What were we to do with our regained freedom? Out and about, but where? Of course you couldn’t whine for months about being forced to sit at home and then do nothing during the first weekend of the relaxation. The closest attraction without a visitor stop in the area: The Bazaar in Beverwijk, which for reasons that are unclear can no longer be called the Beverwijkse Bazaar.
The last part was traffic jams, the parking lots were full.
I am not advocating the closing of this trade, on the contrary, but afterwards, when we were in the car torn apart from all the crowds and noise, I did think: if this is allowed, it is ridiculous that theaters and football stadiums have to sigh under restrictions . And open the catering industry until after midnight.
The only thing that reminded us of the pandemic in those halls in Beverwijk was a recorded message that was played once every half hour.
“Wear a mask and keep moving as much as possible, people.”
But because eating is a big part of the experience there, hardly anyone cared about it. I deliberately write ‘almost no one’, because of course we adhered to the corona rules. We – me, the girlfriend, Lucie van Roosmalen (6), Leah van Roosmalen (4) and Frida van Roosmalen (0) – were that small village in Gaul, which was otherwise occupied by Romans.
‘Papa’, Lucie van Roosmalen (6) complained after trudging for 45 minutes, ‘we are unable to keep our distance’. And Leah van Roosmalen (4) started to count out loud people who did not wear the mouth cap over the nose. Every time she got to 198 she would start over with a sigh – ‘198’ is an insurmountable barrier in her head – until at one point she got fed up and wanted a plastic gun.
Of course she didn’t get that, we are against guns for children. She was allowed to have her nails painted in a nail studio with two Asian women who had mouth caps on their ears as earrings.
The people passing by had missed consuming. Especially the ‘a lot’ for ‘little money’, but the euphoria was not lost.
“Are you glad this is allowed again?” I asked my neighbor, who was waiting for a kebab dish on one of the covered terraces.
The answer: “No, I am not happy. Do you sometimes?”
I passed the question on to my children.
“Are we happy, boys?”
Finally the eldest replied: “We are girls, Daddy! And I’m only happy when everything goes the way I want it.”
Marcel van Roosmalen writes an exchange column with Ellen Deckwitz here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 31, 2022
What were we to do with our regained freedom? Out and about, but where? Of course you couldn’t whine for months about being forced to sit at home and then do nothing during the first weekend of the relaxation. The closest attraction without a visitor stop in the area: The Bazaar in Beverwijk, which for reasons that are unclear can no longer be called the Beverwijkse Bazaar.
The last part was traffic jams, the parking lots were full.
I am not advocating the closing of this trade, on the contrary, but afterwards, when we were in the car torn apart from all the crowds and noise, I did think: if this is allowed, it is ridiculous that theaters and football stadiums have to sigh under restrictions . And open the catering industry until after midnight.
The only thing that reminded us of the pandemic in those halls in Beverwijk was a recorded message that was played once every half hour.
“Wear a mask and keep moving as much as possible, people.”
But because eating is a big part of the experience there, hardly anyone cared about it. I deliberately write ‘almost no one’, because of course we adhered to the corona rules. We – me, the girlfriend, Lucie van Roosmalen (6), Leah van Roosmalen (4) and Frida van Roosmalen (0) – were that small village in Gaul, which was otherwise occupied by Romans.
‘Papa’, Lucie van Roosmalen (6) complained after trudging for 45 minutes, ‘we are unable to keep our distance’. And Leah van Roosmalen (4) started to count out loud people who did not wear the mouth cap over the nose. Every time she got to 198 she would start over with a sigh – ‘198’ is an insurmountable barrier in her head – until at one point she got fed up and wanted a plastic gun.
Of course she didn’t get that, we are against guns for children. She was allowed to have her nails painted in a nail studio with two Asian women who had mouth caps on their ears as earrings.
The people passing by had missed consuming. Especially the ‘a lot’ for ‘little money’, but the euphoria was not lost.
“Are you glad this is allowed again?” I asked my neighbor, who was waiting for a kebab dish on one of the covered terraces.
The answer: “No, I am not happy. Do you sometimes?”
I passed the question on to my children.
“Are we happy, boys?”
Finally the eldest replied: “We are girls, Daddy! And I’m only happy when everything goes the way I want it.”
