Holland Untour, Spring of 2006
by Rachel & George Holmes, Browns Summit, NC
Prologue
George began to plan this trip in late summer of 2005 and made reservations with Untours with whom we had previously traveled to Switzerland. We invited our daughter Rachael to accompany us as she had in Switzerland, and she was eager and ready to travel. We could not have made the trip without her, as she was our official reader of bus, train and tram schedules that often change depending upon which day of the week it is. She assisted us in getting on and off of planes, trains, trams and buses and watched every step we took to warn us of possible hazards we might encounter and was truly our “guardian angel” the entire time. George decided that he wanted to go back to see what Holland was really like since he had flown over it often from England during World War II but could not actually see it since it had been flooded to impede the Germans. He had taken me to England and France previously to places where he had served during the war, and he wanted me to see the Netherlands also.Although the Netherlands is this country’s official name, most of the rest of the world calls it Holland. However, Holland actually comprises only 2 of the 13 provinces. North and South Holland contain the country’s three main cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Hag (The Hague). We did not visit Rotterdam due to lack of time. The Netherlands covers an area of 16,000 square miles, about one-tenth the size of California. With some 16 million inhabitants, this means a population density of around 1,000 per square mile, making it the third most densely populated country in Europe. However, this is not something that is readily noticeable to visitors outside the main cities, as the flat landscape with its sweeping vistas seems anything but crowded. Approximately one-sixth of its total area is covered with water.
Dutch people are friendly, helpful and outgoing. They care about social issues and the environment and almost everyone speaks English, many quite fluently. They live in a country that is neat and tidy, where there is excellent public transportation and where visitors find it easy to get around.
The Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay marriages, regulate prostitution, officially sanction euthanasia, and tolerate the over-the-counter sale of marijuana. Holland has a 92 percent share of the world market for flowers. Tulips were introduced to Holland from Turkey in the 17th century, and today the tulip is considered a quintessentially Dutch product with innumerable varieties. Flower sellers are part and parcel of Holland’s street scene. In most countries, cut flowers are considered a luxury. In Holland, however, they are practically a daily shopping item.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
After having driven to Rachael’s in Charlottesville on Monday afternoon to spend the night, Rachael’s friend Gene Carpenter picked us up at 1:30pm to drive us to Dulles Airport. Gene, who is a retired hospital administrator, drives people back and forth to Dulles on a regular basis, and he drove our car, which he drove back to Charlottesville to park in Rachael’s garage so he’d have it to come pick us up on our return to Dulles. He looked so much like my brother Warren that I immediately enjoyed his “gift of gab” and good sense of humor on the drive up. We arrived around 3:40pm and spent two hours getting through security, etc. We grabbed a sandwich and milk shake at Subway before boarding the 6:35pm plane which did not leave until 7:10pm. Rachael and Dad sat nearer the back of the plane while I enjoyed a much roomier seat right behind first-class since Dad had requested a better seat for me and then asked that his and Rachael’s be upgraded (which they did not do). I sat next to a nice young British man who worked in London and was due at work the next morning. We had rather turbulent weather at times, and we arrived at Heathrow in London at 6:30am (British time) which is 5 hours ahead of our DST in the USA. We remained on the plane for what seemed like eons before we could disembark and ride bus to the terminal! There we spent an hour going through security again, and we barely made it to Gate C-3 for scheduled 7:20am late flight to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam—flying British Airways the entire time. We arrived at Amsterdam at 10:50am. Dutch time is one hour later than British time. Thus we lost 6 hours of our regular day during both flights.We were met in the station at our “Meeting Point.” (a huge red and white cube in the middle of the Central Hall) by Lenneke Kraajvanger, our assigned local Untours on-site staff person, after claiming our luggage which was surprisingly there! We (a group of three other couples, some of whom had been waiting at the airport since that morning as their planes arrived earlier than ours) were then driven by vans (a private taxi from the company “Tasibedrijf de Groot”) to our apartment (the Frans Hals apartment) on the Nieueve Rijn (The New Rhein Canal). This is one of five apartments (in a building that contains 11 apartments mostly used by professors from the University of Leiden) that Untours rents year-round for its guests. This was a former old home that contained beautiful woodwork beginning with its entrance door to the entire inside. I had been so concerned about climbing the 20 narrow, steep winding steps (which was pictured as having no handrails) to our apartment on the second level but found there was a narrow wooden strip next to the wall that I could hold onto with my hands. I was so proud that I made it to the top of this flight for the first time that I actually tripped and went down on one knee at the very top!) One of the nice, young men with our group volunteered to carry all three of our large, rather heavy pieces of luggage up the stairs for us.
The Frans Hals efficiency apartment was quite spacious with a nice bedroom with twin beds, a tall, armoire, and bedside tables which George and I used while Rachael slept on a folding twin sofa bed with great mattress on the side of our sitting room which had a nice, large sofa, stuffed chair, coffee table, and large TV. We had been alerted to the fact that the Dutch traditionally use duvets (a quilt, usually with a washable cover, that is used in place of a bedspread and top sheet), so we packed our own top sheets to use. As you entered the apartment, a small kitchen area (which could be obscured by folding, shutter doors) included a dishwasher, microwave, two burner units on the stove, and cabinets for dishes for four with drawers for pans, cooking utensils and eating “silver,” a small combination refrigerator and freezer unit, an automatic coffee maker, and very HOT water at the kitchen sink! There was a small table with 4 chairs nearby on which to eat. It could not have been more conveniently arranged and easily met all our needs since we chose to eat “in” often at nighttime when we were too tired to go out to a restaurant. Therefore, we usually had our “big” meal of the day around noontime. There was a nice bathroom with a walk-in shower, but the mirror over the basin must have been for a very tall Dutch man since I could only see the top of my head when I looked into it without standing on my toes!
