Yeah, ‘sniffing up culture‘ is a Dutchism we know! But this is exactly what we have done… Last weekend Eric and Sabine our Swiss friends, we met during our trip to Vietnam last year, came to Eindhoven for some cultural sightseeing. And there is a lot culture to do and to see! Well… normally there is not, but this weekend there was!
We, for example, especially arranged that Sinterklaas and his blackman arrived nearby our home in the canal on Saturday afternoon. We thought this Dutch tradition would really impress our Swiss-friends. But it seemed that they celebrate the same family event in their country. The only difference is the number of blackman… We have loads of them and in Swiss Sinterklaas is only accompanied by one. Okay, there are some other little differences. We had to answer sóme questions. For example ‘Why does he come by boat? Why is there a white horse? Can you place your shoe by the fireplace e-v-e-r-y night?’ ‘Yes you can. If you’ve been nice… And you are allowed to do it tonight’ 🙂 !
This spectacular event, ‘thank you Sinterklaasje’, is followed by a guided tour though Eindhoven. ‘On the left you will see the Evoluon. This futuristic builiding, looking like a flying saucer, was build in 1966 to celebrate the 75th birthday of the Philips company in Eindhoven…
And on the right you will see the Philps stadion’. Luckely Eric loves soccer. Otherwise they would only have had one photo oppurtonity for interesting Eindhoven sites 😉
When the evening falls we put on our wintercoats, gloves and hats. Jeroen prepared four bikes to go to the city center. We will visit GLOW. Glow is a light-festival in Eindhoven. ‘Yeah, you know it already… Eindhoven, the city of light!’
All kinds of light installations are placed in the city center. We are visiting the different sights with our friends. Of course we eat a nice dinner at ‘de Effenaar’. Unfortunately time is to short to stay for ‘the Sixty Niners‘ a Mickey Mouse rock and country duo…
Because we have to go to the next cultural event. We go to the ‘van Abbe museum’ for the Art night. We love to visit the permanent and temporary art installations. Mmmmm our guests seem to be a little tired (how strange?). Let’s go home (01:15) for a last beer followed by a good, warm and nice sleep.
Tomorrow we must be fresh for the ‘big performance’. Jeroen plays in a band and of course we will attend his great show!
It is 11:30 when Jerome wakes Eric with his trumpet Tatatataaaaaah! ‘Wake up, breakfast is ready… we are leaving in one hour’. We can’t be too late for the great show!…
Well and a great show it is!! 🙂 Miriam is very proud of her husband! And of her little nephew the future talent of the band.
After Jeroen’s performance we make a last nice walk and eat a ‘Easy’ supper. And then at 20:00 we wave our friends goodbye. Byeeeeee! See you again next year!
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