Home sweet home

Tuesday night a nice "last meal" with my sister Han: an Indonesian "rijstafel" (rice table with all sorts of side dishes). Five weeks flew by with so many fun reunions with old friends and former colleagues. Wednesday back on the KLM flight to Toronto, where the first winter snow here awaited....

Last few days in Holland

One of the last train rides here in Holland during my five weeks here, was to Den Haag (again). At the Central Station - like in most of the larger cities - you can rent "OV fietsen" (public transport bicycles) to facilitate the use of clean transport. A fantastic cash-less system. My former study friend and house mate Cathrien had an OV fiets arranged for me and off we went through the city....

Cathrien and her husband Auke treated me on a nice lunch in the forest area near their home and from there we cycled to a museum in a beautiful setting with interesting art...

One of the (according to Cathrien famous) artists had an exposition of his masterpieces all based on his observations in nature. Can you see Auke at the end of these tree trunks?

Auke showed his cooking talents that evening making very special pancakes. Common friends Coen and Anne Marie (see also earlier posts from this trip) joined us to test out his recipes.

The next morning, I joined Coen to see one of his sons (Paul, 30) play soccer. He plays in a competitive league together with a son of Joost and Lies who were also house mates in Delft and who I had already visited a few weeks ago (see earlier post). Back in the train to Soest to pick up my sister Han to go to Utrecht to enjoy the Tina Turner Musical.

We were early in the theater where we had a good view of the stage. It was not allowed to take photos during the show, but it was a spectacular performance with an ending whereby all the audience got on their feet. An evening well spent. On the way back we had an hour delay with the train, but we had some additional entertainment with a soccer fan (of one of the clubs in Rotterdam, Feyenoord).

And today Han (76) - and her dog "wifi" - accompanied me for another visit to our sister Ger (78) and her husband Bert (80). We started these five weeks with such a visit when Ger had her birthday on October 15, and we ended my memory lane tour today with it. Bye, bye Holland, it was great!

Study friends in Amsterdam

One of my good friends in Amsterdam is Gert-Jan. We lived for 7 years together during our university time in Delft, first in a house with 14 other students and later a year in Den Haag. Afterwards Gert-Jan always lived in Amsterdam and offered me hospitality many times during my visits to Holland. Thirteen years ago, I was here with Mark a few nights (when Mark was 15; that trip Mark and I also visited Paris in France for a few days). Last night the guestroom of Gert-Jan and Hollis was waiting for me again. This morning I walked a few blocks to the house of another friend from Delft, who also listens to the name Jos. He is an avid collector of art. It is always a feast to visit him and hear about his acquisitions and his experiences with artists from around the world.

The stairs - as in most older houses in cities like Amsterdam - are quite steep, but also full of books. Along the wall one painting - based on a famous older Dutch artist - is complemented by a bag that Jos once received from the "Rijksmuseum". Look carefully at the next photo...

The bathtub is also used for art storage. In fact, every room is a mini museum. A tour of the house by Jos is always fascinating. Every item has a story, such as this unique collection of small hats...

It was nice to visit his house again, a place where I stayed overnight frequently during the years when I was setting up MSF Canada and visited the MSF Holland office in Amsterdam a couple of times each year (1991-1992). The offices of MSF Holland were then located a few blocks away from the house of Jos in the building below (the upper level of that office building in the heart of downtown Amsterdam).

Next to that office building is the large "Vondelpark" (kind of a smaller version of Central Park of New York City). During the years I lived in Amsterdam (1995-1988 when I worked for Fokker Aircraft), I did many runs in that park during evenings and weekends. Close to the Vondelpark are a few musea, among them the "Rijksmuseum" and the "Van Gogh Museum"...

In the background of the photo above, one can see the "Concertgebouw" (Concert Hall), a classic building in the city. Next to the concert hall is a small restaurant where I met with two other friends from University, Hester and Pieter. They came especially for me from their hometown of Wassenaar to Amsterdam to meet up with me. One of their sons - Wouter - studied an "in between year" after high school at Niagara College in one of the Business Diploma programs (before he started a study at a university in Holland). Pieter and Hester - accompanied by their daughter Pauline - dropped Wouter off in Niagara about fifteen years ago. They promised to come for another visit to Canada soon...

MSF Holland colleagues

Tonight, Annedien and Marc hosted a nice reunion dinner with Joke and Simon. I met Annedien and Marc during my two years with MSF in Mozambique (1988-1990), where Marc worked at the Dutch Embassy. Annedien started working in our logistics and administrative team of MSF in Maputo and when I started setting up MSF Canada in 1991, Annedien was my liaison in the Amsterdam office of MSF Holland (Marc had returned to work at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Den Haag by then). A few years later (1993 - 1994) I joined Annedien (Director Communications) and Joke (Director Finance) in the Management Team of MSF Holland (my portfolio was HR & Training). Simon looked full-time after their two young daughters (he was a professor till then on Middle East studies) and trained to be an opera singer. They were two amazing couples to work and socialize with. 

On the way to Annedien, I passed the "Bloemen market" (flower market) along one of the "grachten" (city canals). I lived along that canal from 1985 to 1988 during my years at Fokker Aircraft. One of the city's landmarks there is this old clock tower of 1620...

People have permission to live in the so-called "house boats" along some of the city canals. 

One of the two "party places" in downtown Amsterdam is the "Rembrandtplein", where watching soccer games on large screens during World Cup games is always lots of fun. The Aussies seem to have established their own brand here: "Lousy Food and Warm Beer"....

Visiting Amsterdam again

Today I took the train to Amsterdam again for two days of visits with friends. I love the beautifully restored building of the central train station. Right in front of this station is a small restaurant where Mary and I had a wedding party one week after the formal wedding & party in Sparta, Ontario. The place has changed but I can still see us dancing the night away in this place 32 years ago.

Outside of the restaurant all the guests gathered when Mary and I arrived in a watertaxi, and they sang a welcoming song. It was such a nice surprise. We arrived in a small boat like this one...

For lunch I got together with Esther who was in 1993 and 1994 the babysitter for us when we lived in Haarlem (while I worked two years in the MSF Holland office in Amsterdam). She is now in her forties and the mother of three children while at the same time holding a job as Director for an arts organization. Her husband is a MD who - before their marriage - did also work for MSF. Esther visited us a few times in Canada, and we hope she will come again in the future. We ate in a place which no longer accepts cash; apparently becoming quickly more common in Holland...

Esther works in the northern area of Amsterdam, where we also had lunch. I had never been in that part of the city which has fast been developed during the past few decades. Behind the central train station are ferry boats bringing people back and forth (for free) over the river connecting Amsterdam with the North Sea (part of the Atlantic Ocean).