a trip home and around holland
20 july 2000

hello all,

you might be wondering why you haven't heard from me in some time or maybe you thought i got tired of writing all these lengthy travelogues. au contraire! many of you know this already but i was fortunate enough to snag a really reasonable fare to the good 'ol u.s. of a. since there was absolutely no sign of summer in these parts, {and still isn't}, i decided once i arrived, to stay a bit longer. the final tally was two weeks in the ever majestic steamboat springs and five days in the people's republic of boulder. ah, colorado! the sun, the sky, the mountains, but mostly, the friends. the great thing about moving away is that when you come back and visit, you aren't working so you actually have time to spend with the people you love.

i of course, had a great dose of the hiking that makes colorado one of the most special places on earth. the weather was hot and perfect and as shallow as this may sound, i got to wear my summer clothing. {not an option here}. thanks to all those who i rendezvoused {not really a word} with, and i really am sorry i couldn't see everyone. i tried though; it was definitely a whirlwind social extravaganza.

about two hours before i had to leave for the airport, gary, who was in sweden {lucky}, informed me that my friend sharon would be arriving the morning after i got home. we had an email breakdown which is why i didn't know about it. no worries, i knew we would be bonding in our jet lag. i must say the woman had me in stitches the entire week and we had a wonderful time together. i got to experience some of the things i've been longing to do outside of amsterdam.

sharon is a great traveller, and we had some true adventures. her goal was to get out of the city and experience the dutch countryside. she tried to convince me how awesome a camping/bike trip complete with mud walking from island to island would be but i'm far too much of a "princess" for that sort of thing. gary could have told her that. however, i did agree to do a bike trip with her next summer if we could sleep in b&b's. i might consider the mud walking but i'm not sleepin' in no tent.

anyway, the sun came out one day so we had to seize the moment and head for the beach. there are several beaches nearby and the town we went to is called zandvoort. it's a mere half hour by train but first we had to go to the tourist office and find out how to actually get there. we arrived at the crack of three. i noticed that all the beach chairs had windbreakers surrounding them. so you see the wind is an all season problem here. we chose to walk rather than sit, and to our surprise the water was actually quite warm. of course the air was pretty chilly and we didn't have bathing suits so we didn't go in. the real challenge was trying to light sharon's cigarette in all that wind.

as we came back to a'dam, we thought it was the perfect time to visit the red light district, which is very unique to this city. it's really something interesting to observe but i won't try to paint the picture for you right now. suffice it to say that it is a distinct cultural difference and if you're interested in more details, either come visit us or ask me to put it in writing. i love going there because it's like nothing you've ever seen. i think we both enjoyed the aspect of people watching in the district.

our next excursion entailed renting a car and driving through some small towns with our destination being the town of sneek {pronounced snake}. it is the home of our good friends, raymond and tialda and their three children, soon to be four. we all danced together in vail and sharon hadn't seen them for about eight years. getting out of a'dam was a bit hairy and at one point we realized that sharon was driving on the bike path. oops! i was no help because i had never driven a car here and we all know what a great navigator i am. i warned her about that but she was prepared to take a chance. somehow, we managed to miss the exit for a particular town we wanted to see. holland really is a very small country.

so there we were crossing the long dijk that connects holland to friesland, the north of holland. and then we saw what we wanted to; the old world charm that is holland. it looks exactly as we've all pictured it. quaint houses with slanted roofs, small windows, narrow streets, and the most magnificent gardens. it was our lucky day and we were in the right place at the right time. we stopped randomly in a town called makkum, and as we were strolling around the canal oohing and aahing about the houses, this couple whose garden we were admiring, came out to talk to us. we chatted a moment and then they invited us inside to take a tour of their house. wow!

this house was more than 350 years old and still had some of the original tile as well as an original sink that was in what was now the living room. the building had been a bakery in previous centuries. it had been renovated by the city and was now on the national register of buildings. what an amazing house, with room after room filled with some beautiful, very old pieces of furniture. it was pretty strange to see a computer in one of the rooms. it just didn't quite meld, but there it was.

the really interesting fact about this house was that during world war two, it had been used as a hideout for the resistance movement. ammunition would be dropped into the canal right outside and then hidden in the cellar. the communication was done with walkie talkie devices or whatever they happened to be called back then. as the owner was telling us this, his face changed drastically to reveal the reality of what that time in history was like. there is a very distinct sense about the war and i've felt it living in europe. it was right here and that feels totally different to me. we thought it was an incredible treat that we got to have this glimpse into the personal history of this couple and their house. outside again, they let us take their picture amid the exquisite garden.

eventually we made it to sneek and spent a wonderful evening talking over old times. the next day we went to a bigger city called leeuwarden. don't try to pronounce it. lots of acitivity was going on there as well as in sneek, with great shops, large and small and a display of artisically painted large plastic cows, which i'm told was exhibited in the u.s. recently. on the way back to a'dam, we stopped in another charming town with a beautiful lake and some more lush gardens. the dutch are serious about their flowers.

a few days later, we took the train to a town boasting of windmills. they are really neat to see up close, some of them having thatched roofs. we got to the village pretty late so the tours were already over and we didn't get to see how wooden shoes are actually made. i'm going back for that. nevertheless, the scenery was to die for and sharon was going through film at record speed. the windmills with the river behind them, the goats, the small bridges are what make up the landscape in such a visual display of the dutch countryside.

in addition to all that, we did have some "city time" as well. somehow sharon talked me into taking modern class with her. "was it worth it", i asked myself, as i couldn't walk too well the next day. we both were limping and hobbling trying to battle those three flights of dutch stairs at my apartment. and then sharon had her first {and only, we hope}, bike accident. oh, she wasn't riding a bike, but merely reaching for the handle of the cab door. it was raining and we had walked enough for that day so we opted to take a taxi. we had just come from the hard rock cafe and there she was crossing over the bike path with doggie bag in hand. i saw it coming but too late. as i screamed, the bike slammed into her bag of leftovers and all the spring rolls came tumbling out. she immediately apologised and said "oh i'm so sorry sir" and then looked up to find that she was talking to a woman. well, all i could do was to gather up the spring rolls and try to contain my laughter. we arrived at my house cackling out of control and as i write this, crack up just re living the scene. only sharon.

it's so great living in a place where people have a good time when they come and what fun to play tour guide. i continue to find advantages to living here but being able to go back to colorado was great for my sense of spirit and belonging. i loved spending part of the summer in that beautiful state and now that i'm back here, i feel just as fortunate to be able to revel in this once in a lifetime opportunity. the adventure continues.... gary is in london and i will be going for a few days next weekend.

tot ziens,

veel liefs, {much love},

deb