Hoorn

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***Second visit March 2022 photos added.***

The heyday of Hoorn was in the 17th century, when it was one of the most important Dutch East India Company centres.



Founded about 1300 and chartered in 1357, it was the capital of medieval of West Friesland. Its horn-shaped harbour (for which it is named) was one of the principal ports of the Netherlands.

The first great net for herring fishing was made in Hoorn in 1416. Willemstad Schouten who discovered the passage around Cape Horn andwere born in Hoorn.



The Waag is a stunning building in the historic center of Hoorn was built in 1609. It was used historically as a weigh-house where goods bought and sold could be assessed for its value. It’s now a cozy cafe.



WestfrIes Museum - The building itself is a Rijksmonument building dating back to 1632.



The Grote Oost (literally the Great East) is one of the most beautiful streets in Hoorn. Many of the houses date back to the 1600s and 1700s and were owned by the merchant class.



The Hoofdtoren is a tower used for defense purposes dating back to 1532. The clock is fairly recent compared to the rest of the tower, dating back to only 1651.



The cabin boys of Bontekoe

The statue is located at the old harbour in Hoorn. Next to the Hoofdtoren, the cabinboys watch over the IJssel lake.



Peter Hajo and Padde Kelemeijn, two poor fourteen-year old boys living in Hoorn, make friends with Rolf, the nephew of Willem Bontekoe. Hajo's father was a fisherman who drowned, and Hajo works as a blacksmith's apprentice but longs to go to sea. He signs up with Bontekoe, to sail to the East along with Rolf. The ship sails from Texel, but Padde, who has come along to say goodbye, misses the ship home and becomes a sailor as well, apprenticed to the master in charge of food and drink.

Off the Sumatra coast Padde knocks a candle over and starts a fire. The ship explodes, and the survivors manage to reach the coast, where they are waylaid by natives. The three boys, with Harmen, another sailor, set off to reach the Dutch colony of Batavia. Here their ways part; Rolf stays with his uncle in Asia, while the other three boys sail back home. With presents and a bag full of earned money they return to their mothers and siblings.



Hoorn is such a pretty place and it felt like we were walking back in time through the historic streets.



https://www.heygo.com/tours/day-trip-to-hoorn?

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