Onze Amsterdamse Familie Leden

Family Ties

One thing that Karen and I were able to do in Amsterdam was to visit briefly, and become better acquainted with family members. Unfortunately we stayed only three nights in the Netherlands, and we had more people to see than we had time in which see them.

We also had a chance to see the places that our grandparents came to know well during their early lives here. Not only that, Karen and I had a lot of great experiences together.

Right now we are on our way to visit the Westerkerk, standing on Raadhuisstraat, right behind the Queen's Palace. She was there at the palace that day, as manifest by the number of guards and the red carpet rolled out on the steps. We hung around outside the palace for a little while, but she was busy doing some other things, so we decided that we had better things to do ourselves, without her. We went along our merry way. I guess the loss is Her Majesty's. Maybe next time we come back we can squeeze in some time for her.

Our Grandparents

We passed the house of our grandfather, located at Jacob Catskade 38. His family lived in the upper levels of the house. Our grandfathers room is in the attic. I have pictures of it as well, which I will include later.

This building stands on the corner of the van Limburg-Stierumstraat and de Wittekade. This is where our grandmother lived as a girl. The bottom level is a store, with housing on the upper levels. She and her family lived upstairs, but we don't know which level it was on. I believe that it was probably one of the apartments with the widows facing to the right. She always told us that she lived in the van Limburg-Stierumstraat, which is the street going off to the right. Many of the buildings in this section of the city were demolished many years ago and newer housing units built. This happens to be one of a handful of buildings which were left intact.

Henk and Corry

While visiting Amsterdam, we stayed with Henk and Corry, some relatives of ours. Karen knew them quite well from her days as an exchange student at the University of Leiden. I had met them briefly, a couple of years earlier, during a visit that they had made to the United States. They live in a very nice housing unit in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam.

They were very kind to us while we were there. They were tolerant of the odd hours that Karen and I sometimes kept. They gave us excellent directions to wherever it was that we wanted to go. They pointed out extra little things to see and do along the way.

Karen had made all of the arrangements with them. She told me that they were glad to have us but, "They want to speak Dutch the whole time that we are there." I thought that it was a great idea. Imagine staying in Holland and being cheated out of an opportunity to speak Dutch! Luckily it wasn't as bad as Karen had feared. Whenever we had major problems communicating, they would switch to English for a while. Instead of watching the evening news on their regular station, they would switch over to a station that broadcast for children, same news, just a little bit slower and a less complicated vocabulary. If we concentrated, we could follow most of it. It probably drove Henk and Corry nuts to listen to it, but we appreciated their kindness.

They taught us a lot of new words, and a lot of new things about the culture in the short time that we stayed there. I was really greatful to them.

Sadly, Henk passed away a few months after our visit. He was quite ill with cancer. Even though I knew him only a short time, I will miss him. Every time that I walk past a "kroeg" in "oude Mokum" I will remember him, the conversations that we had, and the things that he taught me.

Eef's Koffiehuis

Like I said. We still have some family in the Amsterdam. We were only here for a few days so it was going to be difficult to visit everybody that we know here. So we thought that we would drop by and make a surprise visit to Evert, one of our relatives here.

Evert was easy to find, he owns a koffiehuis (coffeehouse) in Amsterdam, near Vondel Park.

Karen and I had never been here before, and it had been about 15 years since we had last seen Evert. We found the street where his koffiehuis is located. We walked down the street and saw the sign. The street he's on is very quiet. There is virtually no traffic on it. We paused to take some pictures of the exterior of the place. We stood in the middle of the street and started clicking away with the camera. Evert had absolutely no clue that we were in Amsterdam.

As we were taking pictures, we drew the attention of Evert and a couple of his elderly customers. They looked and acted like regulars. If you look closely, you can see at least one head through the glass checking us out.

