agia trias boulevard

We have started our "real" retirement after a very busy first week of July in The Hague. Judy finished her work on Friday, the 29th of June and Patriek and Maria van Dorp threw a huge party on June 30th for us to say goodbye to the van dorp family. We have known them since 1968 and now they are all grown up into adulthood and craziness. Judy and I had a birthday party with our friends, Irene Nicastro and Ineke vander Jagt on Judy's birthday, July 1. Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a house guest from Paris and another huge fancy dinner for Judy on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, I picked up Umit Celebi and his family, Kate Gyllenhaal, and daughters, Aysa and Mavi. Judy went to the airport with me to meet them and then took the train to Amsterdam because she was the graduation speaker for the Masters' Law Program. Umit stayed with us until we left on Saturday morning at 4 AM for the flight to Thessaloniki. He is staying there with the family until next week. So...we have been very busy and needed a rest.

So, here we are in Agia Trias, our favorite Greek village. We have been coming here since 1970 and everyone greets us like old friends. We have a busy daily schedule of sleeping until 9, coffee at Vagelis' at 10, shopping for fruit and vegetables at 11, swimming until 2, lunch until 3 on the balcony of Hotel Pibieba(Riviera); death nap until 5, swimming again until 7, shower and the evening "volta" or parade on the boulevard from 8 to 10 and then dinner at Anemos Taverna, owned by the Apotalidis family, where Jannis Galanis is the chef. This has been a regular routine for many years and let me tell you, it is exhausting.

We met up with Jane Evangelopoulis, the daughter of our oldest friends here, Nicos and Elfie Evangelopoulis. Jane is our Greek daughter and we always love to meet up with her to get the latest gossip. Gossip is big business in Greece because family feuds are the life blood of the people here. We know one family where the brother and sister have not spoken to each other for 30 years. The sister owns a beach accessory store about 300 meters from the brother's restaurant and they (and their children and grandchildren) pass each other every day but pass each other without even a nod of recognition. We know one family where the husband sleeps in his car outside the house, and his wife and daughters refuse him entry. This is gossip heaven.

Kasia Meller and Judy in Warsaw

Kasia Meller and Judy are standing in front of Kasia's shop, Mellina, where she sells clothing, accessories as well as serving coffee and cakes. We have known Kasia and her twin brother, Andrzej, and their older brother, Marcin, for 21 years, since they were little children. Warsaw is their home city and we have made a pilgrimage there every Thanksgiving WITH a frozen turkey, sweet potatoes and cranberries to make a party for them. We have loved watching them grow up into successful adults. We had a wonderful, fun filled summer vacation with Kasia and the "boys" in Greece with their father, Stefan and their mother, Beate. For the last 21 years, we have visited them several times and they have been here to our home in The Hague. Also, they spent a year in Atlanta, Georgia and we flew the twins from Amsterdam to Boston and then drove them to Chapel Hill, where our son, Michael and his wife, Rikki, drove them to Atlanta.

Huibert and his caravan

This is Huibert standing in front of his caravan in Amsterdam. This is one of four caravans in the park, which was once the place where circuses would winter. Huibert has painted the inside and outside of the caravan. A visitor to the caravan park would be reminded of a Hippy campground, but there is also a huge quonset hut where parties are held, and a sort of airplane hanger where a boat is being built. Huibert's family and friends gather for meals around a central campfire. The whole site is very unique and, in fact, a Dutch TV program once filmed Huibert painting his caravan. The park is on a small island on the Ij River right on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Huibert is waiting for the day that the city fathers roll up and close the place down.

Rob Brandts Gold Potato Compost Chandelier

Rob Brandts is a sculptor who lives outside of Rotterdam. About 5 years ago, he was drinking coffee out of a plastic cup and the indentation left by his thumb suddenly caught his attention. He decided to have the indented cup turned into a ceramic model and made a few for a show in a gallery. They sold out immediately and he decided to mass produce them for steady income. These plastic-ceramic cups have been a big success for Rob. This chandelier has nine of the cups with a halogen bulb inside and the black wires are heavy duty electrician's wire so they can be bent back and forth. The idea is of an upside down compost heap with the gold dripping off the black base onto the gold "potato".

Greek willow revolving bar table

About 30 years ago we were driving on Halkidiki peninsula and stopped for a snack in Kassandra. On the other side of the street was a derelict workshop filled with old wooden furniture. A man was busy cleaning out the shop and loading pieces into a small van. Suddenly, we noticed this table. We walked over to the site and found this dusty item under a pile of old workclothes. We asked the man if it was for sale and he said yes. It is all handmade, even the glass top was hand cut, and the central bottle holder revolves around a post. The design is bent willow twigs upon plywood. There are two small side shelves with glass tops also. We put it in the back of our station wagon and drove it all the way back from Greece to The Hague. Then, the reaction to the Dutch weather was a bit shocking because a mold began to grow all over the willow. We went to a garden store and they advised buying a mold-killing spray, which worked perfectly. The table is a bit wobbley on its legs, but otherwise it is still in good shape. Each of the bottle holders is a cheap pressed wood circle with the willow twigs glued and nailed to the side. This is nothing fancy, but it is a unique piece and with all the fun of bringing it back from Greece, we will take it to the States.

"Our man" Andi

This is Andi, from Indonesia. Andi is a singer, guitar player, member of a band AND a pharmacist. He put himself through pharmacy college in Indonesia by making music. It took him 7 years, and now he, and his wife, have come to The Netherlands to earn money by cleaning houses so that they can return to their country and buy a pharmacy. Behind him you can see the door telephone on the wall, the line phone on the black holder, and on the left, the photo montage of me and Judy from our original passports. Sometimes, when Andi is working here, we speak to Peter, our son in Boston, and also my father.

Scheveningen harbor during a storm

In the last 40 years there have two or three storms in the Scheveningen harbor which have been so strong that the large fishing boats have been picked up from their mooring positions and the sea water has come up over the quay. You can see our little VW Polo parked next to the Tridens trawler, which has risen far into the air. Its lines are stretched upwards as the ship rises. The sea water is sloshing ovr the edge of the quay and you can see the white caps on the sea face. On the days when the winter winds are very strong and from the South, the beach roads along the dike faces are covered with blowing sand and the police stop all traffic. Once, in the 1970's, a ship was blown onto the beach from its mooring 10 miles out at sea. It was the pirate radio station, Radio Northsea, and it became a huge tourist attraction, until a channel was dug and the ship was towed out to sea again.