Chapter 54 Another biscuit tin village
With a warm "Welcome in Wourkum", Martinus gestured Martin and Louisa to enter the house via the kitchen door, located at the souterrain part of the house, behind what indeed appeared to be the surgery.
The house is located right behind the Rijkswal, which is the dike that protects the village against the high water levels of the river Maas in the autumn and winter seasons. For Louisa and Martin, it was a strange sensation, to be in a house that technically could be lower than the water level. Of course there could be very high spring tides in Portwenn as well, when it stormed, but all the houses in their village, except maybe the buildings around the Plat, were much higher than the water level.
Noticing Louisa's worried look, Martinus said, "Don't worry Louisa, the dike is strong and anyway the water level is low at the moment."
Louisa replied that she had never been in a house below the sea level. She realised that once you got used to the idea, you didn't feel anything different from being in a "normal" house like the surgery.
"A significant number of houses in the Netherlands is below sea level", Martinus explained. In Rotterdam for instance, there is a complete polder which is situated at minus 6 meter ANP, 6 meter below sea level. The people living there all know it, but still feel save because of all the dikes and the water management.* In fact we lack housing facilities and land to build them on, so now modern architects are developing floating houses, that can expand living areas on the water."
Martin and Louisa looked around in the big kitchen. It was approximately as big as theirs, but not directly connecting to the lounge area. Martin expected that to be one level higher.
"We will make a tour around the house later", Martinus promised. "Let's have a cup of tea first. I suppose Lisa will come downstairs in a couple of minutes. She is attending to our son Harry, who is a couple of months younger than your little fellow here."
Martinus offered them to take a seat. James was now fully awake again and much interested in the colourful toys in the playpen, so Martin put him in it to play on his own for a while. Lisa entered the kitchen a bit later, with Harry in her arms. The boy noticed the strangers in their house and shily buried his face in his mother's neck, but a few minutes later, his curiosity won from his shyness and he looked up again. Louisa smiled at him and was rewarded with a smile from Harry, still safely perched on his mother's arm.
"Hello Louisa, Martin, good to see you again", Lisa said, approaching Louisa for a hug and offering her hand for a handshake to Martin. She thought that he would be like her own husband and would prefer a more formal greeting over a hug or a kiss and she was completely right about that.
"Lisa, so good to see you too", Louisa cheerfully greeted Martinus' wife. Martin just nodded and shook her hand.
The tea Martinus made for them wasn't as strong as they would expect, so they could understand why most of the Dutch people didn't put milk in their tea. Martin, never hiding his honest judgement, said to his Dutch colleague "I much appreciate your effort Martinus, but may I make my own tea the next time? This is like the water in your canals, if I may say so.. "
"Martin!", Louisa exclaimed, giving him a stern look, but then dropped her charges, since indeed the brewing could hardly be called tea. Lisa was quite amused by the incident and Martinus, who liked Martin's sincerity, commented
"Yes, that could be expected from you British people. You're more than welcome to make your own tea the next time, or we can share an espresso, which I personally like very strong. I start my mornings with a proper ristretto."
Relieved, Martin looked forward to that already. For the moment, he contented himself pouring some of the tea in James' sippy cup. He picked James up from the playpen and placed him on his knee to let him drink. James seemed to like it, even if there wasn't any sugar in it.
After their refreshments, Lisa suggested that it would be a good idea to show them the village, before it would be dark. "And, it will probably be rather quiet at the moment, because the Dutch have their dinners rather early, so there won't be many curious villagers around at this time of the day."
Martin stood up and went outside with James to get the stroller out of the car. During these holidays, Martin had done this so many times already, that he managed to do this single handed, with his sun firmly held in his other arm. Together, they waited for the others to join them with Harry in his stroller.
"It will be too narrow to walk next to each other on the dike", Lisa said, but it is possible to manoeuvre the strollers along the dike. It is a nice walk to follow it all around the village and then we can take some of the other streets later.
