Something Fishy

Dutch skies need clouds. You don't often see a day without a cloud. The ones Hieronymus van Diest has painted here are among the most characteristic. You can see them almost any spring day, cycling in the "polder". Of course there were no bikes in the days of Van Diest. People moved around walking, in coaches, or on their horse, although the possession of a horse was limited to the happy very few. And then in the Netherlands, no small number of cities and villages were interconnected by waterways. Public transport depended for a large part on the "trekschuit" ( a boat pulled by horse, walking on the canal bank) . In Dordrecht, as you can see, fishing was an important way of making a living. Fish was a substantial part of the daily diet. Things have changed since then. Eating fish is considered to be healthy. But fishing is restricted, due to european guidelines, aimed at protecting a speedily diminishing fish population in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. As a result of that, people nowadays are eating canned tunafish and frozen cod. I wonder how the good people of Dordrecht would have felt about that.