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this is market vendor frank. frank is 45 years old and a true efteling fan. that's because frank is building efteling inhis own back garden. that's what makes a true fan. but how did he get this craze? this is efteling fans. so. i've been working on this for a few years now. it'sall made out of used materials. the roof tiles are like the ones at efteling. they're burgundy roof tiles and these ones are 200 years old. and...
i got them in belgium for a good price because they're quite expensive in the netherlands. the whole cottage is made out of used materials. so it's new but actually very old. i got the idea while i was on holiday visiting my in-law's in the south of france. they've got a really lovely cottage there. it was a ruin from 1757 and they've done it up beautifully. but there were a lotof materials leftover. locks, hinges, old wood, you know, really worn wood that looks so nice.
i just had to use it some way. so next time we went on holiday, we took a big trailer with us. we loaded up all the wood. like planks and thick beams. and now they've all been used in this cottage. like the rafters, the support beams, the shutters, the door and the stained glass windows. of course, i also used other things. like curved wood. they're really good at making that at efteling. but i have to improvise a bit. so, for instance, i used parts of a sofa, like these curved legs. you don't notice it's part of a sofa unless you know, but if you don't know...
that's what finishes it off so beautifully, yes. you have to be a bit crazy to want to and be able to do something like this. it demands perseverance because you get to a certain stage when things don't go the way you want them to, so you really have to stick with it. because it's much harder than you think it is. this is the best addition to the garden. it's the windmill dating from 1954, that used to be at the pedal trains. it's the original design by anton pieck and the nice thing about this windmill is that pieck painted the first layer himself. when i bought it, it was peeling badly. the windmill was in bad shape.
now it's been completely renovated. but the roof was in poor condition and needed to be rethatched. someone told me about a thatcher that used to thatch at efteling. so to keep it as original as possible, he thatched the roof. and the whole thing speaks for itself. it's been restored to its former glory. of course, we can't be without an efteling toadstool in the garden to complete the picture. and it plays music, too. lovely, isn't it? i'm working on this at the moment: gnome wee walter messenger. but what really got it all started,
are the antique books of fairy tales. i love antique books of fairy tales. they have a certain atmosphere that really appeals to me. i'm very particular. you won't get nicer books of fairy tales than these. it's taken me years to get such a great collection. but what really got it all started... my passion for efteling, is the book peter reinders had when he asked anton pieck to design efteling. this is peter reinders' book and every picture is a fairytale in itself. you don't really need any text. the picture says it all.
i think efteling's success is all due to anton pieck's style. i often read to my son from the book. and he's become a bit of a grimm expert himself now. he knows almost all the fairytales. i made a treasure chest for my son, for all the tangible memories. and every time we go to efteling,we bring back a coin from donkey lift your tail. and every coin symbolises a golden memory. we made it into a treasure chest for my son. and this is the clock from the seven kids.
to me, the clock from the seven kids is the heart of the fairytale forest. it symbolises everything pieck is. i simply had to have it. i used to collect rock-'n-roll records. i had to sell the whole collection to be able to pay for the clock because i had it made by the best modeller in the netherlands. it's so cool, almost like the real clock. when i'm in efteling, i'm always kind of looking for that feeling i used to get when i was a child. you're walking through a living picture book, drawn by anton pieck.
beautifully rebuilt and exactly the same as when i was young. but what really makes my day, despite the fact that i've seen it so often, is that i still see things that i've never noticed before. i've seen the goats' house more than a hundred times. but today was the first time i've ever seen a kitten under mother goat's bed. i've never seen it before. maybe it's new. i've never noticed it. there are lots of things like that. time and again, i see something i've never seen before. and that's what makes it so interesting to keep coming back each time.
wonderful. this is sleeping beauty’s castle. when you come in, that's when you really enter efteling. it's been here since 1952 and is the oldest building. i've got good childhood memories of this because my father wasn't always around and i still looked up to him even so. but when he was around and we went to efteling, it was something to really look forward to. the whole family would be together in the nicest place i could imagine. i savour the moment. even now, every time i come back,i think about how lovely it was. we're at the indian water lilies.
this is one of the rituals when i'm in the park. just like taking a golden coin back home, i always visit this attraction. then i go and stand where anton pieck was when he gave an interview sometime in the early eighties. i saw it on youtube and in it he talked with particular passion and dedication about what in 1966... hi, are you frank? i think i've got a surprise for you. i heard you'd love to take a look in our props storage room. so that's what we're going to do now. come with me. ok!
well, this is it. wow! this is efteling wonderland. take a look around. this is the original. i've got these too, but this is from back in the days. yeah, this is very original. do you mind if i take a look? be my guest. these are the knights... cool! on the tower, so cool.
beautiful. really beautiful. these are old horses from the carousel. efteling really cares about its history. so we store all the objects that were once in the park and that aren't used anymore with great care. we look after them well, so they might be able to be used again in an exhibition or something like that. anton pieck chose everything himself and he probably sat on these horses, too. you probably recognise this as well.
yes. it's the goat from the seven kids. after 30 years of service, that was it, so there's a new version in the fairytale forest now. i'd love to buy it. this is from hansel and gretel. it's from under the overhang of the cottage. it's the first time i've seen the little face from close by. it's made of wood and this is fixed onto it. beautifully made. of course not.
this is so cool. this is one of the little faces from beside the doors of mother holle's cottage. in 2006, mother holle went to live in the cottage and we also adapted it to anton pieck's actual design. and that's where these faces were, in the walls beside the doors. they're like plaques. that's the nice thing, that we still have all pieck's drawings in the archive. so you can still revert to them later. that's how you get this real pieck appearance. and this is the old material from the vermolen carousel. it was painted by hand. last time we did maintenance, we replaced it and repainted it.
go ahead. two zips. so three fifty plus three fifty makes seven. and that one is a euro. i'll only charge a euro for that, so eight altogether. yep, so here we are at the market in waalwijk. this is my job. i've been working at the market since i was sixteen. it's an old family company that my granddad started after the second world war. since then, i work for myself and i've tried to make a regular stall look more like a shop. to make it look cosy, too. that's the kind of atmosphere i like. that's why i love anton pieck and efteling.
they are exactly that. and to inspire people to make things you can, of course, give them a little help. that's the feeling i get from efteling. if, for instance, i see colours intermingling or beautiful pictures, it inspires me to create something like it at home, for indoors or in the garden. i really enjoy doing it. have a nice day. thank you. my pleasure. bye! another happy memory. are you a real efteling fan too, ordo you know someone who is?
please let us know in the comments or send an email to youtube@efteling.com. and who knows, next time it might be you we follow.