Wednesday 28 June 2023

Klompen! (Clogs!)


In February 2018 I found my first Grecon Dutchman - you can read my excited post from back then here and that's him on the right in the photo below.


Since then I've found another two Dutchmen, with the most recent arrival actually wearing wooden 'Klompen' or clogs!


His blue felt hat and baggy trousers have faded quite a bit and he's obviously had a close encounter with the dreaded Moth, but he's still got a cheery smile on his swarthy [or it just grubby!] face.


He's an earlier example than my other two Dutch chaps and has the silver paper label.

Since he's missing a few stitches of hair at the back, we can see from this photo that he is a 'button head' - in fact, looking at this shot, I think he might be a little short of brains, ha ha!


Clearly he's of the larger scale - here he is standing next to Ludwig who is my only other Grecon to sport anything but lead feet.


The holes in the back of the wooden clogs tell me that they are the sort sold in souvenir shops in the Netherlands, tied together on a little string and sometimes attached to a keyring.

I've always thought that Ludwig's boots were made from the equivalent souvenir seen in Swiss and Austrian tourist shops (the Edelweiss featured on his boots being the national flower of both of those countries of course).  I wonder if Miss Cohn bought them while on holiday in these countries - we know that her brother lived in Switzerland.

Anyway, once again, Welkom Nederlandse Man! (Welcome Dutch Man!)

Until next time,
Zoe

3 comments:

  1. So interesting esp about the origin of the little clogs. People wore clogs in the UK particularly in the north & clomped about in them. Isn’t language wonderful!

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  2. Wonderful chaps - love the buttons too :)

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  3. I’ve got a little Grecon hiker very similar to yours. 😊

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