It’ s still waiting for the head gasket to fix the engine. My sister Karolien and my brother in law, Herman, came to visit and take me back to Amsterdam. I was starting to run low on supplies and needed to do a load of laundry. Even though Durgerdam is very close to the big city it is difficult to get to a store. The burghers here do not allow any developments, fortunately, and the nearest store is a long bike ride away. Evelyn brought me back, this afternoon.
The below picture was taken on my bike ride through the Amsterdamsche Bos, on my way to church, this morning. This is a 900 acres man made forest/park, created during the depression years. When I was a child the trees were tiny spindly things and look at it now! Where I am moored, at the “Schinkel”, is located on the Nieuwe Meer a man made lake on the edge of the Amsterdamsche Bos. It continues to amaze me that I can ride my bike through parks and forest like these through vast parts of the newer sections of the city to get to shopping areas or even quite close to the center of Amsterdam. The mixed choir sang at the St. Augustinus church. This is the one Sunday per month where they sing all the liturgical songs in Latin. A magnificent choir of roughly 35 women and 15 men. The quality would be the envy of the likes of a New York St. Patrick’s choir director, but here they sing to a half empty house…. I did not mention that last Sunday at the Reformed Church youth service on the island of Marken we sang canon, divided into a port and starboard section, the Dutch version of “Ask and it shall be given unto you” and then the “Alleluia”… and every single parishioner sang it well. It was another treat.
It’s going to be a busy week. Tuesday I go to the eastern part of Holland, with Dick Dienske, to visit the sister in law of Nel Hillers, who was with my mom in the three concentration camps. Nel and Dick’s Dad, Jaap Dienske, were in the same resistance group as my mother and Tiny Boosman. Saturday and Sunday are the festivities of the 90 th anniversary of the YC “de Schinkel” . Monday the 5th I’ll be in Spakenburg to meet another “Groote Beer” (Big Bear) devotee who as a cub spent time on the “G.B.” in the mid fifties, in Connecticut.