What Makes Buren the Perfect Spring Weekend Getaway?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andre
  • Start date Start date
Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the village of Buren as a potential spring weekend getaway, highlighting its historical significance, natural beauty, and local culture. Participants share personal experiences, observations of the village's features, and engage in light-hearted speculation about etymology and connections to historical figures.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Meta-discussion

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants describe Buren as a quaint village historically associated with the royal family, noting its charm and features like the village defense wall and local pub.
  • Several contributors appreciate the natural beauty of the area, particularly the flowering fruit trees and vegetable gardens, which are indicative of spring.
  • There is a playful discussion about the name "Humpty Dumpty," with some participants speculating on its origins and connections to historical cannons.
  • One participant suggests a potential link between Martin van Buren and the village, proposing further exploration of this connection.
  • Participants express a desire to visit Europe, particularly Buren, in the spring, indicating a shared interest in travel and exploration.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the appeal of Buren as a spring getaway, but there are varying interpretations of the village's historical significance and the etymology of "Humpty Dumpty." The discussion remains open-ended without a consensus on these points.

Contextual Notes

Some claims about the village's history and connections to the royal family are based on personal anecdotes and may lack comprehensive verification. The discussion includes speculative connections that are not definitively established.

Who May Find This Useful

Readers interested in travel, historical villages, and cultural discussions may find this thread engaging, particularly those considering a visit to Europe or exploring local histories.

Andre
Messages
4,296
Reaction score
73
Too can do, Borek. Excellent idea. I've spent a weekend in this region, last spring.

Buren is a very old little village, used by the royal Family to go incognito. The queen is "countess of Buren". The crown prince alias is Alex van Buren.

The village defence wall on a beautiful spring day. At the end of the wall barely visible, two humptie dumpties. (Yes it was a cannon)

Buren1-wal.JPG


There is always a mainstreet and a church. The little flags indicate that Queensday (right, that's Evo's birthday) was approaching.

Buren-mainstreet.JPG


more flags

flags.JPG


Malle (crazy) Jan is usually the name of the local pub. Not sure about this one

malle-jan.JPG


No village without a windmill of course

the-mill.JPG


Finally the humptie-dumpties on the wall, from the first picture, No, the cannons, not the gentlemen.

humptie-dumpties.JPG
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org


Nice Andre, i liked Borek's too.
 


Nice images, Andre. The flowering fruit trees are a fine indicator of spring, and there's a neat little vegetable garden below the wall in the last picture.
 


That looks like a very nice village. I love the blossoms in the tree!
 


Thanks, all, Turbo, notice the blossoming apple tree next to that garden. It's what the area is famous for, apple orchards.

And Monique, I think it's about half an hour driving for you to have a look there.
 


turbo-1 said:
Nice images, Andre. The flowering fruit trees are a fine indicator of spring, and there's a neat little vegetable garden below the wall in the last picture.

Looks like a very nice little town!

And I hadn't noticed the garden until you pointed it out, turbo. It's a very well-fortified garden, I'd say...under the careful watch of two humptie dumpties...
 


I hate new mexico. Can't wait to someday tour Europe...
 


Thanks for sharing, Andre. Appreciated :smile:
 
Now I really want to visit Europe... maybe next Spring.
 
  • #10


lisab said:
Looks like a very nice little town!

And I hadn't noticed the garden until you pointed it out, turbo. It's a very well-fortified garden, I'd say...under the careful watch of two humptie dumpties...
Back to the etymology of that name... I wonder if the egg-shaped character in Carroll's book has anything to do with the egg-shaped mortars of (often) coastal defenses. There are many targets (ships among the foremost) that are best destroyed by shelling from above, and in the 18th and 19th centuries mortars were the best way to accomplish this. In addition, these guns could be produced in sizes that could stand very high internal pressures (even with sub-standard materials) simply by scaling them up, so very large projectiles could be fired from them. Since most were on static mounts (though some in the Civil War and other conflicts were mounted on rail-cars), size wasn't much of an issue.
 
  • #11


turbo-1 said:
Back to the etymology of that name... I wonder if the egg-shaped character in Carroll's book has anything to do with the egg-shaped mortars of (often) coastal defenses...

That's a good one, Turbo.

Here some elaboration.

http://www.andhranews.net/Intl/2008/September/29/Humpty-Dumpty-66634.asp

If you believe that Humpty Dumpty in the popular nursery rhyme was an egg, then better think again, for a new book has revealed that the character was apparently a giant cannon used during the English Civil War of 1642-1651...cont'd

See also my entry in that Photo contest

humptydumpty.jpg


I took the picture, sitting on the wall, holding the camera with strechted arm high above the vegetable garden.

Also mind that the pictures were made with the Panasonic FZ8. I gave the camera to my sister later, as hers was stolen, and replaced it by the FZ18 (a bit reluctantly but the FZ8 was out of stock), since the smaller, cheaper and simpler one is the superior picture maker.
 
Last edited:
  • #12
Speaking of etymology, I wonder if Martin van Buren, the first American-born President of the US, wasn't connected to the little village pictured above. A little digging around might prove fruitful.