Remember I told you two weeks ago that I had forgotten Rembrandt was born in Leiden? Well, I’ll never forget that anymore. Last weekend the city of Leiden celebrated that fact with ‘Rembrandt Days’. So many re-enactments, the old centre was totally transformed.

Below: Here is the first example. Grab yourself a drink as this is going to be a long post.

Marjolein had discovered the Rembrandt Days (she is a great location scout), so on a scorching hot day we travelled to Leiden. I decided to wear a linen outfit and my very soft Vivaia shoes. You saw them before in my post with the white and green floral skirt.

Below: A close-up which shows the right colour blue of the top. In most of the photos the blue seems lighter than it is. For accessories I chose my orange earrings and orange bag instead of red.

Below: And here we have Marjolein, comfortably but also elegantly dressed for the heat.

Below: The first re-enactment was about a brother, a loan and a murder.

Below: The frame represents the door to the office.

Below: Forgot to ask what they were re-enacting.

Below: This woman was walking away from the church and I eliminated all tourists from the photo. There were so many.

Below: The actors were happy to pose for a photo, which everybody wanted, of course. I felt so sorry for all of them, dressed in warm clothes in the heat.

Below: We saw two ‘boxes’, like photo booths. It took me a few seconds before I realised they were frames and you could have your picture taken in them.
When Marjolein was taking the shot, one of the Rembrandt characters walked up and joined me (see the first photo of this post). We immediately knew it would become the main photo.

Below: This was fantastic. The painting is The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp; the next photo shows its re-enactment.

Below: Re-enactment of The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. Stellar.

Below: This man was another corpse, probably to relieve the other corpse, because it is not easy to lay still all the time.

Below: We encountered a blind woman and her granddaughter. They were acting while they walked. Talking about scratching because of the lice.

Below: The next minute a procession passed with a dead body. The Plague !! Everybody was pinching their nose shut and I heard the blind woman mumbling “The smell is awful”.

Below: Then we heard a drum and halberdiers marched by.

Below: Funny…on my right you see historical figures sitting and on my left modern people who live there. As I was posing for Marjolein, a woman approached me, asking whether she could take a photo of me as she loved my outfit. I was very flattered and told her the site where I bought this plus I gave my blog card. Always seizing the opportunity to gain a new reader.

Below: I followed the posing instructions of a lady who lives here.
I like the intricate elements of the top. Then, as I saw the photo, I realised that I need to put a little white top underneath it, as my skin is showing.

Below: Quite a few of Rembrandt’s paintings were re-enacted.

Below: Standing like this from 12 to 17.00 pm…Pffff, cannot be easy.

Below: Re-enacting the painting The Jewish Bride. Although that name is no longer accepted. Read more about it on Wikipedia. I remarked that positioning the man’s hand like that is no longer allowed these days. 😊

Below: The doors of the big church were open and it was nice and cool inside.
Ron doesn’t like the fact that the lining of the trousers only comes to my thighs. Initially, I wanted to solve that by having the tailor add fabric to the lining to the bottom of the trousers. I aborted that idea as the whole point of these trousers is to withstand the heat. Adding fabric isn’t going to help that. Besides, those trousers are murder to iron and being white, they have to be washed often. No need to make it more difficult. Why do I always go for these difficult clothes?? I know, because I love the look of them. At least they are lined to prevent transparency at the top. That is good.

Below: There was an orchestra playing in historical clothes.

Below: Nurses? Nuns? Both?

Below: Great couple, Even his shoes were in sync with the period (1600-1650).

Below: The floor is full of graves. This one is so sad. The lady who is buried here died while giving birth to two sons on the 19th of November 1627. Giving birth is still not without risk but around 1600, the risk of death was 1 to 1.7% per birth. That doesn’t seem too much, only women in those days had several children. The cumulative lifetime risk of dying from childbirth-related causes could reach 10 to 20%. Nowadays in high income countries this is under 0.02%.

Below: This is the grave monument of Boerhaave, an impressive man. You can read more about him and this monument on the photo following this one.

Below: In Dutch and English. You’re welcome.

Below: As we ventured into an alley, we found these two girls suffering from the plague. They immediately got into character when they saw the camera.

Below: On our way back, a witch was taken to the pyre. She was shouting she was innocent. Of course she was. Declaring a woman to be a witch was just another example of male dominance and how badly women were treated. We have come a long way in rich countries but we still aren’t there yet.

Below: I did photograph a beautiful house for you too.

Below: And a canal.

Below: People were having fun on the water, cooling off. The guy at the front was a sight for sore eyes. I might be old but I am not blind.

Below: Before we boarded train and bus, we had a cool drink near the water.

What happened in my life this week

Not much happened as it was too hot to move. But I did get a shock. The teacher of the Posture course was supposed to be back from holiday and I had a one-on-one appointment with her at her house.
However, she didn’t open the door for me. A neighbour then told me she is still at her holiday destination but in hospital with a basilar skull fracture, in coma and she has been operated on twice. What a terrible news. The poor thing. When I do her exercises now (with her videos) I feel weird. Thinking of her in that terrible state.

Nevertheless, carrying on, we went to beach once more, fighting the heatwave.

Below: Ron and Watson. Watson is carrying a square piece of wood, retrieved from the sea. Ron is carrying the leash around his shoulder; that is not a snake.

Below: Me at the beach again, unfiltered: messy and greasy hair, no make-up.
I only wear one bikini all the time although I own two. This one is best. I think I am slowly developing more core muscles around my stomach and belly area, or it is just wishful thinking.
I am still lopsided but the doctor said that it is not dangerous unless I get pain somewhere in my body (which I don’t, so far). I got complimented with my skin and figure by a woman we know from the beach. She is 80 and that goes to show that everything is relative haha.

Friday was a day of grooming, eating strawberry cake, laundry and having my photo taken for a local sponsored magazine (section ‘My Style’). The magazine will be published in two months’ time. Misja (MisjaB) is in it this month and she tipped the photographer to contact me. Always glad to pose. I wore my checked lime blazer. After all, the photo should truly represent my style and I think this is a stellar outfit.
Below: This mill was the background for the magazine photo. In January 2020 I also did a photo shoot here for my blog. I don’t think there is a photogenic place in Haarlem which I haven’t used.

Below: This is the mill photographed from the other side. The grass has withered because of the heat. You cannot see it, but this ‘meadow’ with the mill and the cows is smack bang in the middle of a residential area. Normal houses and streets are surrounding the field.

Below: As I was about to pose I saw this family of ducks sleeping by the side of the water. The white one at the front had the task of guarding the group and got up when I came too close to his or her liking. Quite a few young ducks in the family who survived the rats.

Temperatures have gone down by Friday to normal summer level (25 degrees). Yay.

Greetje