Saying Hellos and Goodbyes

Well, the time has come. Our visas are about to run out and we're down to our last week in Holland. We've already packed up our bicycles for the flight and said some final goodbyes. Sjoerd and Marta came by bringing fixings for an Indonesian dinner. Nancy and Marta worked to prepare the meal while Sjoerd, Augie, and I sampled Belgian ales. No sexism there...

We then set off to see if we could catch a glimpse of the classical music concert on the Prinsengracht. It is quite an event with VIP seating and an occasional appearance by the royal couple. We made it to the perimeter of a great crowd where we could hear the music but not see the performers. We tried from all angles with no improvement and finally decided to head back to Tuinstraat to watch on television. It was quite a spectacle. Very young performers presenting some very difficult pieces with a lot of flair. The music ended with a song Aan de Amsterdamse Grachten about being on the canals of Amsterdam being the best place to be. Lots of singing along. Later in the evening, after we'd said our goodbyes and I was walking back from the train station, several boats glided by with passengers still singing the lyrics. It evokes something similar in the city's natives as 'I left my heart in San Francisco' does for Northern Californians. Here's a rendition: https://youtu.be/MhdQ59LHorQ Not to be confused with this tune: https://youtu.be/OdHHaA4ugHA

We also spent a day with our host's friends Johan and Annemieke. Johan rode his bike to pick us up and shepherd us back to his home in Zuid Amsterdam near the Beatrix Park. Annemieke put out a nice lunch and we headed out for a bicycle tour of the eastern part of the city. Johan was involved in development during his career so he and Annemieke pointed out quite a few new buildings as we went along. We swung by some new developments and admired a newly designed home by one of their friends who is an architect. The place comes with a boat slip for plying the canals. We also visited the newly renovated hotel Arena based in a building that had served as a church sanitorium and later a disco and hostel. The photographer, Jan Stel, exhibited work depicting the decay of abandoned industrial sites. http://www.janstel.nl/
Further north we hit the red bridges. Two pedestrian bridges between parallel shipping piers. See the photos below. We ended the afternoon by meeting up with Augie at the Brewery Ijs set up in an old mill. Good beer and good people.

Tomorrow Augie heads out on a tour of Spain for a couple weeks and we finish packing for our flight the day after. Tomorrow evening we have plans for one more round of beer with Gerbrand, Johan, and Annemieke.
Our next post will be from the great state of Wisconsin where the cheese curds are plentiful and knowing the words to Johnny Verbeck is required. Video here: https://youtu.be/Qn__3kuzidg
Lyrics here: http://jbetzblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/johnny-ve…Read more