Vacations and nice places to go to

Meeting Whiskers (Richard Williams)


Quite some years ago I ‘met’ Whiskers on the net whilst searching for Sewell relatives. Richard has relatives with that name, but we have not (yet) been able to establish a connection between ‘our’ Sewell families.
Now both Richard and I have a family web-site and we have been exchanging information, pictures, holiday-whishes and so on for long time, but we never met each other.
Now as I was in Texas and he lives ‘just’ a 7 hours drive from where I’m staying I decided that I had to go over and meet my old pen-pal.
So I drove over from Houston to Muldrow (Oklahoma). It was a long drive, but it was worth every minute of it as at the end I found my old friend Richard.
He was much like the picture he had sent me but he had lost weight and looked much friendlier then he did on that picture I have. As it turns out he loves a good laugh and a good joke.
I also had the chance to meet his three dogs (Tackles) which were so kind as not to bite me in the ankle.
I had written Richard that I’m a vegetarian so Richard had made me a wonderful home cooked lentil soup. After a long talk about one thing an the other I went to my hotel just down the road. We were going to see each other next day and visit Fort Smith.

Visiting Galveston, Texas

My re-found friends Dick en Rita wanted me to see something of the region so they had planned a day out in Galveston.
Now for those who don’t know what or where that is, just click here to find out more.

As you can see Galveston really is an Island and we had to cross a huge bridge in order to get there.
First we had a drive along the boulevard so I was sure to have seen the Gulf of Mexico. After that we went to visit the Bishop’s Palace and the Moody Mansion.

These are just two of the many landmarks on this island.
After that we went to Moody Gardens were we wanted to have dinner. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed, so we settled for a cheese taco from the quick service counter.
As we had some time left Dick and Rita wanted me to see one of the ‘pyramids’ in Moody Gardens.
There I found an impressing collection of amphibian, fish and birds. Even a sloth!
Then we went for a drive through The Strand, and that completed our day out.
PS!!!!!
It makes me wonder if those people here in the US I have run into and keep saying how much history Europe has an how few historical buildings etc. there are in the US have really tried to find the wonders of this country.
I know these buildings are just some 150 years old, but the Missions of San Antonio date for the early 1700! And then I have not even mentioned all the history from the time before the Europeans came to ‘The New World’!

Dick and Rita


Short before I went to Texas, I got an e-mail on my www.schoolbankl.nl. This is a Dutch site where you can meet old school mates. This mail came from ‘the boy’ that used to be my former ‘across the road neighbor’ in Zeist. He explained that he lives in Texas and so there was no way I would be in Texas without meeting him and his wife Rita.
Dick’s kid sister Loesje and I also have been friends for many years. So the families knew each other.
So on 31st October 2007 I found myself sitting next to Dick, whom I had not seen for 45 years! So we talked and reminisced about the past, remembered names and places.
I had been wondering why Dick went to America so I just asked him, and the he told me this story.
This is the short version.
‘When I was about 15 my parent wanted me to take dancing classes, but I didn't want to go alone, so I asked my friend to come with me. But his parents were very strict and they did not let him go. Therefore I had to go alone. When I went to the dance school I could choose between lessons on Thursday or Friday. So I decided it would be Friday. The school had a rule that when you were dancing and the music stopped, you had to change partner. And when it stopped when it was time for a pause, the boy had to buy a drink for the girl. So then I was to buy Rita a drink……’
So the kept meeting each other, until …… Rita’s parents migrated to California and Dick had to serve the army for two years. Dick had promised Rita that he would meet her after he had done his tour of duty, and so he did. Two years later Dick went to California and later Rita and he got marries and now 45 years later they still are and have two wonderful and beautiful daughters.
Both of his daughters were so kind to drive all the way over just to meet me. Both of Dicks and Rita’s daughters are very nice you woman and I’m sure Dick and Rita are very proud of them.

We had so many to talk about but I would stay another day so we finally went to bed when it was quite late.

Dale Watson in Reeds Jazz and Supper club


Yesterday I went to see Dale Watson play in the Reeds Jazz and Supper club to find a completely other Dale then I’m used to hear or see. Sitting on a stole and playing an acoustic type guitar. He had a rather big band with him. Besides Dale there was Gene Kurtz (bass) and 4 other musicians.

As the name of the club reveals a bit they were playing jazz. The choice of the music was excellent. Unfortunately I’m not a jazz connoisseur, so I can’t tell you all the numbers they were playing, but they played a couple of songs of dale’s CD One more once more. If you don’t like country but do enjoy jazzy music, then check this one out. It is great. So you can imagine I really enjoyed the evening fully. I need to get in to this music.
Later on the band was joined by the famous violin player Johnny Gimble. He played a couple of songs and was highly appreciated by the public who gave him almost standing ovation.