Lenneke told us that she knew were too tired to “take in” anything that night, so she would meet us for orientation the next morning. Before she left the apartment house, she brought a huge “welcome” basket full of goodies and things necessary to get us started for the night—including the best cheese, small cartoon of milk, coffee, bananas, cookies, crackers, chocolate bars, etc. We walked to the nearby City Market which was alive with a big flea market (every Wednesday and Saturday) where you could purchase everything from antiques to fabrics to nuts to vegetables and fish. It was interesting to see people bartering with the sellers of fish for a good price, the fish salesmen knowing that it all had to be sold that day and could not be retained any longer. We bought fruit and cereal, and Dad purchased hamburgers to take home to eat. He decided that he would go to the apartment alone while Rachael and I shopped at the grocery store, The Hodgvliet. About 25 minutes later, by chance, he encountered us again as he had not become familiar enough with the narrow, curving, streets! He learned that it was important not to leave the apartment without the information card we had been issued. He wrote it all down to keep in his pocket in case he got lost again! We had a light supper with cheese and crackers, apples, popcorn, etc. Rachael had brought packages of microwave popcorn and lots of apple cider packets that were to become welcomed treats throughout our stay. We had napped from 3:00 to 5:30 to catch up a bit, and went to bed at 11:00pm. It does not begin to get dark until after 10:00pm. During the night it poured down rain which we found was to become the usual from that time forth!!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Up at 6:45am to be ready for the 9:30 orientation for the group. Lenneke met us at our house, and we walked to a nearby restaurant and sat around a long table where served coffee, tea, cappuccino were or whatever we wanted. Joining the group were two young ladies from California who came in during the night to join the other nine of us already there. After two hours’ orientation (about reading train and bus schedules, the use of our cell phones which were provided for each room even though we did not use ours, and other helpful general information), we took a half hour’s walking tour with Lenneke before she left us after a pancake meal at the Oudt Leyden (Pancake House where we also ate several times afterwards). I chose applestrudel while Rachael chose Boren (ham, cheese and mushrooms (which turned out to be much better than mine!)). The huge pancakes completely covered a 16” heavy blue and white delft china plate and were delicious. They were served with delicious syrup is called Stroop. All was “on the house.” During the orientation Lanneke told us about the proper usage of the two-week Eurail pass and the strippenkaarts for use on the buses and reminded us to keep a copy of our passport (or the original passport) on us at all times. Untours had sent us the bus and rail cards before we flew over. We were never asked to show our passport the entire time while there, though another couple was asked on the train and they only had copies and were reprimanded by the official who checked them because they did not have the originals.We were given Eurail passes to use on five different days while there, and each time we were required to date the pass before we got on the train. It was good for just that one day and could be used as many times as we needed it to go places. No one checked the pass when you got on the train. Occasionally, the trainman came through to check them and to make sure we had entered the correct date. If one had not entered the date for that particular day, the holder could be fined 75 Euros on the spot! This encouraged people to be honest! We were only asked twice to show our passes by the “checker.” We had been given 45 spaces on two strippenkaarts (bus pass for senior citizens) and presented them to the bus driver when getting on. He would always ask where we intended to go and usually stamped two of the sections on the card if we were to stay within the same zone. Otherwise, it might require more sections. The pass could be used to go anywhere within the same hour. One had to push a button as you neared the assigned stop where you wanted to get off. Often times all the seats were filled when we got on the bus, but always some thoughtful young man would get up to offer me his seat.
Afterwards we went along with another couple (Joanne and Mervin Dissinger from Yardley, PA) for a ride on a canal boat on Oudevest Canal, which is considered by most to be the most beautiful canal in Leiden, for an hour-and-a-half. “The Titus” had a glass-covered top with an open space down the middle aisle where one could stand to take pictures if they liked. One could see the beauty of the town as we passed beautiful gardens, houses built over water, the Botanical Gardens (which we later visited), houseboats alongside the shore, etc.
Then we went to the Museum of Ethnology (Rijkmuseum voor Volkenkunde) to purchase Museumkaarts (for 30 Euros each) to allow us to go into most museums free. This was well worth the money, considering how many museums we visited. We were to go back to this museum several times because it was so interesting. We stopped by a Fuji Photo shop to have Rachael’s camera checked because she thought it might need a new battery even though she had a new one put in shortly before we flew over. The owner simply touched her camera at which time it closed (She had not been able to close it after taking a picture.) He told her that she did not need a new battery. We bought a small photo album from him for George’s graduation pictures. We also bought tickets at Leiden Central Station for the Keukenhof Gardens for tomorrow. We also stopped by the nearest grocery store (The Dekamart) to pick up a few things before walking home. We got home around 6:00pm. At the store I made a picture of a precious little boy with an eye patch on one eye and his tiny sister as they sat on the lower shelf at the grocery store “reading” comic books while their mother shopped. (Unfortunately, this shot was lost on the roll that got over exposed when Dad took the film out of the camera.) We ate a peanut butter/jelly bun, celery sticks, apple slices, cheese, crackers, and candy bar while Dad had a beer and Rachael and I had hot apple cider. We ran the dishwasher for the first time but decided it would be easier to just wash the dishes and drain them between uses. It was a very windy day but mostly nice.
Friday, May 19, 2006
We overslept until 8:15 because neither Dad nor Rachael slept well until after 1:00am. It rained hard all night, and we awakened to a gusty, cloudy, cold day. I wore my light jacket with hood plus my nylon raincoat—and wished for my gloves! Dad’s blue baseball cap did not protect his ears, and he got really cold. We left at 10:00 to take the bus to Leiden Central Station where we got the bus to Lisse to see the Keukenhof Gardens which are located between Leiden and Haarlem. The Keukenhof was once the 15th century estate of a countess who grew herbs and vegetables for her dining table (Keukenhof means “kitchen garden.”). There are 70 acres of flowering bulbs along with indoor greenhouses and a windmill. We saw daffodils, tulips, rhododendron, lilies and thousands of other exotic flowers, shrubs and trees. We spent 3 hours there after arriving around 11:00 and made lots of pictures even though we only walked just a small part of it because it was so windy and cold. However, it was not raining at that point!We came back to Leiden Central Station to validate our Eurail passes and buy some cards and stamps before eating a delicious fresh salmon from the North Sea, french fries and salad for lunch. The Dutch serve huge portions of french fries with almost everything and usually eat them with mayonnaise rather than ketchup. We then went to visit the Molenmuseum “De Valk” (Windmill Museum) which was inside the old windmill and saw a film about the history of windmills and then walked through parts of it. Dad and I only climbed the first two steep flights of steps, but Rachael climbed on an additional 4 flights to get to the top where she had a spectacular view of Leiden. This museum was only a 5-minute walk from the Leiden Central Station. We then went back to the Museum of Ethnology before it closed at 5:00 where we saw some African and Indonesian exhibits. We stopped by the grocery store to get some water, etc. to take for a picnic tomorrow for our Amsterdam orientation—if we make it to Leiden Central Station by 9:00am to take the train to Amsterdam! It will be a challenge.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Up at 6:00am to leave for Leiden Central Station to catch the 9:01 train to Amsterdam for orientation there. Technically, Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands although the government is actually seated nearby at The Hague. Once a tiny fishing village, Amsterdam grew and prospered during the 17th century Golden Age and today is one of Europe’s loveliest old cities. Amsterdam is served by one of Europe’s best public transportation systems, with trams, buses, canal boats and a subway to take you to its many attractions. We were met at the Amsterdam Central Station by Marike Pluis, a very jovial and well-informed orientation leader who walked in the rain with drenched hair as she led us on a walking tour. The rain did not bother her at all even though most of us had umbrellas over our heads. We walked straight from the station to Dam Square dominated by the Royal Palace purposely designed without a formal entrance to keep out the angry mobs. We walked through the streets of the infamous Red Light District where the “ladies of the night” sit in storefront windows in various stages of un-dress. (Prostitution is legal in Holland, and the women are required to have health exams every six months.)Marike took us to the Rijksmuseum, one of the greatest art galleries in Europe and the best collection of 17th century Dutch paintings in the world. At least twenty Rembrandts are on display; including his famous and most valuable painting erroneously named “The Night Watch” because it was, for many years, covered with soot. Marike (who is a real scholar of Dutch paintings) chose several of the best pictures and explained all the symbolism in them to us. After listening to her, I would have loved to have had her explain all of them. We had to stand in line for almost a half-hour in order to get into this special place and ate our “picnic” lunch while standing in line. I especially liked the miniature dollhouse in the entrance to the museum as well as one marble cherub in one room.
