I have not
said much about our host and her family. We learned to know our host and her
late husband in the fall of 1972. For
many years he was a flower exporter at the Aalsmeer Flower Auction here in Aalsmeer,
Netherlands. We visited them and the
Flower Auction often when we lived here – taking all our guest to the auction. We
have continued to be in contact, stopping here on most of our trips to Europe as
they live so close to the Amsterdam Schiphol airport. Then when their son JJ was old enough, he came
to Iowa to ride RAGBRAI (the bike ride across Iowa) with us. JJ has rides RAGBRAI with us 3 times and his
Dad once. Just the summer before his
father passed the two of them stopped to see us in Iowa. To say the least, the
passing of our host husband was a real shock, and hit us very hard as he was
the same age as Cal. This trip is allowing
us to visit with the family.
This
morning, our host, her son, JJ, and us drove directly to Scheveningen, a North
Sea suburb area of The Hague, Netherlands.
This is where the American School of The Hague was located when Cal taught
there for 3 years (1972-75). (the school has now moved to another suburb of The
Hague).
The first
year we also lived in Scheveningen, about 3 blocks from the North Sea beach. During the 2nd & 3rd
years we lived in a southern sea-side area, Kijkduin, this time our apartment
was about 4 blocks from the beach.
This morning
on our way to the beach at Scheveningen we made a detour past the American Protestant
church that we attended those 3 years. It
was Sunday morning and services were in progress. We continued on toward the beach area. A lot
of changes have taken place in the past 40+ years, some for the better but many
for the worst (in our opinion)! Hi-rise apartments, casino, and hotels are
everywhere. We located the house where
we lived - in a 3rd floor apartment. At that time, we had a nice
view, but now that is totally blocked by hi-rises.
We walked to
the beach. Some of the eating shops are
still in the same location, but much of the place has changed. The Pier has been totally remodeled; nice restaurants
are on the beach; and the Promenade is full of restaurants; and shops are
everywhere. The beautiful historic Kurhaus has gone through extensive renovation
and looks nice, but it gets lost in the surrounding hi-rise hotels.
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| The American Protestant Church |
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| Our Apartment, third floor, Groningsestraat 19 |
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| The Scheveningen Pier |
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| The Kurhaus |
We drive around the Scheveningen Harbor – the working fishing harbor. It has expanded and sand had been hauled in
to form a beach near the new expanded harbor.
Our next
stop was at the old American School of The Hague High School, ASH, location. It is currently a Private Dutch Reformed Elementary
School. The building has been remodeled
so that it now only has one level compared to two and three levels when it was ASH. It was good to see that the facility is still
in good use.
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| The former ASH High School building |
We continued
to drive south to Kijkduin to search out our second apartment. We thought the
first two areas – the Pier & Harbor were busy, but this area was really
busy by late morning. It was a beautiful
day. Everyone and his dog was outside! We could not find a place to park, so we gave
up the idea of walking to the beach.
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| Kijkduin Apartment building, 944 Kijkduinsestraat |
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| Second floor, left of entrance |
We drove to
the city of Delft – known for its Delft hand painted china. We walked to the beautiful
town plaza, where we sat outside in the warm sun for lunch (like the rest of
the locals). On nice sunny days the
Dutch head out-doors to soak up the sun, regardless what else is happening.
After lunch we walked around the town center before going to the Delft
factory. We joined a tour of the
facility – interesting. The lovely signature-stamped, hand-painted items are
not cheap!
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| Delft |
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| Delft City Hall |
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| Large central church, now a museum |
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| Collection of old wooden shoes |
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| The first step out the door could wake you up |
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| Royal Delft Factory |
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| Molds |
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| Display of Painting Progression |
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| Objects in Hand Painting Sequence |
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| Finished Products |
Back at our
host home, a neighbor offered to take us on a boat ride through the nearby
canals. We were wearing coats to ward
off the chill, but we along with many others were enjoying the sunny day to be
on the water.
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