Zeeuws Museum

 While our travels to big cities have been fun, they are also time consuming and exhausting, so I convinced John that we should not go to Antwerp or Brussels this weekend in order 

 to see some of Zeeland where we are staying.  We went over to Hesther and Jean-Marie’s for dinner and to watch the Germany vs.  Brazil match.  The dinner was amazing and the 

match was also, we were able to leave at half time knowing that Germany pretty much had it in the bag with a 5-0 lead.  The next night we spent in the square watching the Netherlands lose to

  Argentina in penalty kicks again after double over time.  It was sad to watch the end come because I know that John was excited about the prospect of being in a country that won the World Cup while he was visiting.  But they had a good run.  Hesther used to work for the Zeeuws museum here in Middelburg and offered on a rainy day to take us and 

 show us around.  That day came sooner than we thought and we were able to go on Thursday.  I wish that we could always have a curator walking around with us  in a museum, because we learned a lot more than we 

normally do.  The paintings and other objects in the museum are nice, but the reason to come here are their incredible  tapestries regarding the war of the Spanish against William of Orange and the role of Zeeland

 in these battles.  A huge cycle of tapestries of naval battles that would have been pretty, but meaningless to us without Hesther there to explain their history, the different weavers and restoration projects and the fact that Vroom did the cartoons for these tapestries.  All in all, a good way to spend a rainy day that we were expecting to just spend at home.