We walked through one of the almshouses, a collection of small, quaint houses around a communal courtyard or garden, built by religious organizations and family trusts. Almost every city in Holland has its hofjes (almshouses). We went into one of the past orphans’ houses where all the boys were well-trained for “craft” jobs so they would be prepared for adult life. Many of these orphans grew into fine young men who became leaders in the community. Orphans were well educated and cared for. We also saw the Beglijnhof (next to The Amsterdam Historical Museum) which was once home to single or widowed women who wished to live a religious life without taking any formal vows (since they were not willing to accept the vow of poverty required of the nuns.) It was hard to say “good-bye” to Marike who had been unusually helpful to the group.
We took the train back to Leiden Central Station around 4:00pm and went home on the bus. George and Rachael went to the grocery store to purchase microwavable mixed vegetables for supper in the apartment. It rained all morning before the sun finally came out in late afternoon!
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Up at 8:00. Rachael took the laundry downstairs to wash and had great difficulty working the washer. Evidently “delay start” must have been hit in error as the timer indicated that it would take 3 hours and 15 minutes to complete the wash!! She could not get the washer open to take our clothes out, and we did not want to tie up everybody else’s wash that day; but there was nothing we could do except leave a note on the door as to the problem and hope that when the time had elapsed somebody would just take our clothes out and put them in the laundry bag we left for that purpose. We also left a note on Paul’s (the young maintenance man from Connecticut who lived in a little brick house at the back of the courtyard) as he was the one to contact if we had any maintenance problems. He was not in when George went over to knock on his door, but he did find the note and later told us that he had to come over and re-set the entire cycle but that he was glad we left a note because most people would not have done so! We walked to the Central Station and back today—changed US money to Euros there and had a great lunch at Oudt Leyden Restaurant where we had eaten the huge pancakes with the group on our first day of Leiden orientation Day. George and Rachael had steak with salad, veggies and fries while I had salmon that was delicious. We had wanted to go to a church service but nobody knew of a church that was open for services since most former churches are just museums now.We re-visited the Museum of Ethnology where we saw the Indonesian, North American and Australian displays. We then walked to the Museum Boerhaave which is an unusual museum of natural sciences, medicine and instruments, named for the famous Leiden surgeon. We saw a re-creation of the kind of anatomy theater in paintings like Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Professor Tulip. In its 24 rooms, there are five centuries worth of microscopes, surgical instruments, anatomical models, prostheses and gruesome things in jars. We wished that all our good doctor friends could view this, as it was most impressive and demonstrated how science and technology have developed medical supplies so much through the years.
We returned home around 5:30 and found that somebody had taken our load of laundry out of the washer and put it into a bag. Then all Rachael had to do was to put in the dryer. We almost decided we’d not use this free service again! A washer and dryer were on the first floor of the house and available to anybody who wanted to use them.
Monday, May 22, 2006
It rained hard with thunder and lightning during the early night, but the sun was out with a clear blue sky when we got up at 6:00am in order to get to the Leiden Central Station to get an early start to Amsterdam. We had been warned that the waiting lines got so long at the Anne Frank House, and we wanted to avoid this. We only waited about 10 minutes when we arrived just before 10:00am. The house was impressive as well as depressing when we saw what difficult circumstances the Jews lived under while being hidden away in an upstairs room beginning on July 6, 1942 when Anne Frank and her sister Margot took up residence with her father Otto Frank and his wife Edith Frank Hollander. Later on Hermann and Auguste van Pels, their son Peter and Fritz Pfeffer joined them in hiding in the annex. The building was comprised of two sections: the front part of the house and also a back part referred to as the annex. Otto Frank’s company was located in the front part of the house with the warehouse on the ground floor and the offices and storeroom upstairs. The warehouse ran all the way through the building, extending under the annex out back. On the upper floors of the annex eight people lived together in hiding. After more than two years, they were betrayed, arrested and deported. The Germans ordered the emptying of the annex and all the furniture was hauled away. Anne Frank kept a diary while she was hiding and wrote about everyday life in the annex, the isolation and the constant fear of being discovered. Anne’s diary was first published in the Netherlands in 1947 and has now been translated into more than 60 languages. She had hoped one day to become a journalist and used the diary she had been given on her 13th birthday to record her thoughts. A movable bookcase concealed the entrance to the annex. The windows of the landing were covered with dense semitransparent glassine paper to hide the back part of the house from view. The toilet and sink could only be used outside of regular office hours because the water and drainage pipes ran through a wall in the warehouse. It was crucial for everyone’s safety that the warehousemen did not discover the people hiding in the Secret Annex. On August 4, 1944, the German Security Police received an anonymous phone call: there were Jews hiding at 263 Prinsengracht. The hiding place was betrayed, and nobody knows by whom. The eight people in hiding and helpers Jo Kleiman and Victor Kugler were arrested and imprisoned. The people in hiding were sent to Camp Westerbork in the east of the Netherlands. They were transported from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp. Only Otto Frank, the father, survived the Auschwitz extermination camp while others were gassed, died of exhaustion, contracted typhus, etc. Anne contracted typhus and died in March 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp just a few days after her sister Margot had died. Her mother Edith Frank became ill and died of exhaustion on January 6, 1945 in Auschwitz. After the arrest of the people in hiding, two of the helpers went upstairs to the Secret Annex and found Anne’s original diary, her notebooks, and more than 300 loose sheets of paper. Miep Gies placed everything in her desk for safekeeping. After the war, once it was clear that the daughters were no longer