April 15th, 2024

Good morning friends,

    The sun is finally setting on this long planned trip and tomorrow I will be heading back to America. America is where I belong. It is my home. It is my culture. It is my framework… America is where all of my loves of my life reside…my soulmate Julie Schnepf, my family….my friends….my business…I have missed them all dearly….but Europe will always have a piece of my soul. I will miss the multiculturalism of Holland and the antiquity of Sicily. Oh, I will be back again, but for now my sites are set on spending time in America where my garden is planted.

    This past week has been filled with all sorts of activities. I was at my little donkey farm by the harbor until Friday morning when I moved over to the fabulous Kurhaus, an 1870s resort on the long strip of sandy beach on the North Sea. This is always been a very special place for Julie and I. It’s the quintessential Dutch landmark. Julie and I stayed here on our anniversary six years ago. Besides being right on the beach and having access to the water and having incredibly good restaurants and a very nice bar and spa and pool, it also is adorned by incredible sculptures all over the inside and the grounds outside. The theme was metal sculptures mostly of women and a link to the artwork at the Kurhaus is here. I’ve included a collage of pictures in this thread.

     I also spent good time with old friends and was able to visit the Eastman Musical Instrument distribution center for all of Europe. It is operated by Pepijn ‘t Hart and his trusty crew. This is where, not only the guitars, but also all of the horns and the violins and other Eastman products are distributed all across the continent. It was a very efficient operation with a half a dozen keen repair people working on every instrument that leaves the facility. We had a beautiful tour and a lunch and are once again convinced of how important our relationship is with this great company. Pepijn showed us the new Bourgeois/Eastman guitars which are nothing less than incredible and we hope to be carrying them soon.

    Over the course of the past week, I also visited several of my favorite museums here in The Hague, spent time with several of my favorite friends from my teaching days 40 years ago and of course, partook in the particular culinary delights of the town. I’m quite proud of myself that I was able to manage my daily activities without assistance and was able to get all around the town on the scooter that I rented thanks to friends Howard and Annemies. The airlines had pretty much destroyed my yellow Optimus. I’m hoping it has enough juice to get me back through the airports on my trip to Rochester. Holland is very handicap assessable and I was able to ride the scooter on most of the trams and get around the town independently. There were a few times when I had difficulty, but there was always someone who would stand up out of the crowd and instantly help….that’s the way the Dutch people are… no eye contact while you’re riding on the tram….no one pays any attention to anyone else except when you are in need of help….then everyone steps up. 

     I’m going to add a lot of pictures here so you can partake in some of my adventures and I’ll put comments on the pictures. On the whole, the trip was a great success. I proved to myself that I can take care of myself. I also proved to myself how much I miss my wonderful Julie. I have only one criticism of the Netherlands, that is of where I was last staying…This is a beautiful and old resort area…there were bars and restaurants all up and down The Strand which they are doing a massive remodeling job. All of the music, however, was piped in and much of it was AI generated, American pop. For a country which is so dedicated to ART….there is "public art" on every corner and every place (I included lots of pictures) why are there not LIVE musicians everywhere in town? There certainly some great ones here!

     I’m sorry I didn’t catch up with all of my friends. I was a little bit busy with adjusting to my mobility by myself, but there will be a next time, hopefully in the fall. As a little postscript, I found really unusual connection to my travellog when I did a Google search for Sicilian-Scheveningen….it turns out it is a defensive move in chess! I haven’t played chess in 60 years.

With peace,

John Bernunzio

Parasailing on the North Sea.

our group..

Here is a little sampling of some of the dinners I had…. some which I made myself, like the pasta dish, which was busiate that we bought in a bakery while we were in Trapani.

Collage of art sculptures around the grounds of the Kurhaus

Until I return