What I did on Friday... June 1

Remember those wonderful fire alarms at southern? How effectively they woke you up? How ill timed they were? How done right annoying they were? Well, i would like to introduce their even more annoying cousin: Hostel fire alarms. Apparently, a common theme in the world is little punk kids that get lots of pleasure from pulling the fire alarms. A second common theme is the groaning, in my case, four separate languages. My Nigerian friend, LSD (yah, great name!) was in Den Haag to get a visa to work in  Saudi for the oil. He works for an oil service company doing spectroscopy on the oil. He is a Ph.D student also. Very talkative guy and very informative. Then there was the old guy. I don't know his name, but, he is from O Porto, Portugal and is in Holland on a bike tour. He rides 80-90 km a day and likes to see the country this way. Holland is his last country in Western Europe to bike through. Then there was the punk rocker that was staying in the Hague to audition for the Royal Conservatory's Electronic Music program. I didn't talk to him until the morning, because he came back at 3 am. I talked in the morning before i left to the train. Anyways, it was quite humorous to hear the rumblings and groanings of 4 different languages upon being woken at 4 with alarm. Great way to start the day.

I slept for a bit more, then ate breakfast (Bread, Cheese, Orange juice, Yoghurt, muesli etc...) then packed at got to the train station by 9:30. I boarded the train to Haarlem, and slept until there. Then I had to wait for a little till the train to Uitgeest (try to pronounce that!) THen, when in Uitgeest, boarded yet another to Alkmaar. I ditched my big backpack in the station lockers, and walked to the Grote of Alkmaar.

It is always fascinating to me how central these churches are to a town or city. They are usually the most noticeable building and often serve as the symbol of a city. Alkmaar was no exception. While a small town, it has a HUGE church. Almost as big as the Grote of Haarlem. They have a cheese market on Fridays and I walked through the market. They had probably 30 kinds of cheese and close to 100 kinds of tulips. It was amazing. I wanted to buy some tulip bulbs, but, I didn't think Id get them into the USA. They also had a crepe shop. The rest is history once i saw that :)

The church is magnificent. I walked in and was blown away the the organ. It fits the room very well. Both the Grotes of Alkmaar and Haarlem have impressively high ceilings 80-90 feet. The organ fills the space almost perfectly in both. Ill post a whole blog about the Haarlem organ later. But here is a picture of Alkmaar.

 Note the paintings at the top of the church, behind the organ and on the wall. 

facade covers

After being wowed by the organ, I listened to the cheese concert. It was one of the organist's student. He played well. His interpretation of Bach would have made Mrs. Glass cringe and Heiller roll in his grave. Overall a beautiful instrument. It is primarily a 'plenum' instrument. It doesn't have so many coloristic stops, but, the sound of the plenum is very beautiful. In fact, the sound between the Schnitger plenum and that of Collegedale is very very similar. I was blown away.

Then the second half the concert was played by another student. She is hungarian and played very well. She has studied in Amsterdam and Alkmaar for three years now. Great touch and very musical. She played a bunch of early music on the little meantone instrument they have. 

Anyways, after the concert I talked with the two organist for close to a half hour. They were very friendly and quite fun to talk to. They are both graduating with Masters degrees.

From Alkmaar I took the train to Amsterdam, then Amersfoort, then Zwolle, and finally to Coevarden. Egbert picked me up and I've stayed with him now for two nights.