Marcel van Roosmalen writes an exchange column with Ellen Deckwitz here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 31, 2022
What were we to do with our regained freedom? Out and about, but where? Of course you couldn’t whine for months about being forced to sit at home and then do nothing during the first weekend of the relaxation. The closest attraction without a visitor stop in the area: The Bazaar in Beverwijk, which for reasons that are unclear can no longer be called the Beverwijkse Bazaar.
The last part was traffic jams, the parking lots were full.
I am not advocating the closing of this trade, on the contrary, but afterwards, when we were in the car torn apart from all the crowds and noise, I did think: if this is allowed, it is ridiculous that theaters and football stadiums have to sigh under restrictions . And open the catering industry until after midnight.
The only thing that reminded us of the pandemic in those halls in Beverwijk was a recorded message that was played once every half hour.
“Wear a mask and keep moving as much as possible, people.”
But because eating is a big part of the experience there, hardly anyone cared about it. I deliberately write ‘almost no one’, because of course we adhered to the corona rules. We – me, the girlfriend, Lucie van Roosmalen (6), Leah van Roosmalen (4) and Frida van Roosmalen (0) – were that small village in Gaul, which was otherwise occupied by Romans.
‘Papa’, Lucie van Roosmalen (6) complained after trudging for 45 minutes, ‘we are unable to keep our distance’. And Leah van Roosmalen (4) started to count out loud people who did not wear the mouth cap over the nose. Every time she got to 198 she would start over with a sigh – ‘198’ is an insurmountable barrier in her head – until at one point she got fed up and wanted a plastic gun.
Of course she didn’t get that, we are against guns for children. She was allowed to have her nails painted in a nail studio with two Asian women who had mouth caps on their ears as earrings.
The people passing by had missed consuming. Especially the ‘a lot’ for ‘little money’, but the euphoria was not lost.
“Are you glad this is allowed again?” I asked my neighbor, who was waiting for a kebab dish on one of the covered terraces.
The answer: “No, I am not happy. Do you sometimes?”
I passed the question on to my children.
“Are we happy, boys?”
Finally the eldest replied: “We are girls, Daddy! And I’m only happy when everything goes the way I want it.”
Marcel van Roosmalen writes an exchange column with Ellen Deckwitz here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 31, 2022
What were we to do with our regained freedom? Out and about, but where? Of course you couldn’t whine for months about being forced to sit at home and then do nothing during the first weekend of the relaxation. The closest attraction without a visitor stop in the area: The Bazaar in Beverwijk, which for reasons that are unclear can no longer be called the Beverwijkse Bazaar.
The last part was traffic jams, the parking lots were full.
I am not advocating the closing of this trade, on the contrary, but afterwards, when we were in the car torn apart from all the crowds and noise, I did think: if this is allowed, it is ridiculous that theaters and football stadiums have to sigh under restrictions . And open the catering industry until after midnight.
The only thing that reminded us of the pandemic in those halls in Beverwijk was a recorded message that was played once every half hour.
“Wear a mask and keep moving as much as possible, people.”
But because eating is a big part of the experience there, hardly anyone cared about it. I deliberately write ‘almost no one’, because of course we adhered to the corona rules. We – me, the girlfriend, Lucie van Roosmalen (6), Leah van Roosmalen (4) and Frida van Roosmalen (0) – were that small village in Gaul, which was otherwise occupied by Romans.
‘Papa’, Lucie van Roosmalen (6) complained after trudging for 45 minutes, ‘we are unable to keep our distance’. And Leah van Roosmalen (4) started to count out loud people who did not wear the mouth cap over the nose. Every time she got to 198 she would start over with a sigh – ‘198’ is an insurmountable barrier in her head – until at one point she got fed up and wanted a plastic gun.
Of course she didn’t get that, we are against guns for children. She was allowed to have her nails painted in a nail studio with two Asian women who had mouth caps on their ears as earrings.
The people passing by had missed consuming. Especially the ‘a lot’ for ‘little money’, but the euphoria was not lost.
“Are you glad this is allowed again?” I asked my neighbor, who was waiting for a kebab dish on one of the covered terraces.
The answer: “No, I am not happy. Do you sometimes?”
I passed the question on to my children.
“Are we happy, boys?”
Finally the eldest replied: “We are girls, Daddy! And I’m only happy when everything goes the way I want it.”
Marcel van Roosmalen writes an exchange column with Ellen Deckwitz here.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 31, 2022