September 3rd, 2017
Kate and I spent the weekend in Breda, Netherlands. It's a medium-sized city, half-hour train ride from Rotterdam, with a beautiful Gothic church, a vibrant and well-preserved city center, and an interesting history as the ancestral home of the Dutch royal family. The food was good. The beer was great. Was that why we went there? Oh no. It also happened to be hosting the world's largest collection of redheads. See https://www.facebook.com/RedheadDays/
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| Kate posing under the balloon version of the Redhead Days logo |
We had a fantastic time. Kate was so happy, giggling and smiling the whole weekend. There were carnival games, pub crawls, speed-dating, redheaded musical acts (including a group consisting of two identical twin redhead brothers singing Ed Sheeren covers), lectures on the history of redheads, and lots of lots of great photo ops.
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| Kate's curls flying on the bungee bouncing thing |
Here are some of the photos I took over the weekend. Also check out the Facebook page for many other photos and comments. It really was quite an event.
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| During the big photo shoot |
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| I made her pose here |
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| Information booth at Redhead Days |
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| Kate with a lovely singer from Germany, Joules the Fox---we really enjoyed her set. |
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| Some interlopers, or as Kate would say, redhead enthusiasts |
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| Offering free cuts and styling to redheads |
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| Just an average afternoon at Redhead Days |
We did also have time to see some of the sights of Breda and enjoy a relaxing weekend in a lovely city. We especially enjoyed the tour of the church. We learned that it was originally built as a Catholic cathedral, of course, but then was damaged during a four-day "iconoclasm" by Protestants (see damage to choir stall at right). The Protestants repurposed the church as their own, painting over much of the Catholic iconography that was not destroyed. Recent restoration efforts have uncovered old Catholic paintings and frescoes. We also climbed the tower, about 300 steps, saw the enormous bell and bell-ringing mechanism, and took in a spectacular view of the area. Below are pictures showing some restored images that had been painted over hundreds of years ago.
This final restored image is a how-to guide for praying. The one on the right is directing his prayers to Jesus. The one on the left is praying for all of the worldly goods pictured above him.
We did also have time to see some of the sights of Breda and enjoy a relaxing weekend in a lovely city. We especially enjoyed the tour of the church. We learned that it was originally built as a Catholic cathedral, of course, but then was damaged during a four-day "iconoclasm" by Protestants (see damage to choir stall at right). The Protestants repurposed the church as their own, painting over much of the Catholic iconography that was not destroyed. Recent restoration efforts have uncovered old Catholic paintings and frescoes. We also climbed the tower, about 300 steps, saw the enormous bell and bell-ringing mechanism, and took in a spectacular view of the area. Below are pictures showing some restored images that had been painted over hundreds of years ago.
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