International Harbors

holland

° Amsterdam ° Delft ° Den Haag ° Zuider Zee

Amsterdam
July 4, 1976: One of my first trips out of the United States was to Amsterdam . . . actually, it was my third, the first being Jamaica and the second England. Because I often traveled alone, my brother recommended Amsterdam as a city that was safe. He also recommended the Hotel Single on the Single Canal in the heart of the city (the Single Canal being among the first canals built). This proved fascinating as the building was more than 300 years old whereas the United States was just celebrating the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. The age of the building put the age of America in a strange perspective and the Canal in 1976 looked exactly as it did in the old lithograph to the left. And the room looked very much like Van Gogh's "The Room," although his painting is much brighter than my room.

During the '70s when many of us were still wandering the world in search of places to get stoned without being encumbered by law enforcement. Amsterdam was one of those cities. City officials allow (or avert their eyes from) "soft drugs" such as marijuana and hashish. At the time I was there, two clubs were recommended, one of which was the Milky Way. Now, apparently, you can buy hash or weed at coffee shops and smoke it there (friends advise against buying anything from street dealers).

Oddly, given the freedom, within a few days, I didn't care about the availability of drugs, but wanted to spend more time viewing the works of Van Gogh, Holland's most well-known artist, and wandering around Holland. As are all art students, I was introduced to many types of paintings and painters; one of my favorite was then and is now Vincent Van Gogh because of the movement in his paintings and have always had one or another print of his paintings on my walls. However, I was completely unprepared for the emotional response to his work when I stood in front of them. Every step toward his painting created a different view — with every change in distance, the light played around the depth of the oil paint, changing the tones with every step forward. Van Gogh's paintings are alive, fascinating and mesmerizing.

Den Haag
I took the train to Den Haag, a 750-year-old city, and home to the royal family. The Hague is the seat of the national government and home of international institutions like Europol, the Peace Palace, the International Crime Court of the UN, and more than 80 embassies and many multinational companies. The city has a tram network with a total length of 105 km. I stayed in a private home and don't remember too much about The Hague as I was escorted around and did not have to manage my own logistics.

Delft

This pretty town on the outskirts of The Hague is famous for the blue and white Delftware porcelain which has been produced there since the 17th century. Hand painted Delftware design.

A visit to the Delft factory proved worthwhile and inspired my own drawings for many years, including a few pieces painted in Amsterdam while there. The best of Delftware is painstakingly painted by artisans with small brushes. Delft does get too crowded during summer months because of tourism (as does most of Europe now), however, Delft retains it's quaint atmosphere during winter when the tourist numbers drop off and it makes a good day-trip from Rotterdam or the Hague. A visit to the Delft factory proved worthwhile and, while I did not see any displays of his work during the trip, Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft in 1632 . . . and lived and worked their throughout his life.

Zuider Zee (now called Ijselmer)
Another worthwhile day excursion is to the fishing villages of Marken and Volendam on ZuiderZee, a former arm of the North Sea which extended into the Netherlands, and which was shut off from the North Sea by dikes beginning in 1920. This amazing engineering feat created small islands inhabited by small fishing villages. The countryside enroute is filled with flowers and windmills. Tours take visitors to a cheese farm, where cheese is still made traditionally. We also visited a private home where hosts wore traditional dress and explained how the fishing families lived. Most interesting was that a family of 4, 5, or 6 lived cleanly and comfortably in less than 800 square feet. Beds were literally set into the walls of the main living area for the children, while the parents had a loft-type arrangement upstairs.