We spent one more day with our friends Pieter and Rix. This time we went to Lelystad where they lived before they moved to Roden. This is an interesting town because it was recovered from the sea not too long ago (1960s) and it has grown into a town of 70,000. We spent the better part of the day at the Batavia Shipyard where a reconstruction of a Dutch East India Company merchant ship was produced. We also went to a museum that displayed artificts that were found on the new dry land. That was pretty cool. To end the day we had dinner at Bistro La Route, which was very good. We caught the train back to Amsterdam after a very nice day in Lelystad.

Thus ended an interesting experiment. Ginny traveled in Europe with Pieter in 1972 as part of her Grand Tour after undergraduate school. Pieter found Ginny while Googling on the internet through some postings I had made on pbase. We corresponded and Skyped over the last few years and agreed to get together on our current trip to Europe. Although there was plenty of apprehension on both sides of the Atlantic, the week we spent with Pieter and Rix was really grand. They were great hosts and we learned a lot about how people live in Holland; a lot more than we would have learned just touring around the country on our own.

So now Ginny and I are starting to think of places to visit when Pieter and Rix come to America. We already have a very long list and it gets longer each time we head out on a road trip.

Thanks, Pieter and Rix, for a great experience. You are true friends.