I found out about the exhibition by chance and was waiting for a wet Sunday afternoon to pop up to Hoorn in North Holland and relive a small piece of my childhood. Most people had Lego but for any credibility you really had to build in Meccano. Metal and not plastic, nuts and bolts and all. These days of course parents give their kids Junior Excel for Christmas and instead of going to the football on Boxing Day they invite their cousins round for a game of Shaft - The game of office politics, the object of which is to become a captain of industry in record time. First one to a knighthood wins
Seriously though, speaking as a computer programmer of 15 years I do think that spatial reasoning is incredibly important when working with computers. The ability to visualise real world problems and map them onto software tools and products is a rare and valuable skill in the modern workplace. If you don't agree of course you could always take them to the park to kick a ball around. I should add that most of the innovators in the computer industry have an engineering (particularly electronics) background.
Sorry about that I just had to get that off my chest.
Onto the museum itself and I thought I'd begin with the poster outside the Museum the 20th Century which advertises another exhibition depicting domestic life in Holland for the last 100 years.
The web reference by the way is http://www.museumhoorn.nl. It's in Dutch by the way.
A fully working fairground.
The World's first supersonic commercial airliner. Though it doesn't go into space the Russians felt compelled to respond during the cold war.
A police motorcycle built with painstaking attention to detail.
A naval frigate. As this was probably built by an adult I guess the guns don't fire.
The SS Queen Mary.
A heavy metal band. Looks like the lead singer (C3PO) hasn't turned up for rehearsals again.
La Tour Eiffel
A tall ship entering Hoorn harbour. Since the completion of the afsluitdijk in 1937 Hoorn has redefined itself as a sailing and tourist centre.
More boats including a Dutch equivalent of a Fen Barge.
After a hard afternoon's tourism there's nothing better than relaxing in the late afternoon sun with a jug of the local brew. For connoisseurs it is reminiscent of a cross between the Belgian Duvel and Theakston's Old Peculier. On no account should you drive a car after even a mouth full of this beer.
The RaadhuisWhich literally means Council House in the Birmingham sense i.e place where the council meets.
Fancies himself a bit doesn't he.
A shameless attempt to use religion to sell beer. In case you haven't guessed these two works mark the entrances to the Gents and Ladies respectively. Well it makes a change from the Guys and Dolls we see in British pick up joints. While on the subject of beer marketing there is a Belgian trapist beer called Verboden Vrucht (forbidden fruit) which unlike Malcolm Mclaren's stable of bands who used the same marketing technique is actually an excellent product.
Hoorn station in the twilight.
For those of you that know me documentary evidence that I left the bar before c of you that know me documentary evidence that I left the bar before closing time.
The names on the indicator board are rather interesting. Alkmaar is famous for it's cheese market as well as of course AZ Alkmaar who are now playing in the Dutch First (really second) Division and not Europe. The more famous of the two Haarlems is a district of New York and Heemstede has a twin in Hertfordshire more widely known for possessing a large roundabout in the town centre where you can circulate both ways. Hemel Hempstead therefore means farmhouse from heaven. It's not in my dictionary so correct me if I'm wrong.
We continue with our series of British bars with a confused identity. Here we see a mainly Spanish bar with a sign naming the bar after the capital with a Dutch spelling. The bar serves Dutch Heineken along with the Paella. Is this a plot by Brussels ? I think we should be told.