I feel very fortunate that I was able to experience one of the best Easter Holy Weeks I can remember. Tuesday evening I attended the performance of the St. Matthew Passion in the Jacob Obrecht church. It was an abbreviated ( two instead of three hours) version. Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam was the adult choir and the beautiful voices of the young children of the Choirschool St.Bavo from Haarlem took part in the first half of the performance. Part of this same choir sang at the Holy (Maundy) Thursday mass in the St. Bavo basilica and the entire Choirschool choir once again this morning at St. Bavo. Good Friday I attended as well in the St.Bavo. The bishop gave a very joyful sermon today to an overflow attendance. The choir sang the Halleluia chorus from Haendel’s Messiah as the recessional. I am blessed to have had this opportunity.

There was not enough light to get a good picture without flash, but you’ll get the idea of how impressive this service was.

After church I stopped to see Evert Slijper who had arrived yesterday evening from Oregon to visit his 93 year old mother. She lives two miles from where I am staying with my cousin. Evert and I met in 1973 in Eugene, Oregon where Evert lives. Evert is also a sailing fanatic and still in the wood business.

The weather has turned cold again. But still relatively dry and an occasional sunny spell. I’ll be in Greece when the Tulips are in bloom. Lots of Hyacinths, Crocuses and Daffodils.

The Mastmakers’ Daughters: I am working hard on blending the corrections in and still hope to have all the updates done before I leave for Greece. The titles have changed as “The Mastmakers’ Daughters” and “De Mastmakersdochters” and a number of other structural revisions. Some excellent suggestions have come in and it it keeps getting better yet.