Dorpsfeest

Beth and I recently hit the dorpsfeest (village party) up in Santpoort. It was the 250th anniversary of the festival and I was a bit surprised to find out that after going up there for food, drinks, dancing, and general rabble-rousing over the last 5 years that the most famous event at the festival is a horse race through the village streets. We had never seen, nor heard of this before.

They dumped sand onto the only street that extended the 300 meters needed for the race. It was a very hot day and the streets were lined with rowdy people, placing bets, smoking cigars and drinking cold, cold beer. I had no idea what I was watching, so I didn’t place any bets and I quit smoking years ago...but the beer sure was good.

Later that evening we decided to go through the “Hotel of Traps” that was set up in the main village square. It was a great walk-through funhouse with all kinds of moving stairs, spiraling walkways, and blasting air canons. There was a conveyer belt floor that whisked you along at surprising speed and dumped you into wall of rotating punching bags that squeezed you (especially us adults) into a rubber net. Very cool! I haven’t had this much fun in a funhouse since Noah’s Arc in Kennywood…does that one even still exist?

Psychedelic groovy man.

This three story tight spiral slide was the most treacherous part of the whole funhouse. All of the adults that we saw walking through with their kids avoided this slide by opting to climb down a moving stairway. We decided to go for it. I went first, but since I was wearing short pants I laid mostly on my back and tucked my knees up so that I would go as fast as possible. Big mistake! The tube was too small for me and spirals were too tight. I did go bloody fast, but my right knee and right elbow were driven into and dragged along the the wall of the spiral and when I popped out the other side I had some of the deepest, nastiest brush burns that I’ve had since the time that I wiped-out on my skateboard at the bottom of Barkley Street when I was nine years old. My knee is still scabby today after two weeks!

At 30 kilo’s lighter and 20 centimeters shorter, Beth fared much better and came through the spirals unscathed.

The fun continues tonight with our favorite street festival in Haarlem. One last hoorah for summer!