In this week's excursion to use my golden ticket, (free travel on the weekends, and my museum card), I went to Hoorn. Hoorn is an old Dutch city with a rich history as a coastal port which grew in prominence during the Golden Age. In fact, Cape Hoorn was named by a captain from Hoorn. (And I thought that was a name to describe it's shape.) Now, it is no longer a coastal town, as the sea has been "Dyked", and it is more a satellite town for Amsterdam. And I saw there was a Museum of the 20th Century there.
Mostly though, I wanted to go to Hoorn because I feel it is a funny name, but I couldn't think of a way to incorporate it into a joke, using the word "horny"... I am kidding less than you think.
I like to just sit on the train, idly write and look out the window. The train flew by the flat scenery- flat in more ways than just physically. There were boggy fields, or fieldy bogs. Grey skies, empty rows of trees and ditches broke down the landscape. There were birds, but no nature. There was no nature, but no people either. For the first time, Holland felt large. Holland felt empty.
The closer I got to Hoorn the bleaker it became. In theory, the photo above is what I should have seen. After 90 minutes of travelling, this is what I got:
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Typical Dutch weather. Anyway, I powered on to find the 20th Century Museum. I walked in, and something seemed wrong. I saw toys for sale in the foyer. Hmmm. I got my ticket, and went upstairs to the main collection. It wasn't a museum of modern art. It was a museum of old appliances! It was an antique store without pricetags to laugh at... I mean, these are fine sometimes, like on a school trip. But see, I am an art history student, and I need to practice my "furrowed brow infront of a painting" technique.
It was one of those history museums where they set up each corner in a certain theme of the time. There was a baker, a sweet-shop, a cheesemaker, a living room, a classroom, and each one had a mannequinn living inside. They all looked stangely similar. The moustaches didn't fool me- they had obviously bought all their mannequinns in bulk- and they are all female. I have a fine-tuned gaydar, and I can spot a lady-man from a mile off, even a plastic one.
Seriously, you can't slip a chick by me!I took a walk in the miser, standing on the pier where what once was ocean is a lake...
In all, it wasn't a terribly entertaining day. But I did get this nugget of a photo at the Museum of the 20th Century:
And on the way back, I saw this cafe and restaurant.
I didn't go in. I wasn't that much in the mood to experience Hoorn, aye. Besides, that is what Amsterdam is for.
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