Untitled Page 131

-3-

Barges.

March 22nd.

Our full day in Amsterdam Saturday was very productive. We began by
going to American Express for mail then we went for the morning to the
Rijks Museum- paintings mainly from the 15th to 17t centuries including
such greats as Franzhals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, Goya, El Greco and
Van Dyke. The Rembrandt collection is particularly good. Then after eating
lunch in a park behind the Museum on a bench beside a whole field of
flowers, we went on to the municipal museum, mainly modern art. They have
one of the best collections of Van Gogh anywhere which shows both the
Dutch and Parisian influence of his work very well. Also several Picassos
(who leaves me cold). They also had some current exhibits of sculpture and
art by contemporary artists, interesting to see. One was rather abstract
charcoals, many on the subject of jazz and very clever. The other sculptures
from scraps of iron (bike chains, tin cans etc) of human like
figures- mostly funny and also at time very clever but not to exprssive
of much significant feeling.

After 2 hours in the modern art we rode across town to see a much acclaimed
aquarium which was nothing really very special after all. Then we went back
to a spot near the hostel and took an hour tour of the canals and harbor
of Amsterdam on a touring boat. This was very interesting- particularly
in the harbor and gave us a beginning orientation so that Sunday morning
we could ride around for an hour on our bikes and see some things again
more thoroughly. After dinner in a stand up cafe we went back to the hostel
for the evening to read- talk- and write letters.

I really came to like Amsterdam very much. It is a very friendly, fascinating
city. The canals are everywhere- almost every block- and often crowded
with bargesm house boats, small boats of all sorts. Also it is a bicycler's
city. There are more bikes than cars and the cars just have to make out
for themselves because the bikes assume the right of way. So we were right
at home as we moved around in the stream of traffic from place to place.

We left Amsterdam about 10AM Sunday, planned to ride on to Haarlem for the
night. But leaving Amsterdam we picked up a lovely tailwind and so covered
the 20 kilometers in one hour-nonstop. Boy! Wish it was that easy sailing
all the time. When we got to Harleem we located the Franzhals Museum in
a very small building on a side street. But it was closed until 11PM. So we
ate lunch on a cold park bench nearby and then decided to go on to the
Hague for the night. The stretch between the Hague and Leiden is the
famous tulip section of Holland. We were about a month too early for the
real season but we did see a few fields in bloom here and there- deep blue
and purple, pale blue, white, yellow (gorgeous daffodils). With these few
and the many many fields which are now small green plants, we could imagine
how spectacular it will be in April and May. Also, every hosue in Holland
seems to have a potted plant or blooming flowers on its windowsills so we
saw many more lovely varieties this way.

We stopped off briefly in Leiden to locate the famous old university-
nothing special physically for all of its academic splendor. And then rode
on to the Hague and about 9 kilometers to Loos duinen on the west side of
town where the youth hostel is located. It is an old mansion on a gigantic
estate with a tree lined front drive that reminded me of Stanford Palm
Drive. On 3 sides of the house are great open fields of green lawns and in
the surrounding woods, small canals with wooden bridges & narrow walkways.