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Joy Brandt and
I became friends in 1997 over the
Internet when we were both on a Urantia
Book email list called UBstudy. She
helped me edit the first edition of
How I Found The Urantia Book, and
because of other common interests, we
soon became good friends.
As a frequent
flyer I’d earned two round-trip tickets
to Europe, so I suggested to Joy that we
take a month and “do” the eastern
Mediterranean, to visit the places Jesus
went. With some time off between
teaching jobs, Joy readily agreed, and
we booked a flight leaving Los Angeles
on November 13 and returning December
11, 1998. Our destination of Athens
included an overnight stop in Amsterdam.
As I was born in Holland and still had
cousins there, this gave me a chance to
have a quick visit between flights and
simultaneously show Joy the sights of
Amsterdam.
We spent
months emailing each other with research
on where we would go and what we would
bring, and the day prior to our flight
Joy flew down from Portland so we could
leave together from Los Angeles.
Diary: Joy and I
left Los Angeles Friday, November 12, at
4:20 p.m. on a direct KLM flight to
Amsterdam and arrived the next day at
11:30 a.m. local time.
Joy: In the plane over to
Amsterdam we each took a tranquilizer to
help us sleep during the 11-hour trip
(so we'd be chipper when we arrived the
next morning), but instead of falling
asleep, we got energized. We laughed and
talked loudly through most of the plane
ride while everyone else was
sleeping. Saskia may have caught an hour
or so of sleep during the flight, but I
was so excited I don't think I slept at
all.
Saskia: It was
now Saturday, November 14. From
the airport we took a train to
the RAI station, where my cousin
Els picked us up and brought us
back to her flat on the
Roompotstraat in Amsterdam Zuid.
Even though we were fatigued
from our sleepless flight, after
a short visit and a cup of
coffee the three of us walked to
the nearby Albert Cuypstraat, a
popular daily outdoor market
selling everything from
vegetables to clothes. With my
new video camera we took in the
sights and sounds of pedestrian
Amsterdam. It was cold but not
unbearably so.
Els
left us at a tram stop to
continue on to Centraal Station
from where we found the famous
“coffeeshops” selling marijuana
legally. Inside we examined the
goings-on up close and Joy took
some pictures of pot smokers
(all of whom were English)
sitting at a table getting high.
From there we
walked over to the Voorburgachterwal
where prostitutes sit advertising their
wares in large display windows and wait
for business. It must have been quite
amazing for an American to see for the
first time!
After
taking the tram back at the Roompotstraat, we visited with Els’s husband
Cor while Els made our dinner of soup with bread and cheese. We
were given their 20-year-old son Marco’s attic apartment. Joy went to
bed early, but I stayed for just one more glass of wine with Els and Cor.
This stretched into a long evening of socializing and I didn’t
get to bed until 3:30 a.m.!
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