alive, Miep gave the diaries to Anne’s father Otto Frank who returned to Amsterdam in June 1945. After some time had passed, he decided to publish the diary of his daughter. It was first published in 1947, and it has been translated into 55 languages with some 20 million copies sold. For many, Anne symbolizes the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis in World War II. The diary is a moving portrait of a little girl growing up in times of oppression. What an impressive experience, although George did not completely “enjoy” it because of a rowdy, disrespectful group of teenagers from some school going through it at the same time. They were so noisy while others were overcome with awe and were very quiet while contemplating it all.After touring the Anne Frank House, we took the tram to one of the city’s oldest museums, “Our Lord in the Attic” Church (Museum Amstelkring). A visit to the church is a journey 350 years back in time, through corridors, rooms, kitchens and narrow staircases to the incredible secret church hidden in the attic, complete with galleries, a large altar and space for up to 150 congregants. The attic church was built at a time when the Catholic religion was officially banned: from the outside it was impossible to see that this remarkable house contained a secret church. With displays of painting, sculpture and silverware, the museum shows how Catholics lived in seventeenth-century Amsterdam. A very wealthy man/merchant bought three adjacent buildings and two smaller properties behind it where he and his family lived on the ground floor on the canal side. He converted the loft into the Catholic Church that was constructed in 1661-1663 in the top stories of the three adjacent buildings. It was a beautiful and impressive sight.
After visiting this, we went to The David and Goliath Restaurant at the Amsterdam Historical Museum where we enjoyed our white asparagus with hollandaise sauce and a vegetable along with small potatoes with parsley, green salad and farm’s ham. May is the month of the white asparagus in Holland, and it is served in so many different ways. At one end of this restaurant are the giant wooden sculptures of David and Goliath. Then we visited the Anne Frank diary display at the Museum along with pictures/displays of the development of the city’s founding to the present. Got the tram, bus and rail back to Leiden before 5:00 since our legs/feet were getting so tired! Several times we asked for help from Dutch people for directions, and each and all were super polite and helpful. Rachael did a great job of reading all the bus/tram/train schedules, which we would have never figured out on our own. Paul came over to help us figure out how to lock our apartment door which we had left open for two days since we could not get the key out of the door after locking it. There is a real trick to locking it, and Rachael finally mastered the art of it. To bed early – 8:30pm—TIRED!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
(The 57th anniversary of our meeting and also George’s parents’ wedding anniversary)Slept later than usual as Rachael had given me an Ambien to take at 9:30 last night, and that enabled me to sleep until 4:00am. Back to bed and slept until 7:00. We got the bus to Central Station and on to Haarlem via train. On the way we saw bulb fields everywhere. The fields are so neatly laid out and separated by canals a lot. There is no need for fences. We went to the Amsterdam VVV for map and other information. The VVV’s are located in each town, and some are much easier to find (near the train station in most town), and they provide any tourist information one may want. We walked to the Corrie ten Boomhius where the docent/guide was fantastic. She was talking to a group of about 25 still seated in the living room when we joined the hourly tour a trifle late. If one were not already a Christian before this tour, they would assuredly be afterwards. She told how Corrie’s father was converted and talked primarily about Jesus and how “polite” God was to the family and to us, as well, to save us. I wondered if her talk might offend any non-Christian who might be in the group, but only two persons left the tour at that time before proceeding through the house to the upstairs. The guide took us upstairs to the actual “hiding place” where six of us crawled through a narrow space in the wall in which they used to hide Jews. We were shoulder to shoulder with little room to move in this small space with only one small window high up for air. This limited space was also used as their “toilet,” which must have made the space a bit odoriferous! They stayed in this space for two days when the Boom family was finally arrested. It was an awesome feeling to stand in the very spot in which these Jews had stood years ago. Our guide took us through both “houses” in which the Boom family had lived and showed us family pictures, etc. At the end of this hour’s tour, I felt as though this would assuredly be the highlight of our trip. In deed, it was. There is no charge for the hour-long tour because when Corrie gave their home to be used as a place to help spread the gospel, it was agreed that no one would ever be charged for entering it. Corrie died a year or so ago at the age of 92.
We then walked to the Grote Kerk (Great Church of St. Bavo) whose floor consists entirely of gravestones. In total there lie about 1500 gravestones, the oldest of which date as far back as to the fifteenth century. The Bavo Church is not a museum but a church! In the summer services are held on Sunday mornings and evenings. ‘Twas lovely, especially the famous Christian Muller Organ played by both Mozart and Handel. This organ counts 5068 pipes and is almost 32 feet high. How I would have loved to hear it being played! We observed an artist restoring one faded column “picture.” We saw the “orphan box” where money was gathered for the benefit of the orphans; the Holy Spirit Bench (Bread Bench) where the masters handed out bread ft the poor, dating back for 1470. There are many chapels—The Baptistery Chapel, the Christmas Chapel, The Mary Chapel, The Dog-Hitters Chapel (A dog hitter’s task in the Middle Ages was to keep dogs away from the church and to preserve order in the church!). The oldest part of the pulpit dates from circa 1434, and the banisters are formed by two brass snakes that symbolize the evil running away from the word. There was a brass lectern in the form of a pelican cast in 1499. What a lovely place!
After leaving the Church Square, we walked to the Frans Hals Museum where we saw some of his paintings along with many others. (Our apartment was named Franks Hals and had a large picture of this artist hanging in our living room.)
We went to the Kaufhaus (a huge department store) to have lunch on the top floor where one could sit and look all over the city. One had to go from place to place to select what food was desired, and it was similar to our cafeteria service. Rachael and I had a huge bowl of asparagus soup and a delicious bread stick.
