Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

with crowded, colorful streets. Justly famous there is the an old cheese market where they display for sale huge quantities of whole cheeses. Then back down the peninsula to Haarlem where I picked up our old route along the small roads through the tulip fields. But whereas Bridge were too early for the best of the flowers and saw only a few fields in bloom, this time we were too late and they were all out for sale - we saw only about 3 fields in all still in bloom. Came down into The Hague, past the Peace Palace and out to the beach resort of Scheweningen. The sun was out for a while here and the beach was much prettier and more touristy than the gray beach and shore Bridge and I saw. We drove on down through Delft (a small, very picturesque town, the home of the Famous blue china) and Rotterdam, on down into Belgium through Breda to Antwerp. We got into the hostel about 8 pm, just had time to drive into town for dinner before getting back at 10 pm for bedtime. As fast as we've gone we've seen a lot of countryside, and its been a delightful trip.

Today we'll drive arund Antwerp for a while, go on and look around Brussels, drive on to Luxembourg for the night. Then tomorrow we'll roam around Luxembourg and Trier, Germany (may be Treves on your maps) and then for the Burg before it gets too late.

Well after a quick week or so of study and two brief days of finals I'll be off for Vienna. I've mailed for tickets to the music festival for while I'm there (it runs for a whole month, with top artists from all over Europe!) and have my fingers crossed - 5 concerts in all I hope. Saw a marvelous concert in Stuttgart last week, topped by a sparkling performance of the Dvorak cello concerto.

Well, we're about to get driving. Lots of love - George

See you in JUST THREE WEEKS!! You might arrange to have a slide projector at Jane's (mine if it comes) if you want to, since I'll have my pictures with me.

28.5.60

Dear Folks -

Well, just about the time I write this you should be in the midst of a great weekend with Jean & Irv. Wish I could be there with you all to share in the fun! I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written just an ordinary, non-travel letter, but time has been rather scarce here on the Burg toward getting my lit paper prepared - it was due yesterday and I just squeaked under the wire as usual.

Our ride through Belgium from Brussels last weekend was just grand. As we traveled eastward (through Namur, Marche en Famennes, to Bastogne) the country became gradually hillier and the forests increasingly of pine. Everything was so lush and green in the rain, it was simply amazing. As we neared the Luxembourg border we saw that there would be time enough to wander around the little country, so we got out the guide book + planned a route which zig-zagged around so as to cover most of the territory.

[drawing of a map]

As soon as we left the last town in Belgium the traffic died off to almost nothing, and all the way through Luxembourg until we reached the city of Luxembourg Sunday noon we hardly saw a car every 5 minutes. The country is one of rolling green hills, sometimes quite rugged and forested, always peaceful and gorgeous. Sort of had the feeling of being on top of the world as we wound through the countryside, passing through occasional small towns. We saw one town (Clervaux) with an old castle and a medieval abbey above on a bluff ovelooking the town, drove up to see it. Then on to another small town right near the German border where we stayed in the youth hostel, just down the hill from one of the best ruins of a medieval castle in Europe. On a steep high rocky hill, with the town circling its base, as if protected in its shadow as surely it once was. Sunday morning we drove through narrow, wooded and silent river valleys, past occasional farmhouses to the capital city. Spent an hour walking around - to see the Grand Ducal Palace, cathedral, etc. It is ideally situated half on and half at the base of a high steep cliff, cut by the

December 31, 1959

Dear Folks,

Ein glückliches Neues Jahre - A Happy New Year from the Burg. And no plane crash or anything. But golly, in only 2 days so much has happened. We arrived in N.Y. comfortably after seeing nothing but clouds since about Denver. And when we landed it was SNOWING! We had a short layover in the Sabena lounge before boarding our chartered DC7 at 6:15 EST. An uneventful night - noisy engines (I sat right over them), but smooth air. Dinner at 8:30 EST [shrimp salad, filet steak, string beans, potatoes, chocolate eclair, milk]. Then to "sleep" - only about 3 hours in spite of sleeping pill. Breakfast at 9AM European time (6 hrs "later" than N.Y., 9 hours "later" than S.F.) which was omlet, orange juice, bread + jam, milk, an orange. Stopped in Brussels for about 45 minutes (at 10:45) after brief views of the Irish channel, southern England, and some of France + Belgium (Ireland + London clouded over). The land was quite green, virtually all cultivated, and dotted with towns, though not too densely (much less a % of U.S. land is under cultivation, and it therefore looks brown and less colorful). We finally landed wearily in Stuttgart at 1:50pm, collected baggage, and boarded a bus for the Burg.

The area about Stuttgart (including the city itself) is quite hilly, and trees are everywhere, on the sides of many of the hills outside of town. It is not a forest, but not bare foot hills either, as are more common in the U.S. In the city itself (we passed only through the outskirts, most residential with local shopping areas) the buildings are pretty close together, with the bare spaces being only soil, not lawn (a feature as yet not seen here). There are many cobblestone streets, almost all having sidewalks (paved) and a few more than two lanes wide. Only very rarely does one see bombed out buildings (we saw only two or three small ones on our ride) and there is much architecture (esp. apartment houses) which looks less than 10 years old (these look more "Americanized" with little balconies off the rooms, etc.). Among the older looking houses there are a variety of finishes and details, but a similar basic shape. They are often 3 stories high, with fairly steep roofs (usually in some shade of red, very often tile). The finishes are mostly stucco, occasionally stone or brick, never wood. Some of the stucco seems to be original (over wood frame), other appears perhaps to be over stone (perhaps