Here wo go again. Ray Charles sang it in 1979 already. Now it is our turn to sing it. And Linda and I have reasons to sing. After three years of self imposed quarantine we hit the road again. With our little Volkswagen Polo well leave The Netherlands, cross Germany, cross Czech Republic, cross Slovakia, slowly traveling from spot to spot. Near the border with the Ukraine we will turn and travel back via another route, slowly again, enjoying the trip. It will take us one month.
We left home at april 9, 2022. Though It is saturday the Dutch roads constipated. Normally it takes one hour and a half to the border with Germany, now we had to drive three hours. At the border at s Heerenberg we had a little break to visit my brother. He had made a nice lunch for us with eel, salmon and herring. From s Heerenberg to Mnster in Germany it is only one hour and a half driving.
Mnster is in The Nerherlands famous for The Peace of Mnster. All Dutch schoolkids learn that the Peace of Mnster was the end of The Eighty Years
War (1568 - 1648) against the Spanish empire. Since then The Netherlands became an independent republic. So we were curious where exactly the treaty was signed on the 15th of May, 1648. At first we think it was in the Historischer Rathaus. There the Peace of Westphalia was signed, which made an end to Thirty Years War in The Holy Roman Empire. Also The Netherlands were invited to take part in the negotations. Was it a sideshow, I ask myself while standing in the Historische Rathaus in the room where the treaty was signed. Maybe yes, because the Peace of Mnster was not signed in the Historische Rathaus at all. It was signed at the Haus der Niederlande at the Alter Steinweg number 6 and 7, not far from the Historische Rathaus. Here the eight members of the delegation of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands were housed and here the negotations with the Spanish delegation took place. We visit the Haus der Niederlande and see that there is an exhibition on the relations.
Gerard ter Borch has made a painting of the delegations signing the Peace of Mnster, as we see in the excellent Stadtmuseum. But
there is another Dutchman in the Stadtmuseum, a Dutchman who became not so beloved here in Mnster. His name is Jan van Leyden. In The Netherlands we have the saying Je er met een Jantje van Leyden van afmaken. It means something like doing something halfway. According to one of the contempories of Jan van Leyden he was not sincere, he was misleading people with empty talkings. And that is the origin of the saying. Since my familyname is Van Leyen the saying is following me all my life already.
But who was Jan van Leyden actually and why he was not beloved? Jan van Leyden was an anabaptist. He came to Mnster to spread his ideas, drove the bishop out of the city, crowned himself to king and took himself seventeen wives. The revenge of the bishop was terrible. He came back with an army, slaughtered the troups of Jan van Leyden and imprisoned his enemy. In midwinter of 1536 Van Leyden and his were executed, of course after being tortured. But that was not enough. To scare off anyone who had the courage of having any anabaptistic ideas the three bodies were hang in cages
in top of the St Lambertkirche, so that the whole city could see (and smell) what could happen to them. No, the bishop did not do things halfway. The bodies hang there during 50 years. Now the bodies are removed, but the cages are still there. It is still frightening, specially for a man who has Van Leyen as a familyname.
In the morning of the 11th of april we left Mnster. Drove north of the Harz mountains to Goslar. The city of Goslar is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Indeed it is enchanting with its houses and cobbelstoned streets. You imagine yourself living in the Middleages. The other side of the coin is that it attracts hordes of tourists. We liked Quendlinburg more, which is a bit further to the east and which is also on the list of the UNESCO.