After returning via train to Leiden, we met Lenneke at 6:00pm for a short walk to the nearby Surarta Restaurant to sample Indonesian food that was surprisingly delicious and not as spicy as we feared it might be. We had wine before dinner and had 10 different kinds of meat and vegetables/sauces in individual rectangular pans kept warm on two low hot burners plus bowls of rice. One could sample whatever they wanted—beef, pork, chicken, etc. Merv and Joanne Dissinger were the only Untour members who went with us—along with Lenneke’s husband whom George enjoyed sitting next to and talking with. We finished off the meal with amaretto and coffee—a lovely way to celebrate the anniversary of our meeting.
As usual, the rain was not heavy but intermittent all morning. Dad bought an umbrella in the department store! Rachael and I went to the nearby camera shop for her to buy a new battery. Dad started taking out the first roll of pictures in my camera, and Rachael and I ended up re-winding it by hand and, no doubt, overexposed and ruined all my pictures! Luckily, both Rachael and George were also taking pictures to help preserve our memories.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
I probably slept less than an hour last night! Dad was restless, and his bed squeaked whenever he turned over. We left at 8:30 for Leiden Central Station to go to Den Haag (The Hague.) We made a train change from the Hague Central Station to the Hague HS for a two-minute ride! The VVV had closed and moved, and several people gave us incorrect information as to where it was now located. However, all Dutch people have been extremely courteous and eager to help. We probably walked more than a mile or so more than we needed to walk to find the VVV that did not open for another hour!On our own, we finally found the Hall of Justice, Defense Ministry, and Queen’s Palace and was walking toward the gardens when a hard rain started to fall about noontime. We did not see the US Embassy as planned or the Peace Palace that was closed for repairs. (Later the Dissingers went and tried to get into the U. S. Embassy but were chased away by several policemen who would not even allow them to take pictures of it. Security was very tight.) Den Haag has no canals unlike most cities. We made pictures of the Mauritshuis (A passerby called it The Lord’s Palace) with beautiful gold-like fences, etc. This 17th century building was commissioned by Johan Maurits van Nassau, the Governor of Dutch Brazil. Since the profits of sugar imported from Brazil paid for the construction of the building, the Mauritshuis was also known as the “sugar palace.” The city has all these well-known buildings intertwined with shops, stores, etc., and the Hague is not set off as a separate entity. We were not impressed with what is called the Netherland’s most stately city! Due to the cold rain, we got the subway back to Leiden Central Station.
Rachael and I had a boren (huge pancake with ham, bacon, mushrooms and vegetables) at Oudt Leyden Pancake House where we had eaten twice before. Dad chose the beefsteak, salad, fries, etc. We stopped again at the camera shop where Rachael and I were yesterday for the owner to get a new battery for Dad’s camera that failed him today. Stopped by the nearby Dekamart to get a few groceries since tomorrow is a nation holiday (Ascension Day) and all banks and stores will be closed. I still cannot reason out why the Dutch nation observes Ascension Day since it is not a “religious” country, and I doubt that many knew the meaning of the day since, so far as we could tell, churches were closed as usual! Dad and I took a 2-hour nap upon return to our apartment while Rachael did loads of light and dark laundry without a washer problem this time. We slept through a fierce rain and hailstorm hearing nothing! The sun came out again before 7:00pm. I sewed/repaired several umbrella spokes which had come loose during the downpour so that I would be ready for more rain which was sure to come!
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Since today is Ascension Day (a legal national holiday), all stores are closed—as well as churches which are primarily museums now! We slept until 8:00am and left around 10:00 for the Botanical Gardens (Hortus Botanicus) at the University. Saw hundreds of plants, trees, flowers, etc. The botanical garden is Holland’s first and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1594 by Carolus Clusius as part of the new university. For over four centuries plants from all over the world have been collected, grown and studied in the garden and the greenhouses. We left there around noon after talking outside to a young attorney and his wife who had studied at the university. They explained how students live all over town since there are no dorms. The university has Schools of Law, Medicine and Theology in addition to regular studies.We got totally lost after leaving there and even walked off the Leiden map when a black, well-educated man who was jogging stopped to ask us if we needed help. He suggested that we just forget the map! We were within several blocks of Hogewoerd Street where we stopped to eat at a very small restaurant and I had quiche. The apartment key did not work today—again! Got back around 3:30 at which time the sky turned blue and the sun came out bright for the rest of the day! This is the first day with just intermittent sprinkles during the morning but still used my umbrella.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Awakened at 3:30am and never did go back to sleep. The melodious songs of birds started at 4:47. Up at 6:00 so we could catch the early bus to Central Station and on to Hoorn. Due to a computer glitch, the express train Rachael had planned for us to take was cancelled. We quickly chanted to another track where the train was boarding and ready to leave. Rachael ran fast to see if we could make it, and the train conductor saw Dad and me running to catch the train and waited for us even though he had blown the whistle to start! I don’t think this has ever happened in Holland before since trains leave exactly on time regardless, but I suppose he saw two oldies running and was considerate enough to wait! We took the train to Haarlem and changed. On our ride through the beautiful countryside, we saw hundreds of sheep, cows, pigs and beautiful grazing in green field. We arrived in Hoorne a little after 9:00 before the VVV opened. We waited a few minutes and then got a map from the VVV for a self-guided walking tour to take about 90 minutes to the water, etc. However, it started raining as soon as we began it, as usual! We saw two brides in wedding dresses followed by large wedding parties as they left wedding services at the Grote Kerk and the town hall for civil service. The grooms were holding umbrellas over the brides who wore long wedding dresses. We got pictures of one entering the church while a chauffeur-driven white Rolls Royce waiting outside with beautiful wedding flowers on the front of it. Brides may choose to just get married with the one service at the town hall (for the legal recording of it) or at the church first and then the town hall to make it legal.Hoorn was a major 17th century port and the main center of the Dutch East Indies Company. From Hoorn, a local navigator sailed off to discover the southernmost tip of South American and named it Cape Horn in honor of his hometown. Although the harbor silted up during the 18th century, its demise completed with the construction of the Afsluitdijk. The town is enchanting, full of memories of its one-time prosperity and worldly sophistication, with exotic influences brought home from abroad. Some think that Hoorn is one of the most beautiful towns in the Netherlands, and a wonderful example of what a Zuiderzee fishing port was all about.
