Monday, April 27, 2020

Knowing our boundaries, or rather our borders

As many of you know, the crumbly cottage is 'somewhere down south' in the Netherlands. In fact it's within squinting distance of the Belgian border and not all too far from my favourite city of Ghent. Although we can't see its gleaming, beckoning towers from our corner of the country, it's somewhere we're used to going quite regularly. So with the current lockdown and closure of the borders, we miss going into our favourite neighbouring country a lot.

The other day we did a bit of a drive around as a way of extending our horizons beyond the lake at the end of the field on the other side of the garden. Beautiful though it is, it's beginning to feel slightly samey. Anyway, to give the drive a purpose, we decided to inspect all the back roads we know that lead into Belgium. To our surprise, every one of them was barricaded with signs like the one in the photo below. 


How is it then, we wondered, that we see so many obviously Flemish cyclists speeding round our Dutch lanes? The Belgians like cycling in Holland because it's so much safer for two wheelers (or so I was told by some Belgians I met while waiting for a canal bridge to open). Even so, with lockdown closing every cross-border lane, it shouldn't be possible. The answer came when we found another lane with the same set up as the one in the photo, but which had been pulled open, probably by farming vehicles.

The thing is, in these areas it's almost impossible to keep the roads completely closed because they criss-cross the 'grens' (border) several times. The rural communities are obliged to follow these 'borderline' routes simply to get to and from their farms or homes. Add to that, there's the Belgians who live in Dutch villages and who go to work in Ghent and other towns in Flanders. It's all a bit too complicated to enforce complete closure, but they're doing their best. The main roads are policed and non-essential travellers are stopped, which is very odd to see after so many years of freedom of movement.

Anyway, on our short tour we had to turn around and retrace several steps to avoid any transgre(n)ssing (sorry 😏). Eventually, we managed to reach the pretty Dutch village of Philippine, where we unscrambled our brains by walking along this beautiful canal. Formerly a conduit right to the sea for fishing boats and goods too, it's now dammed up with no place to go and no boats to show. Its peaceful tree-lined way soon had us imagining we were back in Belgium again, on the Hennie H, and we reminisced about earlier travels on the Eeklo canal, just a few kilometres away. So near but yet so far.





And right by the canal on a dyke, we encountered this woolly crowd, totally ignoring the social distancing rules and enjoying the afternoon shade together. We tried to talk to them about their flagrant display of civil disobedience, but they just turned their backs on us. We couldn't blame them really.



We are now back in Rotterdam for the great Vereeniging lift out, which is due to happen on Wednesday morning. However, our friend, Murphy, has been at it again, and apparently today is the last fine day we'll have for the next two weeks... the precise two weeks of my hellingbeurt. Tomorrow, it will rain, and go on doing so for the foreseeable future. Well, I suppose the farmers will be happy, and so will the ducks, but I'll let you know how we fare in the good mood stakes. It's not what I was hoping for, I must admit.

Have a good week, allemaal and I'll post some pics of the Vereeniging's makeover as soon as possible.

18 comments:

  1. Such a strange time we currently living. Borders, and boundaries, are coming into sharp focus, and not without some friction between sides. We are experiencing the same here, as interprovincial travel is being discouraged. However, we are cabin country for many Albertans, and some are travelling back and forth against the better judgement of our health experts. I am making a point of being courteous and civil, because I can hardly blame those wanting to escape the city. But I do find it disappointing that we are doing our due diligence while others are not.
    On a lighter note, your photos are stunning and it looks like full-on summer there! We ventured out for a drive the other day, as well, but the drab countryside hardly lent itself to photography. It’s nice to get away every now and then.
    Are you wiping Vereeniging’s bottom this week? Either way, good luck on the helling!
    Be well, be safe and take care xx

    P.S. Please excuse any typos, as I am using my impossibly small phone 😉 x

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    1. Dale, your typing is perfect. I am hopeless with all touch screens and constantly make mistakes. I just spotted on in the blog post itself, which I wrote on my tablet, so have now corrected it. Well done you! As for your interprovincial travellers, there is definite friction between the countries here too. The Belgians are very cross with the Dutch who cross their borders. Funnily enough they don't mention their own people who cross ours, but never mind. We try, as you say, to be civil. I hope you get some spring weather soon. It's cold and grey here today and raining as promised. Take care too, dear. xxx

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  2. A walk beside the canal must simply be an out-of-the-world experience. Nice pics too.

