Hello All
I am impressed with the details that Alice is giving us about her trip to
Europe. As she said, I shared her hotel room in Groningen and I saw her
write up her journal every night before bed. I am enjoying her account of
what she did.
If anyone is interested I took some photos while at the Congress. Some are
not very good as the light was bad on cloudy days. They are in Flickr
(http://www.flickr.com ) My username is Craftylindy.
Lindy in Ireland
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alice Howell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 9:34 PM
Subject: [lace] OIDFA Trip Day 15-19 Groningen: the Congress
OIDFA Trip Day 15-19 Groningen: the Congress
The morning was spent traveling from Koln to Groningen. I caught the
train that went north to Leer, then changed trains into Groningen.
Because it was so hot, I took a taxi to the hotel. The taxi driver
questioned that I wanted to ride that short distance. It took him only
4-5 minutes to get there but it was much nicer than walking. He pointed
out which building was the Oosterpoort so that was helpful. And he showed
me the foot bridge across the canal that would be a short cut. With the
footbridge, which did not show in the maps I looked at, the hotel was only
two short blocks from the door of the Oosterpoort.
The canal was a busy, working canal so all the bridges had to be able to
open for tall ships. I saw several bridge lifts during the days in
Groningen. This is a daily occurrence in this canal country.
There was a church a block from my hotel that I visited. It was built of,
or finished with, bricks of different colors both outside and inside.
This made a very pretty church. The ceilings had decorative paintings on
them. It was a definite change from all the churches I'd seen that were
made of stone. In my hotel, I could hear hourly chimes from three
different churches.
Day 16 was registration and set up day for OIDFA but it didn't start until
1:00. I had a roommate, Lindy Taylor from Ireland, join me in Groningen
and we had the morning to walk around the center of town. We had
breakfast at a small bakery, visited part of a street market that was
being set up, shopped the yarn/craft store, had ice cream cones, tried to
get in a church but it was locked, and generally had a pleasant morning.
In the afternoon we registered, then I assisted in setting up the USA
Stand. I had carried a package of lace from several people in my backpack
all through Europe just for this display.
In the middle of the work, I looked outdoors and it was raining hard. I
hoped it would stop so just continued what I was doing. Three hours
later, it was still raining, so I knew I would get wet. I had my umbrella
but not my raincoat, and I just had sandles on my feet. It was only two
blocks, but my feet were soaked and my clothes damp by the time I reached
the hotel. The weather continued to be cloudy with some showers during
the whole Congress and the week of Tours.
Friday was the first day of the Congress, and shopping started at 9. The
last of the exhibits had to be finished by then, so we were at the
building when it opened at 8. I checked the USA Stand, then looked
around. Lindy worked on the Irish Stand. I attended the General Meeting,
and the Opening Ceremonies. Shopping was then the main activity until the
Arachne luncheon and the lecture in the afternoon. I believe about 625
people were registered for the Congress but there were many more people
who came in just for a day.
Vendors were scattered all over the building on two floors. One area had
the Bag Contest entries. We were given a voting paper for the most
popular bag. Horrors!! We had to choose ONE bag out of 225!!!!! In the
front of the building, there was a room with 's-Gravenmoerse lace display
(including a set of red undergarments) and demo pillows. In the hall
outside there were modern lace items displayed. There were some items
displayed at various places throughout the building, and a major display
of Withof in a room in the back. There was a separate lace exhibit in the
next building.
The country Stands had a wide variety of laces displayed. The Stand
awards went to Spain (first) and UK (second). It was announced that there
was only one vote difference between the two. People in the UK had made
little purses of black, white and silver. There were a lot of them, and
displayed in two glass cabinets. The divider panels in the back of the
booth had black and white wallpaper strips on them which set off the
display. Spain had filled their booth with a 3-D lighted display box that
they built. It had multiple wires crisscrossing the top third with 3-D
gold ornaments hanging from the wires. Congratulations UK and Spain!
The Saturday evening banquet was held in the Martini Church. My guess for
attendance is about 500. There was an organ concert throughout most of
the evening. Some modern laces were displayed in the Martini Church.
Details of the Congress activities can be found on their webpage. Search
OIDFA 2008 to find it. The day trips, city walks, and lectures are listed
there. I chose to attend all the lectures. They were very interesting.
I got a seat in the front row for the Costume lecture. Reproduction
costumes of northern Netherlands for different periods in history were
shown and explained.
The Congress was sort of a 3-day Lace Day but the participants did not
bring lace pillows to work on. Shopping was the main activity.
The Congress closed at 5:00 but reopened Friday night for the Volendam
Choir concert. Saturday night was the banquet, mentioned already.
Sunday, it ended at 4:00. After the lace from the USA Stand was
retrieved, I transferred to a hotel at the edge of town for the week of
Tours.
Days 15-19 Lace exhibits numbers 7-11. Church numbers 8 and 9.
Alice in Oregon
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