So we went to Thorn Aug 24. One of our last little adventures before Jacob started school. I swear he was there. You wouldn’t know it from the photos. Apart from running around in the outdoor amphitheater, he sat on the stroller the whole time. And whined when I tried to get him to walk or stand next to Nicholas for a picture. So no pictures.
Thorn is one of the places I’ve heard of, driven by a million times but in the 2+ years we’ve lived here, never bothered to visit. And it’s 2 exits up the autobahn, maybe 20 minutes away.
Thorn is known as “little white town” because most of the buildings are painted white. Why exactly I don’t know. It’s a cute little town centered around an old church (originally an abbey dating from the 10th century). The streets are cobble stone from the nearby Meuse (Maas) River. Some arranged in large-scale mosaic patterns. Nicholas is standing on the “N” on a compass near the church.
This history goes: In the 10th century, Thorn was a sovereign state of the German empire. The town was run by a woman—the abbess or mother superior of the abbey. (Originally the abbey was a convent, but then changed to a secular state.) Only unmarried daughters of nobility were permitted to live in Thorn. These women had servants, owned property and lived a very luxurious life…until they were married. When a woman was married, she had to leave. Life, like this, lasted until 1797, when the French invaded.
M O R E P H O T O S
From Thorn, NL. Shot August 24, 2011. Thorn, Netherlands