They formed an extraordinary little group of people. Two tall men in suits, one of them pushing a stroller and behind them a brown haired ponytailed woman and another one with blond hair also pushing a stroller.
They followed the dike eastwards and past beautiful little cottages perched on the dike or just behind it. About five houses from the surgery, Lisa pointed to a cottage and said, "That's where I lived before I married Tinus, we were practically neighbours. It was really a good location, because it is very close to the school." She laughed and added, "Of course everything is close to the school, to the shops, to the church and to the surgery here, it really is a tiny village".
"Just like Portwenn", Louisa replied, "But there we have the hills, that makes the walk through the village a bit more complex, especially, because the roads are very narrow. Unless he has to go to a patient outside the village, Martin's home visits are practically all done by foot. Keeps him in good shape, without having to go to the gym", she said with a smile.
During their walk, they could clearly recognize the strategic location of the town. In fact they were walking on the walls of the fortress belt, but nowadays, the huge wall also protected them against the floods. Martinus explained
"Wourkem originated in the ninth century. On a river bank, a market place was created. Around the year 1000, a number of settlements appeared, mostly north of the Alm, that were oriented towards Wourkem. The town flourished in the 14th century and even got the region's fishing rights, which explains the salmons in the town's weapon shields. At the time it was big enough to get city rights, which brought the town other privileges too.
Wourkem is located in the north of the Land van Altena, where the so called Afgedamde Maas joins the river Waal. These two rivers then flow together as the Boven-Merwede. You can see this from here. The Boven Merwede is a large river, rather big container ships pass right in front of our house. This confluence is also called the "three provinces point" where the borders between the provinces of South Holland, North Brabant and Gelderland come together." Martinus pointed to the east and continued
"The Afgedamde Maas is located on the east side of the town, with Slot Loevestein on the other side of the water. I can really recommend a visit to this castle and to step in the world of Hugo de Groot, a humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, poet and playwriter in the 16th and 17th century. In a conflict between civil and religious authorities, Hugo the Groot ended up imprisoned at slot Loevestein, but with the help of his wife and his maidservant, he managed to escape the castle in a book chest and he was able to flee to Paris. In the Netherlands today, he is mainly famous for this daring escape.
Slot Loevestein belongs to the neighbouring municipality of Zaltbommel, which is also a pretty town with a lot of history. You don't need to take the car to get to Slot Loevestein, you can easily go there with the foot ferry."
"What's that other bigger city on the other side of the Boven-Merwede?" Louisa wanted to know.
"That's Gorinchem, pronounced as Gorkum, the largest city in the area. In fact, it could grow at the expense of Wourkem, which lost a lot of business around 1700
Due to its strategic location, Wourkem has been besieged regularly. For example, the city was attacked by the Arkelsen in 1405 and by the Geldersen in 1511. In 1572, Wourkem chose the side of William of Orange. In 1573, the Geuzen, a confederacy of Dutch Calvinist nobles, thought that the city was indefensible and set it on fire. Between 1583 and 1588 a fortress belt was built around the city, which, however, enclosed a smaller area than the former city wall. The town was rebuilt with the help of surrounding towns, but it never flourished as much as it did in the 14th century."
They continued their walk on the wall and soon reached the point where the Rijkswall joined the Kerkstraat, Church street. Lisa showed them the Gevangenenpoort, Prison gate, and the gate in the wall that can be closed with dedicated panels to keep the water at the outside of the wall in case of a flood.
From where they were standing, they had a distant view on the Martinuskerk.
"Yes Martinus has a church named after himself" Lisa joked. "I'm kidding of course, because the church has been built in the 15th century. But since he is the local doctor, the villagers call it the Dokter Tinus church. It's also the place where we were married."
