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21.3.60

Dear Folks,

Well, here I am in our second night in the Hague, and I'll try to fill
you in somewhat on the last few days. I wrote a joint letter to Annie
which you should get soon, about our trip to Amsterdam. I didn't mention
much of the day before, but you could figure that we did manage to
cover the 104 km. from Oldenburg to Winschoten, and without being completely
exhausted either. We left Oldenburg about 9AM, arrived at the border between
Germany and Holland at about 4:30 and in Winschoten about 6. And we took about
10 minutes off each hour to rest, and an hour for a hot lunch, so we didn't really
try to press too hard. The country was very flat, yet we saw many thick pine forests
(at almost sea level this is quite unexpected) between the green farm lands. As we
moved westward past Leer and into Holland, the forests gradually disappeared and canals
became increasingly - some little more than irrigation ditches through fields (every
15 or 20 yards), others large enough for navigation by barges, etc.

Morning 22.3.60

Our full day in Amsterdam Saturday was very productive. We began by going
to American Express for mail, and I got a wonderful long letter from you and also a
short note from Annie. (Since Am. Ex. Co. is closed Sundays we had them forward to
Rotterdam where we'll check today.) Then we went for the morning to the Rijks Museum -
paintings mainly from the 15th-17th centuries, including such greats as Franz Hals, Rembrandt,
Vermeer, Rubens, Goya, El Greco, Van Dyck. The Rembrandt collection is particularly good.
Then after eating lunch in a park behind the museum, on a bench beside a whole
field of flowers, we went on to the Municipal Museum, mainly modern art. They have
one of the best collections of Van Gogh anywhere, which shows both the Dutch and Parisian
influence in his work very well; also several Picassos (who leaves me cold) and a large
room of Marc Chagalls (whom I like quite well). They also had some current
exhibitions of sculpture and art by contemporary artists - Toon Kelder and Robert Jacobson,
who were interesting to see. One was rather abstract charcoals, many on the subject of
jazz, and very clever; the other sculpture from scraps of iron (bike chains, tin
cans, etc, etc) of human-like figures - mostly funny and also at times very clever,
but not to me expressive of much significant feeling.

After 2 hours in the modern art we rode across town to see a much-acclaimed
aquarium, which was really nothing very special after all. Then we went back
to a spot near the hostel and took a one hour tour of the canals and harbor of
Amsterdam on a touring boat. This was very interesting, particularly in the harbor,
and gave us a beginning orientation so that Sunday morning we could ride around
for an hour on our bikes and see some things again more thoroughly. After dinner
in a stand-up cafe we went back to the hostel for the evening to read, talk and write
letters (which have a hard time getting done for the talking).

I really came to like Amsterdam very much - it's a very friendly, fascinating
city. The canals are everywhere, almost every block, and often crowded with
barges, house boats, small boats of all sorts. Also it is a bicycler's city; there are
more bikes than cars and the cars just have to make out for themselves because the
bikes assume the right -of-way. So we were right at home as we moved around in
the stream of traffic from place to place.