After we finished taking our pictures we packed up our cameras and went in. When we entered it was deathly silent and all eyes were upon us. I approached the proprietor and said, "Bent U Evert?" To which he cautiously replied, "Ja." I introduced myself, "Russell." (Keep in mind, the last time that he saw us I was a skinny young guy with brown hair, and Karen had recently finished first grade.) As soon as he heard the name, he remembered me instantly, and we were heartily welcomed a "Nouw, zeg."

He offered us a drink. We stayed for a while and talked. Karen and I had planned so much to see and do in our short time in Amsterdam that we couldn't stay very long. We asked him to give our greetings to the rest of the family, whom we were unable to go see, due to time constraints. Hopefully the next time in Amsterdam we will be able to have time to renew more of our old acquaintances.

Here we are, with Evert, in his koffiehuis. I think that the flash worked when we took Karen's picture.

We weren't so lucky with mine.

Amsterdam 1, 2, 3

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	While visiting Amsterdam, we stayed with Henk and Corry, some relatives of ours. Karen knew them quite well from her days as an exchange student at the University of Leiden. I had met them briefly, a couple of years earlier, during a visit that they had made to the United States. They live in a very nice housing unit in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam. They were very kind to us while we were there. They were tolerant of the odd hours that Karen and I sometimes kept. They gave us excellent directions to wherever it was that we wanted to go. They pointed out extra little things to see and do along the way.

Karen had made all of the arrangements with them. She told me that they were glad to have us but, "They want to speak Dutch the whole time that we are there." I thought that it was a great idea. Imagine staying in Holland and being cheated out of an opportunity to speak Dutch! Luckily it wasn't as bad as Karen had feared. Whenever we had major problems communicating, they would switch to English for a while. Instead of watching the evening news on their regular station, they would switch over to a station that broadcast for children, same news, just a little bit slower and a less complicated vocabulary. If we concentrated, we could follow most of it. It probably drove Henk and Corry nuts to listen to it, but we appreciated their kindness. They taught us a lot of new words, and a lot of new things about the culture in the short time that we stayed there. I was really greatful to them. Sadly, Henk passed away a few months after our visit. He was quite ill with cancer. Even though I knew him only a short time, I will miss him. Every time that I walk past a "kroeg" in "oude Mokum" I will remember him, the conversations that we had, and the things that he taught me.


Like I said. We still have some family in the Amsterdam. We were only here for a few days so it was going to be difficult to visit everybody that we know here. So we thought that we would drop by and make a surprise visit to Evert, one of our relatives here. Evert was easy to find, he owns a koffiehuis (coffeehouse) in Amsterdam, near Vondel Park. Karen and I had never been here before, and it had been about 15 years since we had last seen Evert. We found the street where his koffiehuis is located. We walked down the street and saw the sign. The street he's on is very quiet. There is virtually no traffic on it. We paused to take some pictures of the exterior of the place. We stood in the middle of the street and started clicking away with the camera. Evert had absolutely no clue that we were in Amsterdam. As we were taking pictures, we drew the attention of Evert and a couple of his elderly customers. They looked and acted like regulars. If you look closely, you can see at least one head through the glass checking us out. After we finished taking our pictures we packed up our cameras and went in. When we entered it was deathly silent and all eyes were upon us. I approached the proprietor and said, "Bent U Evert?" To which he cautiously replied, "Ja." I introduced myself, "Russell." (Keep in mind, the last time that he saw us I was a skinny young guy with brown hair, and Karen had recently finished first grade.) As soon as he heard the name, he remembered me instantly, and we were heartily welcomed a "Nouw, zeg." He offered us a drink. We stayed for a while and talked. Karen and I had planned so much to see and do in our short time in Amsterdam that we couldn't stay very long. We asked him to give our greetings to the rest of the family, whom we were unable to go see, due to time constraints. Hopefully the next time in Amsterdam we will be able to have time to renew more of our old acquaintances.

Here we are, with Evert, in his koffiehuis. I think that the flash worked when we took Karen's picture.	We weren't so lucky with mine.