We visited the Westfries Museum which was excellent but had many steep winding steps. I used a rope attached to the wall to help climb the steps since there were no handrails. This museum is one of Hoorn’s most remarkable buildings with a 17th century façade decorated with lions and coats of arms. We visited the archeology section, trades loft, surgical collection, porcelain and silver collection, music room, toy room and ironing room. We bought some tiles at the entrance on way out.
The Wag restaurant which had been recommended for lunch across from the town square was not open, so we ended up at Bella Italia, an Italian pizzeria, with lasagna which was still boiling in the hot dish in which it had been baked in with steam coming up like smoke from it. The owner of the restaurant came immediately before we sat down and actually took Rachael’s umbrella back to the entrance to put in an umbrella holder so we would not get any water on his tile floor. I quickly took the hint and put mine there, too! He served Dad some good Italian wine—said they did not serve Belgian wine when Dad asked for a Heineken!! The lasagna was good, and it was nice to be warm on the inside and out of the rain. The little Italian man seemed to be the only person on duty and was working furiously trying to tend to all the other customers.
We walked to the harbor where Rachael made pictures of the many sailboats and yachts in the harbor, and we watched them go through the locks as the rain continued to fall.
We found a fabric and rug shop at 58 Gedempte Turfhaven where we bought beautiful German handmade lace mats and really enjoyed the shop owner whose pictures Rachael took. The owner was the third generation to own this shop, and he was so proud to show us a newspaper write-up about his grandfather who was the first owner. This write-up had been found behind a picture frame mat that someone had bought and given him, and he had it hanging in a frame on the wall for display. We saw an old hospital (St. John) where for three centuries ago sick people had touched bricks by the front door for healing so many times that the bricks had worn grooves in them. Lotis butter was traded there, and it became known as the Butter Hall (Botrhol). Rachael also gook a picture of the inside of a cheese store which huge blocks of cheese stacked up as we made out way back to the Hoorn Central Station at 4:30. We arrived at 5:20 in Leiden Central Station where we bumped into Joyce and Dan Simpson (members of our tour group) who complained that they had never ever been on such a miserable Untour with so much rain! After a 10-hour day, we were tired and sleepy.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Left apartment at 9:30 to get bus for Leiden Central Station and then on to Delft where it did not rain until we went to catch the 3:28 train home! Spent a long time trying to find the TIPS (Tourist Information Station) rather than the VVV (as it was called in all other towns). The Saturday flea market was in full swing with an assortment of things to sell from china to books to jewelry to lace, etc. We bought three lace mats from Sanny De Zoete’s attractive shop portrayed as the world’s finest antique and design linen damask. She was well dressed and very gracious and patient with us and allowed Rachael and me go through several drawers of beautiful mats to see what we might want. She even had a special tape that she could use to convert our American inches to centimeters since I had written down measurement in inches for the tables for which I wanted mats. She told us that the Queen always buys her linen from her shop. She sold antique christening dresses, trousseau items; hand embroidered linen sheets, etc. She gave us her Web site address in case we want to order more. We got several pictures of her and several special items in her shop. We left her shop very reluctantly!We saw the Nieuwe Kerk which was built in several phases spread over many years with its late gothic cruciform basilica (1381 to 1622). This is the burial place for Dutch royalty and contains the imposing mausoleum of William of Orange often referred to as “the father of the Netherlands.” He led the resistance against Spanish rule in the 80 Years War from his Delft headquarters. His victory meant religious freedom and independence for the Dutch. We also saw the town hall (Stadhuis) on the Market. It was designed in 1618-1620 by Hendrick de Keyser and has the original medieval brick tower. A great band was playing on a stage up while people gathered around to hear all kinds of songs, including “New York, New York” as we were leaving! There was a great display of all the latest, newest small cars for sale, and George checked these out.
For lunch we sat at a heated outdoor patio at t’Raedthurp Restaurant which claims to be the biggest and best in town. Rachael had veal and I had chicken cordon bleu while George had pork chops—all served with the traditional French fries and a green salad. It was different to be eating outside with a large heating element overhead just behind us along with many other patrons enjoying the heated outside!
Rather than take a bus out of town to see the famous Delftware Factory where they make the renowned blue and white pottery, we chose to visit De Candelaer which is a small family owned porcelain shop where we watched the owner’s wife painting tiles. We got an angel tree ornament painted by her with the official Delft made original stamp imprinted on back along with her initials and the year it was painted. We also purchased two mugs with the other lady’s initials on them since she was the artist who had painted them. She was assisting the owner who struck up a conversation with George about how he had met his wife 37 years ago on a blind date that his brother had arranged for him and how he took her home at 4:00am and found her mother waiting up for them! He started this conversation after George mentioned that we had been married for 56 years. He was a delightful person, and Rachael got his picture, too. This was a much better experience for us than the trip out of town to a large pottery would have been.
