Sinterklaas Arrives

This past weekend Sinterklaas arrived all over Holland. From what we were told, this year he came first to Dordrecht. One of the Dutch cities that has water access (he must arrive by boat) is chosen each year for him to come to first. In 2009 he came to Middelburg first. He arrives by boat (according to legend, from Spain).

We had to go to Amsterdam this weekend to get some pages put in our passports (!) and so we saw bits of the celebration from here to Amsterdam. I had been told it would happen on November 19th, but when the train stopped in Dordrecht on November 12th, there on the platform were about a half dozen 

Zwarte Piets! They were giving out paper hats for the children to wear. Then we noticed a large number of kids and strollers coming from other trains to attend the celebration in Dordrecht.

We went on to Amsterdam and on Sunday, when we got on the tram to go to the Dutch Resistance Museum, we found that all the trams were rerouted that day because of the Sinterklaas Parade. After the museum, we went to the Dam Square which is the activity center of Amsterdam. There were Zwarte Piets everywhere there and the street was nearly brown from the crumbs of the ginger cookies (pepernoten) that they throw.

There were lots of kids dressed as Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet with velvet suits, hats with feathers, and black face too.

When I got back to Middelburg, I downloaded this Youtube video of Sinterklaas coming to Middelburg. I couldn't make it paste the video in, so you'll have to click on the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acTKr8qLgsg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

When he is on the horse riding down the street with the stores, he is riding right under our window. He seems to be collecting children's gift requests. He meets the burgermeister (mayor) in our town square. What fun!!

When I went shopping today I noticed that in spite of the 39 degree temperature, there are still a lot of folks sitting outside for lunch and coffee. There are some heaters near the wall of the building, just below where the awnings attach.

By the way, there are now olieboelen (fat ball) stands that smell fantastic. They come with apples, currants, raisins, pineapple, filled with cherry pie filling or vanilla creme. Amazing.

The windows are decorated with Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet too. This store also had the burlap sack for the toys. I can't figure out how to turn this picture, so you'll just have to turn your head sidewise.