Only 6 Returned

Day 3 – Monday – Middelburg

So pissed off! Broke my glasses. Now I have crutches, das boot, AND a rubber band holding my glasses together.

Stumbled across an old Jewish cemetery yesterday. Crutched all the way around the black wrought-iron fence only to discover the gate locked. On one corner, along a very busy street, an old home and bathhouse stands ‘for sale.’


I have a goal to seek out old Yew trees in Europe, especially in cemeteries, since reading The Yew Tree: A Thousand Whispers by Hal Hartzell and Jerry Rust. The only Yew I see is a scraggly hedge along the fence. I collect a few seeds.

Today, on our way out of town, we pass the cemetery and discover the gate is open. Inside we find ourselves in a small under-story forest of man-size incredibly thin grey slabs leaning every which way. Scattered along a slightly inclined, bumpy hillside, dappled sunlight reveals monoliths with old Hebrew in fading black calligraphy on one side, and Dutch or English on the other. A few people are working to restore the old markers; setting them upright.

According to the web site Jewish Virtual Library, Middelburg has one of the oldest surviving synagogues in Holland, and two Jewish cemeteries that are recognized as national monuments. Of the 600 Jewish families that were transported during the Holocaust, only six of Middelburg's Jews returned to the city after the war.


Here's what I learned about those little yew tree seeds I collected: The seeds are very slow to germinate. It may take one, two or three years. Seeds must be given a warm and cold treatment in the proper sequence and at the optimum temperatures and lengths of time. Five to seven months of warm stratification (60-65 degrees F), followed by two to four months of cold stratification (34-40 degrees F).

Middelburg and Real Plates

Day Two – Sunday - Middelburg

Awoke late to a serenade of church bells. Ten minutes left for the hotel’s free/included breakfast at the restaurant downstairs. Threw on clothes and rushed down.

Beautiful vases of fresh flowers surround the diner. First along the breakfast buffet was the stainless steel industrial coffee-making machine (the size of a bathtub) with different buttons for coffee, espresso, café, mocha, or cappuccino. And naturally, there's six kinds of little cookies, and cream and sugar, and chocolate to go with the coffee. There’s croissants, assorted breads, eight kinds of chocolate sprinkle spreads in little boxes (stuff a few in your pocket for later), butter, little jars of jams, and eggs scrambled or hard-boiled, bacon, and soft slices of komijn (fennel seed cheese) round out the protein.

What was missing? Throwaway containers. Throughout Holland and Belgium, every order of coffee, tea, beer etc. comes with a full serving of set-the-table. Stainless steel utensils and glass glasses, ceramic plates, cups and bowls. Coffee always comes in a cup with a saucer, on a tray with chocolate, cookies, cream, sugar and sometimes even a little glass of water. All arranged artfully on a square or rectangular platter.

And on garbage day, in front of each house, a small bag (made from decomposable material, I’m told) sits out on the curb for collection.