I consider myself a lucky person. I had the privileged opportunity of personally discovering the answer to the burning mystery of why the Dutch have such an astonishing passion for their run-down, dark, damp, and crooked old ‘centrum’ houses in contrast to most of us foreigners who consider nice, bright, high-rise modernism as the ideal guideline for a building.
So, I’d like to share my discovery with the rest of you wondering foreigners!
The enlightenment took place when I lived for a year in one of these popular Dutch houses, maybe even one of the best, as it was among the oldest and most run-down! Just a couple houses away from the leaning Oude Kerk, I lived on the ground floor with windows opening up to the brick-lined street of Oude Delft. It took some time for my dislike of this house to turn into a loving passion as the one great advantage gradually emerged and proved to overpower all the inconveniences. I had a very efficient time-keeping system right in my very own flat. I’m sure you are all thinking of the annoying 24/7 bells of the Old Church, but no! This uniquely Dutch system was of a truly optimised engineering ingenuity, precisely fit to the necessities of a routine daily life. The frequency of time-keeping was exactly proportional to the necessity of being informed. Hence it was inoperational at midnights (in contrast to the Old Church bells!!!) and very frequently informing when on-time presence in classes was a must! Every morning at six forty-three, the ‘tickity-tickity-tick’ bike passed by my window as my first wake up call. Of course one call was never enough for me, so at five to seven the ‘click-fisss, click-fisss, click-fisss’ bike took over the duty of reminding. But it was only the great ‘eeeech, eeeeech, eeeech’ bike of three minutes past seven that always succeeded in fully slapping me out of my sweet sleep, ready for another wonderful day in Holland!
I consider myself a lucky person. I had the privileged opportunity of personally discovering the answer to the burning mystery of why the Dutch have such an astonishing passion for their run-down, dark, damp, and crooked old ‘centrum’ houses in contrast to most of us foreigners who consider nice, bright, high-rise modernism as the ideal guideline for a building. So, I’d like to share my discovery with the rest of you wondering foreigners!
The enlightenment took place when I lived for a year in one of these popular Dutch houses, maybe even one of the best, as it was among the oldest and most run-down! Just a couple houses away from the leaning Oude Kerk, I lived on the ground floor with windows opening up to the brick-lined street of Oude Delft. It took some time for my dislike of this house to turn into a loving passion as the one great advantage gradually emerged and proved to overpower all the inconveniences. I had a very efficient time-keeping system right in my very own flat. I’m sure you are all thinking of the annoying 24/7 bells of the Old Church, but no! This uniquely Dutch system was of a truly optimised engineering ingenuity, precisely fit to the necessities of a routine daily life. The frequency of time-keeping was exactly proportional to the necessity of being informed. Hence it was inoperational at midnights (in contrast to the Old Church bells!!!) and very frequently informing when on-time presence in classes was a must! Every morning at six forty-three, the ‘tickity-tickity-tick’ bike passed by my window as my first wake up call. Of course one call was never enough for me, so at five to seven the ‘click-fisss, click-fisss, click-fisss’ bike took over the duty of reminding. But it was only the great ‘eeeech, eeeeech, eeeech’ bike of three minutes past seven that always succeeded in fully slapping me out of my sweet sleep, ready for another wonderful day in Holland!
Comments are closed.