Saturday, August 30, 2014

Mom's 1953 Europe Road Trip: Begonia Festival

From Mom's Europe trip diary, in the "PLACES VISITED" section:
August 30, Sunday – Road between Bruges [Belgium] and Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Went to Mass at Bruges Cathedral--couldn't understand sermon--knelt in cane bottom chair.  Drove to Ghent & Antwerp where we lunched.  On other side of Antwerp went through customs (immigration).  Drove into Rotterdam and found place to stay with a private bath.*  Hallelujah!  Joye and I walked around and saw the ruins of the flood (very bad), had sandwiches at a tea room and came back to hotel to hang out a terrific washing.  Talked to an English woman in tea room and found that English don't like food either.  Saw Begonia Festival in Lochristi [Belgium] today - very beautiful.

* According to the "HOTELS STOPPED AT" section of the trip diary, my mother and her friends spent this night at the Atlanta Hotel in Rotterdam, Netherlands.




Above left: [Stained glass window in] St. Salvators [Bruges Cathedral, 18 September 2012] / Steve CollisCC-BY-2.0

Above right: Hotel Atlanta Rotterdam [circa 1935] / Public domain 


The Begonia Festival began in 1946 as a way for local begonia growers to make use of the flowers (they are raising the flowers to sell the tubers to gardeners).
The photos above and to the left were taken by my mother.

The flood my mother refers to was the North Sea flood of January 31 - February 1, 1953, which was most devastating to the Netherlands, with 1,836 deaths and extensive property damage.


This is the 23rd in a series of posts about my mother's 1953 Europe Trip.


© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.

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