Wilthshire goes to Holland.

September 2024

Well, not all of Wiltshire, but 23 of us who set off from Melksham at 5.30a.m. on a grey English

morning, heading for LE Shuttle from Folkstone to Calais and on to our excellent hotel at de Bilt, just

outside Utrecht. We arrived at 6.30p.m. and, after a welcome dinner everyone was ready for an

early night!

The next five days introduced us to the history, architecture and art of the Netherlands wlth visits to,

and guided tours of, historic cities canals, museums, galleries, houses and a royal palace.

All the Dutch masters were there, in Amsterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Delft, intertwined with

history from before the Romans, through times when the Spanish ruled the low countries.

There followed the last foreign invasion of England in 1667, with the Dutch navy capturing the

English flagship Royal Charles with a boarding party of only nine Dutchmen. The royal coat of arms

from the stern of the Royal Charles now has pride of place in one of the great halls of the

Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam with some amazing paintings of the Medway battle.

Perhaps the most unexpected visit was to Dutch artist Mesdag's Panorama - a painting 120 metres

long by 14 metres high, housed on the inside of a purpose built "tower", showing a 360 degree

picture of the fishing community of Scheveningen on the North Sea coast.

Return home after 5 days was via Ypres, to be shown the amazing reconstruction of the totally destroyed city after the first World War.

Arriving back in Melksham at 9.15p.m. on the Tuesday evening, our very weary but enthralled band of 23 were glad to get home and to bed for a good night's sleep.