World Cup fever

It’s Friday the 13^th with a full moon (which won’t happen again for quite a while) and the night that Netherlands is going to play their

first game and we saw them blocking off the square earlier today, so we’re figuring that there is some big screen tv going up or something.  I went out to scope it out and walked around the block to come back

at the square to find 16^th century horses and buggies,  peasants, etc riding around the square.  I had to hurry back to get John and the camera, but the actual filming of the shot had ended.  We were able to get some great shots of the set  

 up and this is a Dutch film that they are making about a war with the French and they chose Middelburg for the next couple of weeks because of the remaining Medieval buildings that are still in great form with only some modern things to disturb the mood.  So, we will

 be able to follow filming for some time throughout the stay.  Some of my favorite shots are of peasants with their cell phones or cameras after shooting.  We walked up to see another part of the set at the Abbey after dinner and then went on to the square to catch

the game with hundreds of other people.  The bar had set up many different tvs on their patios and had mobile kegs with bartenders for all the beer that they had to supply as people just walked up to watch the game outside with others.  We

 got there in time to watch a horrible penalty call against the Netherlands that ended up in a penalty kick that scored for Spain.  There was some moaning, but no throwing things, screaming, yelling etc like you would expect from sports fans who were into the  game.  But then the Netherlands scored and they came alive.  And then the Netherlands scored again and again and again and again.  John went hoarse from yelling so much and picked a man next to us to yell and high five with every time something went 

wrong or right.  This man spoke no English and we spoke no Dutch, but he and John were best buds for a while there.  Such is the power of sports.  The fireworks, yelling, and carousing did not end until early hours, but when you close the windows and put in ear plugs, you can still sleep even while a country celebrates a world cup victory.