We also got to go to a little town which I had been intending to visit for a very long time. Its name is Oudewater and I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it. The reason I wanted to go there has to do with one of my favorite scenes in Monty Python's The Holy Grail. It is, of course, the witch weighing scene.
For those of you who don't know the scene (shame on you!) here's a summary:
A crowd of villagers presents Sir Bedevere with a woman they claim to be a witch. Finding that the crowd had dressed her as a witch and put a fake nose on her Bedevere is faced with the difficult question - how do you tell if someone is a witch. A dazzling display of logic then follows:
1. What do you do with witches? Burn them.
2. And what do you burn apart from witches? Wood!
3. So, why do witches burn? Because they're made of... wood?
4. How do we tell whether she is made of wood?
4.1 Does wood sink in water? No
4.2 What also floats in water? A duck!
So, logically... If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood. And therefore a witch!
Bedevere concludes with saying that they should use his largest scales.
As someone else once said, when I first saw this I thought it was brilliant - I had no idea that it was also true!
In Oudewater they have a building called Heksenwaag - Witch's scale. People used to come there and be weighed. They would then receive a certificate stating that their weight was proportional to their build. The "logic" behind this was that since witches could fly they must undoubtedly be very light and therefore weigh less than a normal person of the same build would.
As if that wasn't enough these Oudewater people have also come up with what is undoubtedly one of the world's strangest ice-cream flavors - Smurf! Not only do they burn witches, they also hunt and kill smurfs and make ice scream out of them!
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