dutch has its limits) and finally, Kampen (Camps). As always, Bram takes the lead, whoever is directly behind him stops and directs everyone else whenever we change direction at a corner, and someone serves as “sweep” to mark the end of the line. Evil nephew Tommy takes glee in directing stragglers in the wrong direction when he gets the corner job...R...E...T...A...he knows what I'm talking about...

The old windmill at Sint Jansklooster is unfortunately closed, and we are left to view this little bit of history simply as an artifact, from the outside. A few kilometers down the road I notice a small marker, however, and pull into a clearing to find odd solitary rocks and glacial detritus. I am alone here for a few minutes, the rest of the family not at all tempted by this peculiar place, and it feels as if I have stepped out of the ordered, measured, functional world into the past. It is slightly creepy.

I am staring at a rock transported thousands of kilometers from its origin, left here alone, alien to this place, weathered, graying... Seduced by its peculiar gravity, I'm lured into anthropomorphic thinking. Sometimes I feel like that rock.

Getting back on the road feels like time travel. At Zwartsluis our fearless guide leads us to Hotel Zwartewater for “koffie”. From the street it looks like a bowling alley, but we reserve judgement in expectation of, at least, a spectacular terrace or garden. Instead, we get an unimaginably banal hotel with elevator music and wall to wall carpeting. The place is deserted, but the coffee and pastry is luckily just fine, as is the view of the river. If there are Dutch mobsters shopping for an ideal conference locale however, this is the place.

written by

roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Zwartsluis, Netherlands

from the travel blog: Heaven

Send a Compliment

comment on this...