pallas_athena (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pallas_athena) wrote2010-07-21 11:52 pm
pallas_athena) wrote2010-07-21 11:52 pm
Where'er you walk
I'm typing this from a hotel room in The Hague. Rather surprisingly, I'm not currently on trial for war crimes.
I'd never been to the Netherlands before. I like it here, and wish I had more than two days (Amsterdam yesterday; the Hague today.) I've walked along canals, experienced a rijstaffel and seen more paintings than you could shake a stick at.
What's strange about being here, though, is that I speak not a syllable of Dutch. I can just about read it, given its close relationship to both English and German, but I have no idea how to speak it, or understand it when spoken.
It is so weird being in a European country where I don't speak the language. So weird.
Tomorrow: back to London; singing; then off to Berkeley Castle for the Berkeley Skirmish (featuring, should the reenactors not behave themselves, MORE SINGING).
Today I also learnt that the brilliant tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson has died at the age of only 69. It is a sad loss, but the real tragedy is that he had been retired for some years due to early-onset Alzheimer's. I will always remember his beautiful voice.
I'd never been to the Netherlands before. I like it here, and wish I had more than two days (Amsterdam yesterday; the Hague today.) I've walked along canals, experienced a rijstaffel and seen more paintings than you could shake a stick at.
What's strange about being here, though, is that I speak not a syllable of Dutch. I can just about read it, given its close relationship to both English and German, but I have no idea how to speak it, or understand it when spoken.
It is so weird being in a European country where I don't speak the language. So weird.
Tomorrow: back to London; singing; then off to Berkeley Castle for the Berkeley Skirmish (featuring, should the reenactors not behave themselves, MORE SINGING).
Today I also learnt that the brilliant tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson has died at the age of only 69. It is a sad loss, but the real tragedy is that he had been retired for some years due to early-onset Alzheimer's. I will always remember his beautiful voice.