The Netherlands Reloaded!

Back to the Netherlands today, I forgot to post my finished sketchbook page of my trip to Holland. 

Top left you can see a sketch of the reliquary of St Servatius's skull and here is is in the ''flesh'' or rather silver. 

St Servatius is the patron saint of Maastricht, where he is believed to have died in the 4th C AD (how fitting he's supposed to have died after a blow with a clog) and the basilica dedicated to him is one of the oldest churches in the Netherlands and well worth a visit.

The treasury is located in the crypt dating to the 6th C and is full of religious treasures including the fabulous silver key which according to the legend was given to Servatius on a visit to the grave of St Peter by the apparition of the saint himself. St Peter said it was the key to eternal life, anyone who asked for eternal life should have the door to such opened by this key. I'm afraid to say, I didn’t ask so I'm still here. 

What really impressed me about the Dutch was their use of language …. I often asked questions and obviously my German isn’t accent free and they automatically answered me in perfect English, I loved that.

Up to this point, I'd only been to the airport in Amsterdam, which I found amazing and where there was no escape from the local heroine Miffy or as she is called in her home country Nintje! She was everywhere, on T-shirts, as cuddly toys, on cups, on jewellery, you name it, they had it with Miffy on it. You've got to love Miffy and I always did, she was in my favourite books as a child and I passed Miffy love to my daughter too, who for reasons best known to herself, she insisted was called Muffy, my mum, nifty sewer as she was, even sewed a Muffy for my daughter.

We stayed at a beautiful, medieval, walled castle with fabulous food and feudal furnishings which also was a favourite venue for weddings. From our delightful room above the moat I could watch the young couples starting out into that adventure known as marriage, and a huge good luck to them, better to travel in hope as they say ….! We're heading for our 35 wedding anniversary this year, no doubt forgotten as usual, we married in Scotland so you only get one shot at remembering your anniversary, Germans usually go through two ceremonies; a civil ceremony and a religious ceremony, sometimes years later. To be quite honest I still find that a wee bit odd, taking your vows in a white frock and veil donkey’s years later but it does have an advantage, two wedding anniversary dates; forget the first and you can still save the day!