They climbed back on the Rijkswal and continued their surrounding walk of the village. Whenever someone came from the other side, they all had to squeeze to the side to let them pass. Just like in Portwenn, no one passed without making a comment. As Martinus was in the lead, they often confronted him with the well-known term "koekerd"**, especially when Martinus growled "Ga aan de kant joh!"***
Reaching the most eastern point of the wall, they had to turn right and got the perfect view on Wourkem's mill.
"You can hardly get it more Dutch than this", Martinus commented.
As it had been a sunny day, on the West side, the mill was now covered in the late afternoon sun and perfect for some pictures, which Louisa took abundantly. All along the dike that lead to the mill, there were narcissuses flourishing and it was just a perfect view. Martin had stopped walking for a moment. He had picked up his son from the stroller to show him the mill and to softly explain to him the functioning of the mill. James however, saw sheep on the other side of the water, which got him more excited than his father's cultural lecture. He squealed and said "bèèè bèè", which made his mother proud. Martin tucked his ear with his free hand and simply said "yes", not sure how else he should react. Louisa found the perfect moment to take a picture of them, in the evening sun, with the mill in the background.
"If you like, you can also visit the mill, I can call the miller and make a special appointment for you, Lisa said. Maybe best not to take James, at this age, he wouldn't understand anything of it and it would be impossible t climb the narrow stairs with a toddler in your arms", Lisa suggested. Louisa answered that she would love a personal visit of the mill. Martin thought that it could be interesting as well, but for the moment, he was still reluctant to leave his son in the hands of Lisa and Martinus. Anyway, they seemed already to have more plans than time to realize them, so he refrained from comment.
The mill is situated at the South East corner of the wall. The surgery being at the North West corner, they were now half way. The second half of the tour was less spectacular, but still a pleasant walk, during which Lisa could point out where her school was, a typical old fashioned school building with a large chestnut in the schoolyard.
"I'd love to see it inside", Louisa said and Lisa said that she would be more than happy to give her a tour the following day. She even offered her to assist some of the lessons.
"I have group eight this year, so we could squeeze in a proper English conversation lesson for them tomorrow morning, would you like that?"
Louisa, immediately enthusiastic, answered that she would be delighted to participate in that lesson and that she would be happy to answer the pupils' questions.
"And I would just suggest to you Martin, that you can assist some of my appointments with the patients. If you're interested, I can explain you anything you want to know about the Dutch healthcare system".
"That would be great. Actually, I have indeed some topics I would like to discuss with you, if we have the opportunity. But what about the boys?"
"Hmm.." Martinus said, "Good point. But for every problem there is a solution.. and vice versa, like Bert de Groot would say.. By the way, he isn't related to the famous Hugo de Groot, he is just large…" He paused for a moment and then said. "I have an idea. We'll ask my aunt Martha to look after them. In case she can't handle a situation, we are just downstairs and she is looking after Harry very often."
They decided to go and ask her right away, a good opportunity to also see a bit of the centre of Wourkem****. They left the wall at the level of the Koepoort and arrived at Martha Elzenbosch' house a few minutes later. Like aunt Ruth was supporting Martin and Louisa, Martha was also there for Martinus and his family whenever they needed her.
She was delighted to meet the famous Doctor Martin Ellingham who had saved the phobia conference together with her nephew and she happened to have read the studies his aunt Ruth had written about psychiatry in penitentiary institutions.
"That's settled then.", Martinus concluded. "See you tomorrow at eight then Martha".
As the boys were starting to get a bit whiny, they decided to get back to the surgery. Martinus looked at his watch and said "The boys are right, it is time for an optimal nutritious meal, I hope you all like fish?"
To be continued – hope you enjoyed the virtual visit of Wourkem
*) there are such areas everywhere in the Netherlands, this described more or less my own area.
**) Koekerd is the equivalent of tosser in the Dutch version of the series. It is not a common word and only be found in the southern parts of the Netherlands. I had never heard of it before the series.
***) Ga aan de kant joh! = Out of my way!
****) Wourkem is in fact Woudrichem, in case you want to look for it on the Internet.