{"id":25440,"date":"2022-05-20T16:02:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T08:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=25440"},"modified":"2022-05-21T07:57:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T23:57:04","slug":"otto-alphen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=25440","title":{"rendered":"Otto & Alphen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I told Otto that I wanted to celebrate my 78th birthday in Alphen with him and his family, he said, ok then I will pick you up from Backershagen and we can visit some flower fields on our way to Alphen. First we had a cup of coffee in my apartment and we exchanged (alcoholic) birthday presents, as his birthday had been one week earlier. He gave me a nice Glen Talloch whisky glass with my nickname Kwai Loh Stuivenberg<\/em> engraved in it. Click on the right photo. The glass should be filled with whisky to make the inscription better readable, but tt was too early to start drinking ;-_)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We made a detour through the “Bollenstreek” on our way to Alphen, and saw quite a few hyacinth and tulip fields, although the main season had not yet arrived. It was Easter holiday, quite a few tourists. Officially it is not allowed the walk inside the flower fields, but not everybody followed this rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We arrived in Alphen around lunchtime. Here are two pictures of the family house, front and back. I was not born in this house but spent my youth there, until I went to Amsterdam to study. Many memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course the interior has changed over the years. We had a festive Easter brunch with Nina and two of their sons, Aswin and Xander..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The garden in front of the house in a kind of Japanese style is beautiful and often admired by passersby <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After lunch Otto and I drove and walked around in Alphen. We visited the cemetery, where our parents have been buried We took some time to clean their grave and plant some new shrubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just a few snapshots of places in Aphen. Left the Hefbrug<\/a>, right a view of the Old Rhine river <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Left the Nutsgebouw,(1894), during my school days I have watched my first movies there. Right the modern city hall (2003)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From 1955 until 1961 I was a student at the Christelijk Lyceum in Alphen. The school has moved to another location long ago, but the building is still there. Right the entrance through which I must have passed numerous time. Nostalgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some more pictures. I don’t know the background of the artwork at the left. The right statue is the war memorial for WWII. It was a beautiful spring day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Finally we had a look at the countryside around Alphen. The countryside of my youth, I still find it quite attractive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back home Nina had prepared a delicious meal. Xander, one of my nephews, has recently started playing the flute and showed us the progress he had made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just before I left, Pascal, the oldest son, arrived and of course a picture had to be taken of me with my three nephews. Aswin (left) and Xander (right) are identical twins, for many years I could not distinguish between them. Now slowly there are some differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I went back to Backershagen by train. A very nice day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I told Otto that I wanted to celebrate my 78th birthday in Alphen with him and his family, he said, ok then I will pick you up from Backershagen and we can visit some flower fields on our way … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[75,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alphen","category-family"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2022-04-17-23.08.53.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LqIR-6Ck","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25440"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25476,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440\/revisions\/25476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}