Eindhoven and Beyond!

 On the 13th we took a day trip to the city of Eindhoven to visit the delightful people at the IND offices (Dutch Immigration) to discuss Sam's and my stay in the Netherlands.  I must say, for a government office it was remarkably easy to find, clean, and staffed with helpful people.  After we explained our situation, those nice people decided to not charge us 2,000 Euros for the last six weeks of our stay, but to extend the three-months-free visa until we leave in June.  Hurrah!  We felt like dancing when we got out of there!

One of my favorite things so far has been the biking culture of the Netherlands.  As an example, here is a picture of the main rack outside the Eindhoven train station:

Eindhoven train station

Once we finished with the IND appointment, we got back on the train to the city of Tilburg with the intent to visit the Audax Textile Museum.  This was mostly because I wanted to, but Jerry and Sam didn't seem to mind.  We walked from the train station to the museum, which took a little while, but we went through a very nice park and neighborhoods along the way.

flowers in the grass, Tilburg park

The Audax Textile Museum is about more than displaying dusty old relics of the Industrial Revolution.  The first display that was saw was from that time period, however, these machines were not rusty, broken, and incomprehensible.  Each one had been made functional so that the viewer could actually understand the process that was accomplished as the clean raw wool was transformed into warm blankets.  This machine was fed the bales of wool that arrived at the factory and carded them into the bats that were then spun on the next machine in line.

carding machine

spinning machine

The antique looms were all strung up and a significant amount of skillful weaving had been done on them to demonstrate the complex patterns that were created.

All the old machines were run on steam power, so here's a picture of the steam engine that created all that power:

 In the city of Eindhoven there is a big design school.  Students and artists from there come to the Audax Textile Museum to study and practice.  There is a huge, multi-language library as part of the museum, and space for artists to work.  As a visitor, you are allowed to wander through all parts of the museum and watch everyone at work.

textile artist creating a sculpted rug

Jerry and Sam in the restaurant

Me by a massive swift/winding machine

In another part of the museum were displays by the professional textile artist Christien Meindertsma.  This hall of manual looms all strung with flax for making table linen was part of her installations.  I loved how the lighting made everything seem so alive.