By Bob Van Leer

  (AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND - Sept. 9, 1994) - We landed at 7:00 a.m. at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport after a seven hour night flight from Dulles Airport near Washington, D. C.

  We are starting a two-week rail and river boat tour of Europe. Betty and I are accompanied by our daughter and husband, Sherry and Scott Wills, who live in Portland. We drove to Portland Wednesday, stayed with them and caught a 6:35 a.m. flight from the Portland airport to Dulles with a stop at Chicago. The flight through to Amsterdam was on United Airlines.

By Bob Van Leer

  (AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND, Sept. 10, 1994) - Our tour really started today with a bus tour around Amsterdam and a boat ride on the city's canals. The old buildings are quite narrow and four to six stories high. Our guide, Roderick, told us there is a historical reason for this. Through the ages people have looked for ways to outwit the tax collector and this was one of those ways. At the time the houses were built in the 16th and 17th centuries, houses were taxed by their width, but not their height.

  There are many churches in Amsterdam, some quite impressive. Some are Protestant and some Catholic. Our guide gave us an easy way to differentiate. Catholic churches have a cross on top and Protestant churches have a rooster.

By Bob Van Leer

  (COLOGNE, GERMANY, Sept. 11, 1994) - Tonight we arrived at Cologne, Germany, and settled in our cabin on the MS Britannia, a cruise boat tied to a dock on the Rhine River. This will be our home for the next couple of days.

  We left Amsterdam this morning for a short drive to Delft, near The Hague, the capital of Holland. The official name of the country is the Netherlands, but natives and all call it Holland, the name of one of the country's seven provinces.

By Bob Van Leer

  (ON THE RHINE RIVER, GERMANY, Sept. 12, 1994) - Our cruise boat headed upstream (south) this morning at 4:00. The Rhine is Europe's most important waterway and has the reputation of being the most attractive scenicly.

  Commercial traffic dominates the river. There are sport boats, but they are few. The standard craft is a self-propelled barge perhaps 150 feet long carrying all manner of cargo, coal, oil, grain, cement and so forth.

By Bob Van Leer

  (LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 13, 1994) - We finished our Rhine River trip this morning with a short cruise to Mainz. The Rhine gorge flattened out to low--lying fields along the river.

  Our two-day cruise took us a distance of about 100 miles. The boat made 5 miles per hour against a very brisk current. And the boat docked in a number of places. Our tour was not the entirety of the boat's route. It started before we got on and continued upstream after we got off.

By Bob Van Leer

  (LUCERNE, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 14, 1994) - Lake Lucerne is big, 44 square miles and 26 miles long at its widest point. Our hotel, the Palace, is directly on the lake and our fifth floor room overlooks the lake. There are almost always boats in view and a number of swans on the water, as well as assorted ducks and coots.

  This morning we took a boat ride on the lake, leaving from our hotel and docking at the old city for lunch and sightseeing. The scenery from the lake was limited because it was a cool, gray day with intermittent rain. Occasionally there is a break in the clouds and we can see a few mountains.

By Bob Van Leer

  (ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 15, 1994) - The Switzerland we saw today was one giant picture postcard. Every mile brought another view across a picturesque valley, often with a lake below.

  We left Lucerne this morning by train in weather that alternated between bright sunshine and light rain. The higher peaks have a fresh coat of snow, the first of the season. Our guide, Anthony, said the snow is about a month early.

By Bob Van Leer

  (ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 16, 1994) - Our daughter, Sherry, called at 6:30 a.m. saying we must look out the window. High above Zermatt, which was still dark, the Matterhorn, covered with new snow, stood bathed by the morning sun, a really breath-taking sight.

  The Matterhorn is a mountain 4478 meters (14,692 feet) in height of which the last 3900 feet is a sheer rock pinnacle. The mountain is so often covered with clouds we were warned beforehand we might not be able to see it in our two-day stay. But we were able to see the Matterhorn off and on all morning before it clouded in for good in the afternoon.

By Bob Van Leer

  (COMO, ITALY, Sept. 17, 1994) - We arrived in Italy this evening after a day's travel that included three separate trains. We started on the Glacier Express. The Glacier Express demonstrates you can build a railroad anywhere if you really want to. It covers a distance of 500 kilometers (a kilomete is .62 miles making this a 310 mile railway) not long as railroads go, but it goes up to 7300 feet elevation and tremendous grades. Our trip today took us over more than a third of the total mileage of the Glacier Express from Zermatt to Andermatt.

By Bob Van Leer

  (COMO, ITALY, Sept. 18, 1994) - Today we took a tour of Lake Como by boat stopping at a villa now a state museum and at a small village for sightseeing and shopping.

  This is a big lake, 30 miles long and three miles wide. Our guide, Anthony, said it is the deepest in Europe, 1400 feet deep. It has three main arms and is in the shape of an inverted "y" with the city of Como at the end of the southwest arm.

By Bob Van Leer

  (FLORENCE, ITALY, Sept. 19, 1994) - Our hotel, the Hotel Helvetia & Bristol, is in the old town of Florence. We arrived here today after a train ride from Como, Italy, through Milan down the Po River valley.

  There is just one line of ridges south of Como which marks the end of the Alps. Then we were in the Po valley which looks greatly like the Willamette valley. It is flat, highly agriculturized, and at least on the south side, there is a distant range of mountains. This is the Apennine mountain range which runs down through the spine of Italy.

  Our route was southeast along the edge of the valley to Bologna and then south to Florence. The city is at the east end of the Arno River valley which flows west to Pisa and the Mediterranean Sea.

   Florence today is one giant art gallery. Settled by the Etruscans, its political and economic rise began around the 11th century. By the 12th century it was a city-state and its coinage was one of the strongest currency in Europe.

By Bob Van Leer

  (FLORENCE, ITALY, Sept. 20, 1994) - Today was for sight-seeing. We visited two of the many museums in Florence including the Bargello National Museum.

  This museum contains masterpieces by Donatelo including his celebrated David, and Michelangelo's bust of Brutus, Drunken Bacchus and Apollo David, as well as many others.

  One male cherub caught my eye because it seemed to be missing an essential part of his lower anatomy. Where he should have had a protrusion, there was a hole instead.

By Bob Van Leer

  (ROME, ITALY, Sept. 21, 1994) - We toured Rome today looking at ancient ruins and ended the day with a dinner in a Roman villa overlooking St. Peter's Cathedral followed by a tour of old Rome in horse-drawn carriages.

  We left Florence this morning by train for the two hour ride to Rome. It was raining most of the morning but cleared up as we got to Rome. The land was rolling, even steep in places. But much was suitable for farming.

  North of Rome we passed the division between north and south Italy.

By Bob Van Leer

  (ROME, ITALY, Sept. 22, 1994) - On our last day in Italy and on this tour, we spent much of the morning at the Vatican and a brief trip to the coliseum.

  The Vatican is country within a country. Completely independent since 1929, the Vatican cover 108 acres and has 700 inhabitants. The Pope is both the spiritual and temporal leader.

  The prime attractions at the Vatican are St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museum. St. Peter's is the largest church in Christendom and its dimensions are staggering. It would be a monumental feat to build today and an incredible one in the 1500s.