Not-So-Secret Garden, Ridderkerk

Ridderkerk is a town (it definitely does not look like a village) just outside Rotterdam, in fact so close I have the idea that almost everyone employed who lives there does work in Rotterdam but doesn't want to actually live in Rotterdam (I don't either). Translated, it means 'Knight's Church'. Reading the history, however, I have just learned that the original Riederkerke has something to do with the fact that ancient buildings found in the area were built with reeds, although according to the story some knights did found a church there sometime in the 13th century, dedicated to Sint Joris, in English St. George.

This reminds me of one of those bits of trivia I picked up when I was studying Linguistics (Masteral program). Do you know where the English word knight comes from? The Dutch have the word knecht, which means 'male servant'. When saying the word, the 'k' is pronounced, by the way. English having been originally a Germanic language via The Neth (we're talking 1500 years ago), some words inevitably travelled to the British Isles with the Anglo-Saxons and managed to survive, including knecht. In the course of time, the lowly knecht got promoted to knighthood, in truth glorified 'servants' of the king or duke of a given area, and were rewarded with castles and forts and horses for their loyalty, for example when the king went to war. In Dutch, though, the knecht is still a knecht and has absolutely no chance of promotion, poor sod. Instead of any modern form of knecht, we call our knights ridders, or 'riders' ... on horseback, of course!

Somewhat sunny this morning up to early afternoon, but now the clouds have returned to their seats and have settled down with some yoghurt to watch the national skating championships on TV.