Weltevree in Korea. Palms and Windmills on Jeju Island, South Korea
To clear my mind of the Learned Endeavors to which I came home for a week, I cycled on the pretty Hoornsedijk to the south of Groningen, one of my favorite places. As always, I paused a moment at 'De Helper' - dating from 1863 -, a windmill reconstructed 1996-7 on the east side of the Paterwoldsemeer. It's a 'working' mill and often in the weekends its sails are fully deployed. The red sails and the whirr of its blades are a delight to ear and eye.
Well-content I pedaled home but not before seeing some curiously and anomalously Siamese-twinned Splitlip hempnettle flowers (Galeopsis bifida). But the photos are not sharp enough to post.
'Well-content'... Yes, a pun on the Dutch 'Weltevree'. And that brings me to this posted shot. Here are what look at first glance very much like Dutch windmills in a palm-tree setting. The scene is on the spacious grounds of the Lotte Hotel near Seogwipo, Jeju Island, South Korea. I suppose such a scene should not be surprising for a place that also boasts a Teddy Bear Museum... And indeed it's more than a mere owner's quirk or fetish.
For it was on these coasts that Hendrik Hamel (1630-1692) of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company was shipwrecked (1653). His account of Jeju and of Korea is the first European one of some length. Hamel and his companions were not the first Dutchmen in Korea. Hamel describes his encounter with a Dutchman-gone-native here as Pak Yon, Jan Janse Weltevree (1595-after 1656). Weltevree had arrived in Korea in 1627. Not allowed to leave again, he'd apparently taken things in stride. He learned Korean - forgetting much of his Dutch - married a Korean wife, and he became an important adviser on firearms and other weaponry to the Joseon rulers. Though thoroughly naturalised - Hamer writes- his beard became wet with tears on meeting the party of Dutch men. For a while he was their interpreter.
Weltevree came from De Rijp, in the province of North Holland, a place of water and windmills. I'm not sure what he would have thought of the windmill-like constructions in the photo. Their blades turn on an electromotor and are not governed by the winds (and they need no sails, of course). A pretty view, though, and In the shade of palm trees we had that quintessential Dutch drink, a Heineken... and were Well-content, Weltevree.
Weltevree in Korea. Palms and Windmills on Jeju Island, South Korea
To clear my mind of the Learned Endeavors to which I came home for a week, I cycled on the pretty Hoornsedijk to the south of Groningen, one of my favorite places. As always, I paused a moment at 'De Helper' - dating from 1863 -, a windmill reconstructed 1996-7 on the east side of the Paterwoldsemeer. It's a 'working' mill and often in the weekends its sails are fully deployed. The red sails and the whirr of its blades are a delight to ear and eye.
Well-content I pedaled home but not before seeing some curiously and anomalously Siamese-twinned Splitlip hempnettle flowers (Galeopsis bifida). But the photos are not sharp enough to post.
'Well-content'... Yes, a pun on the Dutch 'Weltevree'. And that brings me to this posted shot. Here are what look at first glance very much like Dutch windmills in a palm-tree setting. The scene is on the spacious grounds of the Lotte Hotel near Seogwipo, Jeju Island, South Korea. I suppose such a scene should not be surprising for a place that also boasts a Teddy Bear Museum... And indeed it's more than a mere owner's quirk or fetish.
For it was on these coasts that Hendrik Hamel (1630-1692) of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company was shipwrecked (1653). His account of Jeju and of Korea is the first European one of some length. Hamel and his companions were not the first Dutchmen in Korea. Hamel describes his encounter with a Dutchman-gone-native here as Pak Yon, Jan Janse Weltevree (1595-after 1656). Weltevree had arrived in Korea in 1627. Not allowed to leave again, he'd apparently taken things in stride. He learned Korean - forgetting much of his Dutch - married a Korean wife, and he became an important adviser on firearms and other weaponry to the Joseon rulers. Though thoroughly naturalised - Hamer writes- his beard became wet with tears on meeting the party of Dutch men. For a while he was their interpreter.
Weltevree came from De Rijp, in the province of North Holland, a place of water and windmills. I'm not sure what he would have thought of the windmill-like constructions in the photo. Their blades turn on an electromotor and are not governed by the winds (and they need no sails, of course). A pretty view, though, and In the shade of palm trees we had that quintessential Dutch drink, a Heineken... and were Well-content, Weltevree.