trip around Holland

On my last day in Holland, 31 April, Lalay Noel-Rispens and myself left their home in Gouda and celebrated the annual Queen's day by going out to Utrecht.

From the sleepy place of Gouda, Lalay and I walked from their home to the central station through the beautiful, quiet roads of Gouda. We walked through the canals.

When we arrived in Utrecht the people were getting ready to celebrate the Queen's day by donning plastic organge crowns.

I also donned the orange royal crown. The color orange is associated with the celebration as the royal family in the Netherlands is associated with the House of Orange.

We first visited the main cathedral in Utrecht.

And walked the streets towards the flea markets where we encountered the statue of Anne Frank of the diary fame.

We got to the places where the open market was in progress and continued our tour of the open market with sugar candy.

The rest of the day we went from shop to shop and viewed the various sights of the riotous celebration.
There were thousands of people lining the canals or riding the barges/yachts.

It was a warn, sunny day so everyone was in a jolly mood.

FLASHBACK:

From 20 to 30 April 2007, I visited various places in Holland including Hilversum, Purmerend, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Gouda. Since I've visited Amsterdam various times in the past, I only planned to go visit the Van Gogh Museum once again. Along the route of my walk, I took photos of familiar places like the Central Station square, the old buildings in the downtown area and a ferris wheel right in the downtown area.















I spent a few days with my friends Ruud and Ineke Hartman at their home in Purmerend. We visited their daughter Pauline in her home near Leiden where we spent time with their grandchildren. There Ruud taught his grandson, Thien, how to plant vegetables and cradled the youngest grandaughter Fern.

On 28/29 April, I proceeded to the port city of Rotterdam, where I was to be hosted first by Cora and Grace. Rotterdam is a fascinating city because of the postmodern architecture and infrastructure like the swan bridge and the building that has a "tukod".

I met a number of Filipinos in diaspora who were mainly the wives of Dutch men. They gathered in a church where they as parents planned for the first communion of their children, as facilitated by Grace. Then we went to the house of Lucy and Rene Visser in Rotterdam where we belatedly celebrated the birthdays of Lucy and Leah who are both in this picture.




It is my first visit to Rotterdam and the city fascinated me with all types of architecture in peaceful co-existence with each other. The swan bridge and the building that seemingly is able to stand upright with the help of a "tukod" are some of the more interesting infrastructure and buildings here, along with the pencil building and the cube houses.

With Rene, Lucy and Grace, we went up the 185 meters of the Euromast and got a panoramic vie of the metropolitan Rotterdam. Designed by the architect Mr. H.A. Maaskant and built in honour of the Floriade - the world's biggest flower exhibition - it was finished in 1960. The view from the tower is truly magnificent.

END.

Trip in Rome and Leuven-Brugges, Belgium

From Tel Aviv, I flew to Rome on Easter Sunday afternoon. I was going to be in Rome for a brief visit from April 8 to 12. Fr. Teodie Holgado CSsR, our confrere assigned in Italy, was my host and guide. On Easter Tuesday, we went to visit the catacombs, along with a laywoman also quite associated with the Italy-OFW network.

When we went to St. Camilius Catacombs, there was a huge crowd of tourists. It took us more than an hour to wait for our turn to enter the catacombs. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside the catacombs. It was a rather rushed visit which gave very little time to meditate on the significance of these catacombs to the early life of the Church in Rome. Nonetheless, it was a most interesting part of my pilgrimage to Rome as it provided a glimpse into the burial practices of Christians at this time and also demythologized the "romantic" notion of these catacombs as hiding places of the persecuted Christians. Our guide - an Indian priest - emphasized the fact that these catacombs could have been easily monitored by the Roman authorities that they could not be the "underground" church that the myths perpetuated.

Another myth in a nearby church - where the Quo Vadis experience of St. Paul was supposed to have taken place - is a stone where the footprints of Jesus got imprinted for eternity. (see photo).

Then we proceeded to visit the Shrine-church of Divino Amor. Here on this spot (the tower in the photo) the Blessed Mother was supposed to have made an apparition.

A true apparition for the contemporary period are the awesome post-modern stained-glass windows of the new church at the Divino Amor pilgrimage site.

On 11 April, the day that I meant to go to the St. Peter's Basilica to pay my "respects" as well as do the usual practice when I am at the Vatican, I discovered to my delight that it was the day Pope Benedict would have an audience. So at 10:00 a.m. the huge crowd began to gather on a sunny spring day.

By 11:00 a.m. the square was filled with tens of thousands of pilgrims and visitors. There were various tour groups. All types, kinds and categories of people were there.

Since the crowd was so huge, there were a number of screens placed strategically across the square so the people could see the face of the Pope. One of the screens was in front of where I stood. (see photo).

The Popemobile passed by where we were standing. The whole experience made my day that day.

In the afternoon, I went for a walk to the Coliseum and, once again, enjoyed the site of the glory of Rome with the grandeur of its architecture that have stood the ravages of time and consumerism.

After Rome, I flew to Brussels, Belgium. There I visited the old cities of Gent and Brugges.

Michel, the husband of a Pinay took us around the old city of Gent.

The distinctive Belgian architecture which gave aesthetic attention to the facade of building is still a must-see in this old city of Gent.

Fr. Rey Raluto, a diocesan priest from the Diocese of Malaybalay, studying theology at Leuven University was my traveling companion.

Fr. Rey officiated at a Mass organized by the Filipino community of Gent. There were more than 25 Pinays with half of them bringing their husbands and children. During the Mass, they sang Tagalog songs.

At the square facing a train terminal in Brugges with its most interesting fountain.

Inside the main cathedral in Brugges, one is delighted to see the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help displayed prominently and with a possibility of visitors and pilgrims lighting candles as they pray in front of the icon. On both sides of the icon are images of the two most popular Redemptorist saints - St. Alphonsus Ma. de Liguori on the left and St. Gerard Majella, on the right.

A close-up photo of the icon.
An interesting feature of this mini-shrine is the enclosed glass containing silver artifacts representing body parts which echo practices in many other churches including those in the Ilocos Sur ancient churches.

One can see the icon on the left of the church's main hall. The main altar is towards the backdrop of this photo.

Tulips bloom on this clear spring day in Brugges.

A horse carriage bearing tourists. The backdrop are the facade of ancient buildings.

The CSsR monastery and the "abandoned" Redemptorist church in Leuven.

Me and my confrere, Fr. Ino Cueto CSsR, who is finishing his Phd Theology at Leuven University.

Scenes in the classroom and lecture hall at Leuven University where I delivered a lecture and a talk on 18/19 April 2007. The first lecture was on Theology and Ecology (from the Indigenous Peoples' Perspective) while the talk was on Peace-Building Paradigms of the Indigenous People Amidst Multi-Layered Conflicts (Challenges to Theology).

With Pinoy students at their dormitory before the lecture.