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    1. It was really lovely, Pradeep, thank you!

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  3. This is TT, Val! Just trying this to see if I can comment (I can't usually on Blogger without logging onto another browser - which is horrendously slow).

    I love these pictures! The Belgian cyclists need telling, though!!

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    1. Woohoo, you succeeded! Excellent. Yes, the cyclists are pushing the boundaries, so to speak, but I expect the Dutch cyclists are doing the same. If the border roads are open, they'll just follow the route without paying any attention to which side they're on. As long as they don't stop, I guess it's no problem. We'd rather not engage with them because that would be a greater risk.

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  4. Oh dear, I would be happy to take some of your rain over here. It has gone dry again :( What a beautiful blocked up canal that is, with an avenue of trees alongside. Your drive sounds really nice, despite the confusing borders. We have not been permitted to go out for anything deemed non-essential for about 5 weeks, but next weekend we are allowed to drive up to 50km for pleasure and maybe have a picnic, but social distancing of course. The only difficulty could be that no public toilets will be open. Might be a lot of day-trippers caught out....

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    1. Oh Patricia, some freedom to look forward to! I'm guessing the market in Porta Potties might suddenly explode as a result :) I'm sorry it's going dry again. That's always a worry, isn't it? Stay safe in every respect, Patricia!

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  5. How dutiful of you to try and notify the sheep of their disobedience :-)

    I do not live close to any border, even close to the province borders, so do not have personal experience of similar, but I assume there must be similar situations up north along the border between Finland and Sweden and Finland and Norway.

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    1. Yes, Maria, I can imagine that being the case. So many communities have merged since the EU opened up the borders and now they're almost indistinct from each other. The same is true between Belgium and France, and the Netherlands and its other neighbours, Germany. It makes life interesting to say the least, when one side of the road is in the Netherlands and the other side is in Belgium, as is the case in a few places along our border towns. Even in our nearest town, only a railway line separates the two countries but the houses on each side consider themselves part of the same place. Most of our shops are patronised by large numbers of Belgians for whom they are the closest local stores. It's probably quite difficult for them now as they have to drive quite a distance to reach their own stores.

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  6. What lovely walks you have access to, Val. We'd get in trouble here in the UK if we drove out to some beautiful place for a walk. Such a drive is considered non-essential, and people have been fined here for doing that. Tell me, how is a cyclist "obviously Belgian"?

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    1. Accent, Roger. Cyclists talk to each other quite loudly and their accent is very distinctive :) Our little house is on a favourite route, so we hear them quite often. About the drive, I know we're lucky that we have a bit of extra freedom that way, but we wouldn't go anywhere busy. Shopping is the most hazardous activity we have these days in terms of being close to people :)

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  7. Gorgeous photos. Thanks for getting out and taking these and sharing them with all of us. Hope your weather stays nice. (Steph)

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    1. Thank you, dear Steph. My apologies for the late response. As you know I've been otherwise occupied :)

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  8. Your walks look lovely. We can’t go out driving here which would be a nice change. If we want to have an hours exercise we can’t drive to a beauty spot and walk there. I do miss the country side. Hope the weather not too bad so you get work on your boat.

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    1. I'm so sorry for the late reply, Anne. The boat has really taken up my time, but yes, the weather's improved now, so we can get on with things. Thank you for commenting!

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  9. What a wonderful post, Val! Thank you for all your news, and the reassurance that the Belgians seem to be as "independent" as ever! ;) It gladdens my heart. I miss travelling too, and wonder when, if ever, I might make it back to Ghent, which we also love, and which, (now that I feel I know my father better than I ever did while he was alive) I would like to visit afresh. It was where he was born.

    Bless you, for all your gentle reflections and your hard work.

    Fran Xxxx

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    1. Oh Fran, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer this. The work on the boat tends to be all time-consuming! I remember now that your father was from Belgium. It would be lovely if you could visit Ghent and even lovelier if I could meet you there. I just adore the city. xxx

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