Exploring the History and Charm of Buren: A Weekend Getaway in Springtime

[Andre]

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)

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

more flags

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

No village without a windmill of course

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

 

[wolram]

Nice Andre, i liked Borek's too.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[Monique]

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

 

[Andre]

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.

 

[lisab]

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...

 

[binzing]

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

 

[Borek]

Thanks for sharing, Andre. Appreciated

 

[Gokul43201]

Now I really want to visit Europe... maybe next Spring.

 

[turbo]

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.

 

[Andre]

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

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.

 

[Gokul43201]

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.