Leerdam

We are spending the day at Leerdam, a pretty and quite sleepy little town in Holland.

It is also the glass blowing centre of Holland and it has a demonstration building and the National Glass Museum.

We went to the demonstration first and it was very popular, but we managed to grab a couple of seats near the back. We watched the proceedings while a guide explained the process in great detail in Dutch.

After about half an hour he suddenly said 'if you have any questions please ask'.

Surprised and pleased that he had spoken in English, I had loads of questions as we hadn't understood a thing. 

I decided that I would just keep it quick and simple. 'What is it?' He looked at me in amazement, and then said that he didn't have a clue. I just call them objects, he said, but perhaps it's just a vase.

So there we are, but it wouldn't stand up well on such a narrow base and you wouldn't get many flowers in the hole in the top.

Outside in the garden were some glass sculptures and I would have loved to take this large one home.

Or perhaps this one would be easier to carry on the bike.

After lunch we made it to the Glass Museum although we weren't overwhelmed by it.

However, it had a garden that was full of greenhouses with exhibits inside them. Our first prize went to the one full of dead chickens, or possibly ducks, that were hanging from a string.

It's given me a few ideas for my own greenhouse as it does look a bit boring in the wintertime.