Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

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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.