Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Last days of trip

I had the chance to learn grandfather skills from Coen while watching him keeping an eye on his grandson Feiko. Fun times. On Sunday I walked from their place to a Delft reunion with 10 fellow students, 8 of their spouses, 18 of their kids and 12 grandchildren. On the way to that event I made a photo of one of the landmarks in Scheveningen, the famous "Kurhaus". In front of the building you can see a work of art made out of beach sand, which could be found all along the beach promenade. In front the street on which Coen & AM live. Nice place! Always great hospitality and friendship.


The reunion was organized in one of the many beach restaurants. Around it plenty of fun stuff to do for the grandchildren. Age had it all well organized and it was very nice to meet many of the kids of my friends and some of their grandkids. We were given colored party bands and each family had a color, so it was easy to recognize who belonged to whose family....



The grandkids also enjoyed some food, drinks and treats. A few of them ventured into the ocean...
After the reunion in Scheveningen, I hitched a ride with Age & Lea back to Amsterdam where I spent the last two days of this (third) memory lane trip. Age and Lea live along one of the many canals in the city center of Amsterdam. Always a treat to be their guest. Also great hospitality and friendship.
Another old university friend (like me, named Jos) has had a lifelong hobby of collecting artwork from around the world. During the last few years he had several expositions of parts of his extensive collection and he showed me a half hour documentary about his last exposition. Impressive. I found him in front of his house making a digital copy of one of his new acquisitions under natural light....

His collection is growing every time I visit him. The pieces of art are literally all over his house in every room. It is always very entertaining to visit Jos...

The house of Jos is right next to the "Rijksmuseum" (National Museum) which attracts each days hundreds of tourists from around the world. Nearby is the Amstel River, a natural river flowing through the city and connecting with the extensive canal system.


My last visit during this trip was with Esther, who was our babysitter for Hilary during our two years in the city of Haarlem (1993 and 1994), when I worked at the head office of Doctors without Borders Holland in nearby Amsterdam. Esther visited us a few times in Canada afterwards, and now she is a proud mama of two daughters (16 and 14) and a son (12). What a fun visit to catch up after many years.

Meanwhile one of my friends and colleague during the 25 years of work in the Canadian college system moved into their new house on Vancouver Island, which has a spectacular view over the Pacific Ocean.
Back to Fonthill, Ontario, Canada again today. Another very nice memory lane trip completed....

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