We also saw the Waag (city weighing house from 1644) and the Oude Kerk (Old Church) with beautiful stained glass windows—not open as usual! This 13th century Kerk contains the graves of prominent citizens such as that of the inventor of the microscope. The sixty bridges, merchants’ houses, the mansions and gable houses along the canal, old shop fronts and almshouses are shining examples of Dutch architecture. Most historical buildings can only be viewed from the outside. We stopped by the Bakker Jaap (bakery) to buy our supper (sausage and cheese croissants and a chocolate croissant) to bring home to eat. Stopped in Leiden Central Station to use debit card to take our 200 more Euros and also went by the grocery store. Came home and walked for blocks in the rain to find the Klaverblad at Hogewoerd 15(recommended as the best place to buy coffee and tea and is a beautifully restored shop that has been grinding beans since 1769) only to find they did not serve a cup of coffee which we wanted! Today has been a bit warmer but still no sight of the sun.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Awakened to a sunny sky even though it is windy! I did not go to sleep until 3:30am, but we were up and left the apartment at 9:00 and walked about 15 minutes to the Hooglandse Kerk where we attended morning prayer at a service by the Protestant Church of the Netherlands. We found people going in for a 10:00 service. Most were elderly though there were about 15 children who came up front for a children’s session by the young minister before leaving for Church School while he preached for the adults. The entire service was in Dutch, so we did not understand much. However, we did recognize names like Moses and Aaron when the Old Testament lesson was read by a layperson (Exodus 32:1-14) and the New Testament lesson (John 17:14-26). We finally got to hear a magnificent organist who played when the Psalm and songs were sung. In two of the hymns, the women sang one verse while the men sang the second verse and then all joined in for the singing of the rest. The young 30-ish minister was a seminary student at The University of Leiden, and he preached for 25 minutes in a very mature manner. We recognized “The Church’s One Foundation” as one of the hymns being sung. The congregation seemed very friendly with each other before and after the service. A very young child led the Lord’s Prayer near the end of the service, and this was impressive. Immediately after the service ended, a lovely elderly Dutch woman came over to greet us and quickly realized that we did not speak Dutch. She then went to a very attractive young lady who spoke beautiful English and just happened to be the fiancée of the minister. In talking with us, she told us that she was a theology student also at the university and that the minister was not the full-time minister there but as called to preach on occasions. She was truly gracious and very friendly. She invited us to go to the coffee/tea hour with her and the minister who came over to speak to George for a while. Rachael and I decided to walk down one aisle to look at some of the artwork which was to be on exhibition that afternoon, and I walked up a ramp going up one step to the next level. When George beckoned for us to come on so that we could go to the social hour, I walked down the one step at a different place where there was no ramp, not realizing that there was a step, and I fell down on my right knee and side, causing my glasses to almost fall off. I had attempted to brace myself when I realized that I was falling with the huge wooden display board which had been put up for the art show—only it moved! It scared Rachael so badly since she had been great all week warning me of any steps or uneven places where I had to walk, and she was sure that I had either broken a hip or ruined my already bad knee! I could easily get up and felt so bodily hurt at all, but I later discovered that I had two places of broken skin on my knee and a scratch on one hand where I had braced myself. (Evidently my “guardian angel” was working overtime that day!) Shaking like a leaf, Rachael and George went on to the room for the social hour as I plodded along! At the social hour, the minister’s fiancée got our email address so she could translate his sermon to English to send to us when I mentioned that I wished I could have understood what he was saying since he had delivered it in such an excellent manner. It was a good experience in spite of my fall because I got to accomplish two of the things that I had wanted to do while in the Netherlands—go to a real church service and hear a great organ! We got pictures of both the pulpit and the organ before leaving.We walked several blocks to the highly recommended De Brassere for lunch and on to Leiden Central Station from where we walked about 10 minutes to The Museum Naturalis which was filled with young, energetic children of all ages. We saw dinosaurs, fossils, gemstones, birds and all kinds of beautiful displays of nature’s diversity. I was impressed with what appeared to be fathers with young children who were enjoying/profiting from all the hands-on opportunities offered by this great museum. I was impressed with how the fathers seem to take such an important role in the lives of their children as we saw them pushing strollers with infants, riding bikes with young children, etc. Evidently it was “mother’s day out” for them. When we left, we took the free shuttle back to the Central Station where we bought chocolate ice cream (Ben and Jerry’s!) to take home to eat. Rachael mapped out our plans for tomorrow’s one and a half-hour train ride to Den Bosch. Today was the first sunny day all day long! My fall was the only unsettling problem, and I was very fortunate not to have really been seriously hurt. I gave special thanks that night!
Monday, May 29, 2006
After awaking at 3:17am and getting up three times, we got up around 7:00. We had breakfast while I had an Imodium before catching the 8:30am bus into town for Leiden Central Station from where we then went on to Utrecht where we got a train to Den Bosch (‘Hertogenbosch). This gorgeous town dating from 1185 is the capital of Brabant province, and is so hard to pronounce that even the Dutch just call it Den Bosch. Since the VVV did not open until 1:00pm on Mondays, we went on our own to places. When we got to Sint Jan’s Cathedral, the Bishop was having a service with a small group in a side chapel, so we did not tarry long. Sint Jan’s Cathedral is the only cathedral in the Netherlands and was built between 1380 and 1520. It is abundantly decorated with statuary, grotesques and sculptural detail and is in the form of a cruciform with 5-aisle basilica with many side chapels and gorgeous stained glass windows.We stopped at the Patisseria Jan de Groot to sample the famous Bosch bol, a ball shaped cream puff filled with a whipped cream and then dipped into dark chocolate. We had a quiche Lorraine and hot chocolate for lunch there along with the Bosch bol that was both delicious and fattening! We stopped by later to get apple pastries to bring back to the apartment before leaving.
We signed up for the 1:30 boat trip in ‘s-Hertogenbosch to take a 50-minute trip on the Bennendieze, and historical town river which led us through the medieval city quarters, along old buildings and underneath bridges and arches and age-old dwellings. Beautiful are the plants growing on the walls mirroring the smooth water. We had an attractive young lady who was a volunteer and who gave the entire tour in Dutch since we were the only English-speaking people on the small boat. However, since we sat near her, we could ask her questions in English from time to time, and she was most gracious in how she handled this. In contrast to earlier times, no sewage is discharged so that we could navigate over a clean river with a depth of about 5 feet . Of course, it was dark when we passed under the city center where we passed alongside city hall, underneath houses, stores and shops and busy streets. With the use of a powerful spot light, we saw the old sewers, now shut, dating back to the time that over 950 houses and stores in the center drained their waste water into the Binnendieze. We saw the only wooden house of ‘s-Hertogenbosch arched over the Binnendieze. We passed underneath many beautiful arches, some restored; one of them is a Gothic arch built in the year 1475 and was part of a monastery. It was a very interesting boat trip. We got home around 5:15. For the first day in two weeks, we did not use our umbrellas! However, it rained after we got home around 7:00pm!
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
After breakfast we packed and took off bed linen in preparation for the 4:00pm scheduled Untour pick-up to take us to The Bastion Hotel at Schipol Airport. Rachael and I went on a last-minute shopping tour where Rachel finally found Becci Hicks Hammond the Diam bars she had requested that Rachel bring back to her, and Rachael got a Netherlands-manufactured cigar for her friend Bob Maurice at his request to bring back to him a good cigar. I also got a box of three lovely handkerchiefs from a men’s store on Haarlem Street for George who was running short on handkerchiefs. We had fun browsing on Haarlem Street, which is known as “the” best place to shop, and we had done very little shopping of any kind. George stayed home to have some quiet time during which he could fill out the guest book, etc. Home by 12:30, so we walked to a nearby take-out place to get salad, fries and a chicken burger for lunch since we had already cleaned out the refrigerator in preparation for leaving. The day started off with rain and hail, but the sun finally came out. We almost did not want to leave now that the sun had decided to shine again!!Our reserved taxi (van) from “Taxibedrijf de Groot” arrived about 10 minutes late at 4:10, and we were waiting outside our apartment on the street with all of our luggage. We had the nicest young man to drive us, and we found out that he was presently a singer and attending college classes on some evenings. He drove us (in very heavy, bumper-to-bumper traffic) to the Schipol Airport to Hotel Bastion where Rachael had made reservations several months ago for us to spend the night since we needed to be at the airport by 5:00 the next morning for our flight home.
