Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

-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 17th centuries including such greats as Franzhals, Rembrandt, Verneer, 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 in his work very well. Also several Picassos (who leaves me cold). They also had some current exhibit 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 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 aqarium [aquarium] which was really nothing 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 standup 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 boars, small boats of all sorts. Also it is a bicyclers 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 10 AM 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 Harlem we located the Franzhals Museum in a very small building on a side street. But it was closed until 1 PM. 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 blur, 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 house 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 universitynothing specially 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 and narrow walkways.

Itinerary--three weeks vacation

March 12 Beutelsbach--Schwab Hall--Rothenburg 109 kilometers

13 Rothenburg--Stuppach--Mergentheim--Wurzburg 103 kilometers

14-17 Wurzburg--Hamburg--Bremen--Oldenburg (by train)

18 Oldenburg--Winschoten (Netherlands) 104 kilometers

19 Winschoten--Harlingen 114 kilometers

20 Harlingen--Alkmaar 92 kilometers

21-23 Alkmaar--Haarlem--Amsterdam 57 kilometers

24-25 Amsterdam--Leiden--The Hague 60 kilometers

26 The Hague--Rotterdam--Utrecht 79 kilometers

27 Utrecht--Emmerich (Germany) 92 kilometers

28 Emmerich--Düsseldorf 98 kilometers

29 Düsseldorf--Köln 48 kilometers

30 Köln--Bonn--Coblenz 90 kilometers

31 Coblenz--Mainz 90 kilometers

April 1 Mainz--Worms--Benstein--Heidelburg 102 kilometers

2 Heidelburg--Heilbronn 84 kilometers

3 Heilbronn--Ludwigsburg--Beutelsbach 60 kilometers

Mail until 3/19 to Amsterdam, Netherlands

3/20-3/25 to Köln, Germany

3/26 on - back here at Landgut Burg

dates are obviously your mailing dates, not dates of arrival of letters

Write to: me American Express Agency the above dates

They forward automatically etc. so that's no worry.

No time now for a real letter - music final in 2 hours! I'll write a good one before I leave.

Love, George

We left Amsterdam about 10AM Sunday, planned to ride on to Haarlem for the night. But leaving Amsterdam, we picked up a lovely tail wind, and so covered the whole 20 km in one hour, non-stop! Boy, wish it was that easy sailing all the time. When we got to Haarlem we located the Franz Hals museum, in a very small building on a side street, but it was closed until 1pm. So we ate lunch on a cold park bench nearby, 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 house in Holland (and especially in this area) seems to have a potted plant or blooming flowers in its windowsill, so we saw many more lovely varieties this way.

Continued evening of 3/22 - Sorry this is taking so long, but just didn't have time to finish this morning.

We stopped off briefly in Leiden to locate the famous old university (nothing special physically, for all its academic splendor), and then rode on to The Hague, and about 9 km. beyond to Loooduinen, 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's Palm Drive. On three sides of the house are great open fields of green lawns, and in the surrounding woods, small canals with wooden bridges, and narrow walkways. It's a beautiful spot in every way, and I don't know how it ever became the hostel.

Yesterday morning before setting out see the Hague, we took a short bike ride (3km) down to the beach, rode along a path through huge sand dunes 20 and 30 feet high. It was a gray overcast morning, and the sea and horizon were one continuous gray mass - broken only by three small cargo ships steaming off to somewhere. It was my only look at the Atlantic (technically the English Channel I guess) for this trip, but I don't mind that too much if its always so gray and dreary.

In the city we went first to the Binnenhof - which is sort of a palace-administration building. In the center court (surrounded by an old building filled with offices) is a small building containing several large halls. The largest of these is a lovely hall on whose walls hang the flags of the Hollandish provinces, the shields of past ruling princes, etc. At one end is a lovely round stained glass window (again the shields, including that of all Holland in the center); the roof is beamed hardwood nailed with wooden pegs (rebuilt in 1904, though the building dates from 1280). Here are held special meetings of the legislature and large state receptions for visiting royalty or heads of state; and here in September each year the Queen marches in to officially open parliament for the year.

After lunch on a park bench nearby, we went to a small museum (the Mauritshuis) which contains several Rembrandts (including a late self-portrait and "The Anatomy Lesson"), Franz Hals, and a couple of good Vermeers, among many other mediocre paintings. Then to find directions to the Peace Palace (built in 1918 by the U.S.) we stopped in at the U.S. Information Service building which we happened to ride past. But here we found a small library and so sat down for