Good old Amsterdam

On my way back from work in Mozambique and Kenya, I made a short one day stop in Amsterdam. It was a very nice weather day and the number of tourists was incredible to see. On the photo above in front of the beautifully renovated central train station, the restaurant where Mary and I had our second wedding party (after the official wedding and party in Canada) in late September 1990.

Everywhere in the city during such a nice day people are enjoying drinks and food on the hundreds of small terraces along the canals and in the old smaller alleys. Every time I see this, it makes me a bit homesick (because I lived in this city from 1984 to 1988).

Some people in Amsterdam live on house boats. Mary and I would love to rent one for a few weeks during one of the following years. I need to look into that during my next visit.....

It was 40 years ago (August/September 1979) that the group above was in charge of organizing two weeks of an intensive orientation program for newly arrived students at the Delft University of Technology. Jan, Anne-Marjan, Jos, Coen, Lies and Hubert were the seven student friends I spent a very intensive few months with at that time during the preparations and the implementation of that program. It was one of those "learning by doing" experiences from which I benefited much later all throughout my career. It was good fun to see each other again after so many years (for most of them I had not seen these old friends for at least 35-36 years).

After dinner I walked with Jos to his house where I frequently stayed as a guest during the years when I had to regularly be in Amsterdam for coordination meetings at Artsen zonder Grenzen (MSF Holland - Doctors without Borders Holland) when I was tasked to start up MSF Canada (1990-1992). Jos has as a hobby collecting artwork from around the world. I made more photos but the flash of my old BB was not working. He has paintings and books all over his house; very unique....

During the late evening walk I passed the "Bloemenmarkt" where I had an apartment in a house we shared with three of us. My place was the top floor of the 4th house from the left. Good memories of four years of living without a car in one of the most fun cities in the world (of course I am biased!).