Our trip out was excellent; we spent five days in Amsterdam and one in Delhi. In Amsterdam Susan Strickler-Polstra ‘77 met us and showed us around the city. We stayed in the Van Onna Hotel very near the Anne Frank House. It was comfortable and a great location. We walked miles all over the central city, including a visit to the Van Gogh Museum. On Sunday afternoon, Susan hosted some other former WS students – Maria Franken Affourtit ’70 and Afshaan Shafi ’78. And Susan’s daughter Anya Polstra was a SAGE student in 2007-08. It was a pleasure to visit with these students we knew long ago. On our last day, Tuesday, Susan took us to The Hague by train where we were able to visit Liana Gertsch ’80. We went to the beach, where we saw people frolicking in the cold North Sea waters – it was an unusually warm day. We also walked through the historic parliament buildings on our way to the train station. When we arrived back in Amsterdam, Susan’s husband Thijs picked us up at the station and we drove to the village of Marken for Dutch pankoekken for supper. A lovely end to a great trip. We also got over the major portion of our jet lag while we were there, making the transition here in India very easy. The picture below is the canal outside our hotel.
We didn’t do much in one day in Delhi. It had rained record amounts in the 24 hours previous and right after our arrival. In the afternoon we took the Metro to Connaught Place where we hoped to visit Doma in her shop. However, the rain had kept her home and her grandson Tashi was minding the store alone. Our friends Sandeep and Anju Lal ’91 Tikku picked us up there on Janpath and drove us back to Karol Bagh and our hotel. We had a pleasant evening of visiting and dining.
As always, we were happy to board the Dehra Dun Shatabdi train early on Friday morning. We met up with Peter Bittenbender ’77, whose wife is now teaching at WS, and shared a taxi up the hill. It’s good to be back!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please send me your thoughts about my posts.