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21.5.60

Dear Folks

Well, here I am in the midst of the next-to-last big trip of the season.
We're going to spend a couple of hours in the hostel here in Antwerp this morning
studying (and writing letters), since we haven't had time to do much yet in
previous evenings.

We took off right after lunch Wednesday, spent a couple of hours in Stuttgart
running errands. [I confirmed my plane flight with PAA, having gotten my
ticket O.K., so that is all set]. Then we drove on the autobahn as far as
Mainz; at this point we picked up the road along the Rhine which Bridge
and I came down by bicycle. We drove in three hours over as much territory
as Bridge and I biked over in 3 days, which gives you some idea of how
much less you observe by car. But it was wonderful to see the Rhine again,
especially since it is now green and lush, much more beautiful (and more
romantic!) than when we first saw it. We stayed Wednesday night in the
hostel in Bad Honnef, and awoke Thursday morning to find it pouring rain.
May seems to be that sort of month in Europe: several days of warm sunshine,
a day or two of heavy rain (often a really blazing thunder and lightning
storm) to freshen up the air and earth. We drove most of the day Thursday
to reach Amsterdam - through the Ruhr area past Düsseldorf, Duisburg,
out into the flutter farming country through Emmerlich, Arnhem and
Utrecht. Is is all wet and almost tropical green in foliage and thick grass;
the trees along the roadside often joined arms overhead to shade the road.
We got into Amsterdam around 4 pm and after registering at the hostel
we repeated the boat tour of the canals which Bridge and I took - and I learned
a lot more on the 2nd time through too. Then we found a small restaurant
and had a huge delicious steak dinner (salmon salad, chicken tomato soup, potatoe,
peas, milk, coffee, fruit custard too) for about $1.80!

Yesterday we drove north out of Amsterdam to Alkmaar, a smaller town