Ceremonies

What larks! The morning was fairly ordinary, with me at the workshop and Mr A doing his thing around the town. After a quick lunch meeting with some colleagues, back to the hotel to break out the gown and hood for the procession to the lecture and back again for a reception. The last time I came to one of these ceremonies (an inaugural rather than a valedictory), I borrowed one of the Maastricht University gowns. This time I thought I'd bring my own, and I was rather glad I did. In the Netherlands, gowns attach to the office rather than the degree you hold, so there is rather less variety than you tend to see in an academic procession in the UK (as there are only a limited number of Universities in the Netherlands). They are also mainly dull colours or black. My red gown got lots of comments and compliments. And what an academic procession it was! Literally dozens and dozens of friends and colleagues of René had turned out to celebrate his retirement by joining in the academic procession, and joining hundreds more people in the St Janskerk for the lecture.

After the lecture came some warm speeches and presentations, and then there was a reception back at the main building of the University. Lots of people to chat to, including the man who organised the conference in Leuven, who had come over to celebrate René's retirement. But that was only the beginning, as the main celebratory event was a huge party out at the family house on the outskirts of Maastricht. René's wife Hildegard seems to think I might have been there before, and that may be so, but it was a long time ago. Out the back of their house they have old stables building, that they've renovated as a party space. In addition, there were two marquees at the front of the house (doubling as a coat check) and in the garden (where there was live music - the same group you see in the photo here).

We spent most of our time in the stables area, sampling the food and wine that was laid out in different places (there was one room that was literally crammed with chocolate; and cheese in another one) for people to help themselves. Hard to say, but there must have been about 300 people there. So many people to talk to. We mixed chatting to old friends and acquaintances with meeting new people, including someone who is an absolute legend in Dutch legal academic circles.

In the end, we missed the bus back to the hotel (we were bussed out there to start with) and so asked the hostess if she could give us the number of a taxi firm. Instead, she found a friend who was leaving who drove us back to the hotel, and seemed very interested to chat with these people who had come all the way from Edinburgh to celebrate with a great European. As with so many other conversations during the evening, we covered the topic of brexit....

An amazing evening, after a great couple of days. It's been so great to be here and to feel European again for a few days.