The hotel had advertised that they would provide us with a shuttle to the terminal. When we got there, we were told by the woman at the desk that they did not have any available rooms at which time Rachael showed them her confirmed email reservations which she had received just before we left the States. She said, “There must have been a computer glitch somewhere and that she was sure the hotel had tried to get in touch with us to tell us that there were no rooms available and that perhaps they did not have a contact number in Leiden.” Rachael told her that she had given the hotel the cell phone numbers of both of our guides (Lenneke and Marike)! Rachael was getting a bit livid when the woman said that she could put us up in the Bastion Hotel back in Leiden (from whence we had just driven!). Rachael told her that she had just ruined our entire vacation since both her parents were elderly, and the whole purpose of arranging to stay there was so that they would not have to get up so early in the morning for the flight! I had asked the nice taxi driver to please stay with our luggage until we were sure that we could stay there, so I asked him to please see if he could talk with the lady and understand what was going on. He did and then said to me, “Yes, I understand what she is saying (in Dutch!), and I also know what I have to do—take you back to Leiden.” When Rachael asked to speak to the manager, she had replied, “I am the manager” to which Rachel replied, “Your name tag says that you are the assistant manager!” Rachael got her name as well as the head of all the Bastion Hotels so that she could contact him to tell him about our disappointment with their hotels. We all felt sorry for our taxi driver since he was due to pick up a friend and be at class by 6:00pm, and it was already 5:00 plus he had to drive back to Leiden with heavy traffic. He was most gracious and seemed not as perturbed as we were. When we finally got back to Leiden, the hotel desk clerk met us with open arms and could not have been nicer. We were sure that the woman from the Hotel Bastion at Schipol had called ahead to warn him that there were three mad Americans on the way to spend the night there! We had two rooms so that Rachael could spend her last night without having to “put up with us,” and we had a very nice dinner in the hotel (roast beef, vegetables, salad and potatoes). Our nice taxi driver had arranged before he left for a taxi to pick us up at 4:30 the next morning. We had gotten to the Leiden Hotel at 6:15pm after two hours leaving and returning to Leiden. It upset us to think that we could have stayed at our apartment (instead of leaving a day early), but we had already turned in our keys! We went to bed at 8:30pm with Rachael giving me an Ambien so that I could sleep some before our long trip home. The desk clerk gave us a wake-up call at 3:00am the next morning and even had cups of coffee ready for us to drink in the lobby before we left. Rachael did not sleep much since she wanted to make sure we got up by 3:15, and George got up at 2:55 before our wake-up call. Our taxi came at 4:30 to take us to the airport, and we had plenty of time; in fact, we arrived before the British Airways opened its desk at 5:00am!
We had a good flight (with all sitting together) to Heathrow Airport in London where we had a two and a half hour layover for flight to Dulles. Rachael exchanged Euros to British money to get rid of her Euros. We bought chocolate milk shakes and some candy bars.
Our flight to London left a bit late, and I gave George my seat that had more leg space, and Rachael and I sat together about 10 rows behind him. Before the flight departed a very nice female flight attendant came and moved me up front for a seat next to George which left Rachael next to a nice young man from Nigeria (whom I found later had a bad cold and probably gave it to Rachael as he slept most of the 7½-hour flight since she got a bad one a day or so after returning home!). George had mentioned to the flight attendant that he had paid for upgraded seats for all three of us, but somehow there was a lack of communications, which did not change the first scheduled seating. I sat next to a very nice lady from Radford, Virginia who was the tour guide for 23 people who were returning from three safaris in Africa. She even knew our good friends Tom and Sally McCarthy, and when I told her about our having lived in Pulaski, Virginia, she even knew our pediatrician Dr. Hawes who had come after the birth of our first four children in Radford Community Hospital. I dozed a little during the 7½-hour flight but also enjoyed a nice meal, etc.
When we landed at Dulles, we were told that there would be a slight delay in our leaving the plane since there was a special delegation for friends of President Bush aboard and that they would leave first! It took a good while, and we wondered how we would ever link up with Rachael since she was seated farther back on the plane which did not go up to the terminal but was met by an airport bus. After George and I had gotten into the very crowded bus, we realized that Rachael could not make the same one. We decided that we would just wait for her at the first possible meeting place at terminal four. When we arrived there, I mentioned to the woman who was driving the bus that we had gotten separated from our daughter who was traveling with us but to tell Rachael (described what she was wearing) that we’d wait for her. The woman replied that everybody on the plane was already in the terminal, and we learned later that Rachael exited by the door that allowed the President’s friends to use and that she had gotten to the terminal long before we did! In fact, after we cleared Customs we noticed her anxiously waiting with all of our claimed luggage at the luggage stop! She had been told by somebody from the Radford, Virginia group that we had been on the same bus as they were and felt somewhat relieved. We were glad to see each other again when we finally connected. Rachael’s friend Gene Carpenter who had taken us to the airport was standing nearby to greet us as planned.
We had an uneventful drive back to Charlottesville in our own car, and Gene talked most of the way as he had done on the way up with all his pleasant chitchat. Rachael and I went to pickup Tally while George unpacked a few things. We stopped by KFC to pick up some fried chicken for George to eat that night, neither Rachael nor I were hungry and decided we just wanted popcorn since the British Airlines had fed us so well and often during our flight. Tally at first didn’t seem to recognize Rachael, and we wondered if she might be getting partially blind. However, when she got home and outside, she started running/streaking as always! George was totally exhausted and literally fell into bed with his watch still on, and he didn’t even remember my taking it off. It was good to be back to the USA again and to spend our last night with Rachael before driving home early the next morning.
Note: The above account of our experiences in the Netherlands, meeting so many of the friendly Dutch, and seeing to much of their native country, was dutifully written by my wife, Rachael, at the end of each day. Our daughter and I are indebted to her for the details. If I may add one word to describe those days, in spite of the inclement weather, it would be “fabulous!” George.