Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

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The next morning we took off about 8 AM on our bikes, rode along the Tauber to Creglingen. This was a particularly beautiful stretch with the river in the base of a valley, cultivated hills arising on both sides, little villages every couple of miles. We stopped about 9:30 on the bank to eat breakfast (sandwich, two eggs, slice of meat, piece of raisin cake given us by Frau Krauter, orange and water). Watched a flock of ducks swim by (the river was about 20-30 feet wide) moved very smoothly and slowly. About this time the sun broke through the morning fog and it was quite peaceful and lovely. On the hills behind us farmers followed their horses or walked about spreading fertilizer- farming much as they had for centuries before.

In Creglingen, we caught a train for Wurzburg- a little old one with ancient cars with wood seats. Almost empty of people so that the conduc- tor had time to drop by and chat with us, find out where we were from etc. He said we were the first bike travelers of the season and most people say it is too early in the year but so far our luck has been pretty good. Almost all sunny weather- only cold since Hanover.

We had a couple of hours to ride around Warzburg- too bad because it is a very interesting old city- University and former Bishop's seat. We spent most of our time at the Marienburg Castle on a high bluff with a fine view of the town and its many church steeples. Then on the train again- on to Hanover for the night in a youth hostel.

Up yesterday morning and right off to the railroad station to go to Hamburg. We are trying mostly in these few days to cover mileage in moving northward so sight seeing took a second seat in the large cities especially. In Hamburg I had time to wander around for the afternoon but chose instead to write a letter, take a shower, wash a few clothes etc.- sort of a day off from tra- veling. The hostel there is very large (400 beds) and new. On a hill above the harbor. This is a fine location for the Hamburg harbor is huge- much larger than any other I have ever seen and bustles with activity day and night. The great dock cranes are as thick as TV antennas on Los Angeles rooftops and there are ships of all sizes loading, unloading or moving on. The city itself is sort of sooty, industrial, with a smoke haze even under blur [blue] skies. This seems to be true of most north German cities (Hanover, Bremen, Oldenberg). In sharp contrast to Stuttgart or Munchen in the south.

Well we are rising early in the morning for a long day of biking- hope to make over 100 kilometers which is far more than we have done on any previous day. The time we save now will come in very handy going up the Rhine or wandering in Holland so it is worth the effort.

March 21st

Well here I am in our second night in the Hague and I will try and fill you in somewhat on the last few days. We did manage to cover the 104 kilometers from Oldenberg to Winschoten and without being completely worn out. We left Oldenberg about 9 AM, arrived at the border between Germany and Holland at 4:30 and in Winschoten about 6 and we took about 10 minutes of each hour to rest and an hour for a hot lunch so we didn't really press too hard. The country was very flat yet we saw many thick pine forests- at almost sea level, this is quite unexpected- between the green farmlands. As we moved westward past Leer and into Holland, the forests gradually disappeared and canals became increasing- some little more than irrigation ditches through the fields every 15 or 20 yards- others large enough by

21.3.60

Dear Folks,

Well, here I am in our second night in the Hague, and I'll try to fill you in somewhat on the last few days. I wrote a joint letter to Annie which you should get soon, about our trip to Amsterdam. I didn't mention much of the day before, but you could figure that we did manage to cover the 104 km. from Oldenburg to Winschoten, and without being completely exhausted either. We left Oldenburg about 9AM, arrived at the border between Germany and Holland at about 4:30 and in Winschoten about 6. And we took about 10 minutes off each hour to rest, and an hour for a hot lunch, so we didn't really try to press too hard. The country was very flat, yet we saw many thick pine forests (at almost sea level this is quite unexpected) between the green farm lands. As we moved westward past Leer and into Holland, the forests gradually disappeared and canals became increasingly - some little more than irrigation ditches through fields (every 15 or 20 yards), others large enough for navigation by barges, etc.

Morning 22.3.60

Our full day in Amsterdam Saturday was very productive. We began by going to American Express for mail, and I got a wonderful long letter from you and also a short note from Annie. (Since Am. Ex. Co. is closed Sundays we had them forward to Rotterdam where we'll check today.) Then we went for the morning to the Rijks Museum - paintings mainly from the 15th-17th centuries, including such greats as Franz Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, Goya, El Greco, Van Dyck. 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 in his work very well; also several Picassos (who leaves me cold) and a large room of Marc Chagalls (whom I like quite well). They also had some current exhibitions of sculpture and art by contemporary artists - Toon Kelder and Robert Jacobson, who were interesting to see. One was rather abstract charcoals, many on the subject of jazz, and very clever; the other sculpture from scraps of iron (bike chains, tin cans, etc, etc) of human-like figures - mostly funny and also at times very clever, but not to me expressive of much significant feeling.

After 2 hours in the modern art we rode across town to see a much-acclaimed aquarium, which was really nothing very special after all. Then we went back to a spot near the hostel and took a one 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 (which have a hard time getting done for the talking).

I really came to like Amsterdam very much - it's a very friendly, fascinating city. The canals are everywhere, almost every block, and often crowded with barges, 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.