What a wonderful 5 days in holland, even the drive there and back was not too bad. Still overtaking two overtaking lories with a nice concrete barrier on my left is not one of my favourite things, still I did it twice and survived !
The first day was just getting there, the second day my cousin and I went and walked with her adorable dog Otto, he must have run 6 times the distance we walked his ears floating behind . The trees in Cligendael look amazing , great to be able to walk in the middle of a town.
We also did some shopping, The Hague has changed so much since I went to school there, its full of restaurants and shops , what a difference!
The next day we walked again to Otto's great delight and in the afternoon we say the Rothko exhibition at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague, a lot of his early work , I was not a fan, but the later work was just stunning, colours and endless layers of paint creating subtle and very powerful works, it was nice to see some works I had not seen, there was a large exhibition at the Tate Modern a few years ago I don't think any of the works at the Tate were repeated in this exhibition, very, very good stuff.
The next day was the day of The Reunion, we all made our way to Ullerberg a wonderful place to meet, we didn't play golf but we had a walk and a lovely meal. Some of us had not seen each other for 48 years, but it all fitted into place and we recognised each other, well most of us did anyway.
It was rather scary because some people looked very much the same as they did all that time ago it was rather nice it felt familiar.
We talked and talked and we even had Mr Veltman and his wife join us for the meal, he was one of the main teachers at the Vrije School in The Hague, he is still as sharp as ever, we recognised the gestures he had when teaching us all those years ago, he still looked the same as well, spooky don't people get old anymore ??
The view from the dining room
I am so pleased I drove all that way to join the reunion, Kees thank you for organising it, Sjoukje and Arnold for the use of the Grote Huis, and the lovely food.
I remember the school and being in the class with all those people, the same feeling was still there , amazing !
But there was a tinge of sadness for those people who could not be there, some of them had died, and some of them were just not able to, hopefully some of those people might make it next time, yes there will be another one !!
And thank you my dear Catherine for as usual l being a wonderful host, friend and fun person and thank you Otto, the only dog I adore !