And again the public wasn’t just sitting and listening to the music (as in Holland and other parts of Europe) but took to the dance floor and most couples gave a great show dancing.
I hope that one day Dale will bring out another CD with these musicians so other people then country music lovers he will be to tap in to his musical talent.
Click here if you want to order one of Dale Watson's CD's

Days Inn Downtown/Riverwalk Hotel
I found this hotel on the internet and the name and information made me belief that this hotel was close to downtown nearby the Riverwalk. However when I arrived at the station the cab driver informed me that it was not as close as I thought when I said: “To the Days Inn Downtown/Riverwalk please, can’t be that far”.
It is about 8-10 minutes by car with now traffic at all so it must be at least 6-8 miles to down town. That does not even is, what I would call, close to downtown.
It is situated 100 yards from a noisy free-way and you can hear passing trains blow their horn all day AND all night long.
So it is not really a calm place to be. However the staff has been quite helpful and no complains there.
To go down town I took the bus # 62 or 67 and it took about 15-20 minutes to get to the bus stop near the river walk.

Also there is a free wire-less internet.

The breakfast has a special: you can bake your own waffles in the shape of Texas.

Amtrak from Austin (21 Oct) to San Antonio and back (25 Oct)

One of the adventures I promised myself was a trip with The Texas Eagle. Already the name seemed enough to take the train from Austin to San Antonio, but I got more then I bargained for.
Train doesn’t seem to be a common way of transport in the USA and now I understand why. First of all there is not many of them on a regular timetable. For example there is just 1 train a day between Austin and San Antonio and it leaves at 8:10 pm.
I had booked the train to San Antonio and my friend Chelsea was so kind to take me to the station. Even though she lives in Austin she was not sure were the station was or how to get there, so we looked it up on the internet and she then knew where she had to take me.
But the station is so well hidden that it was hard to find and there were no signs indication the direction at all. I guess that is another reason people don’t take the train: it is hard to find a station.
The trip normally takes 3 ½ hours. But this time the train already arrived at Austin with a 2 ½ hours delay. Some of the people also waiting for that train where quite surprised, for usually the delay is just 1 hour! But now I did arrive in San Antonio at 3:30 hour’s pm (that’s after 2 o’clock in the night on 22 Oct) instead of 11:30 pm (21 Oct). That is a delay of over 4 hours for a 79 miles trip that takes you not even 2 hours by car.
I don’t know what the polices of with Amtrak, are but in Europe if the train from Amsterdam to Paris is 20 minutes late; you get a refund on your ticket.
But the man taking care of the station was a nice and kind man, so that maked waiting a little less of a bore.
Another thing that surprised me is that the train moved really slowly I guess it wasn’t going faster than 60 kms. per hour and kept blowing its horn almost all the way. Also the train stopped for almost 1 hour to let a freight train pass. So I guess to Amtrak cargo is more important than passengers?
I wonder what the trip back will be like …….. It is supposed to leave San Antonio at 06:00 hours.
The trip back.
Well the trip back did start a bit better. We left with a delay of ‘just’ 40 minutes. No announcement about the cause of the delay what so ever.
And as the journey starts the horn blowing starts to. Again the train goes at the horrifying speed of a drunken man crawling from bar to bar….. Oops, we stopped; there is a freight train that passes us, that will take at least 5 minutes. Oh, now we are moving back To San Antonio it seems. Now I guess we are on another track but it is odd that we now move in opposite direction. But as it turned out we went towards Austin and the train also picked up some speed.
We arrived ‘just’ 90 minutes late in Austin.
Amtrak is not the best way to get around, but the staff is really nice and helpful.

The San Antonio Mission Trail
Besides The Alamo there are many other Mission Posts in Texas. They were founded by the Spanish when they were conquesting the New World. They mostly were founded to convert the Indians to Catholic Church and make then Spanish and thus establish the catholic Spanish empire in Las Tejas and the rest of the America’s.
Around San Antonio there are still remains of 4 Missions beside The Alamo.
There is a Trail about 9 miles and I walked most of it today.
The Mission Espada was too far so I started at Mission San Juan. (See the picture with the Mission Trail to see where I started at San Juan and where I stopped at Conception following the yellow line) To get at San Juan I took a bus from San Antonio Down town. It took me just 10 minutes walk from the bus stop near the mission to get at the Mission San Juan. Most of the San Juan Mission is destroyed, but the Chappell is still intact.
To read more about it click here
From there I walked to on the banks of the San Juan River towards the Espada Dam. To read more about this dam click here
From there on I walked to Mission San José. There you’ll also find the visitors center where you can find out all about the missions. This Mission was founded in 1720. This Mission is viewed as a model of mission organization. Click here to read more about Mission San José From there I went on to Mission Concepción. This mission is named in honor of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It dates from about 1730 and the church looks much as it did then.
To find out more about this mission click here.

Here ended my walk and I hopped on a bus to San Antonio. I went to the Amtrak station to see about my ticket. However this trip was a waste of time as the station was closed and did not open until 09:30 PM…….
So I went back to Down Town San Antonio, to have a diner. This time I went to Rita’s on the River to have a vegetarian wrap. Bad choice!!!! This was the worst Wrap I have ever eaten, I left have of it and was glad there were French Fries; otherwise I had died of starvation….
Thus ends my last day in San Antonio.
Pictures for the magzazine 'Traveler' form september-December 2007

Here are some pictures of the Alamo by night. I had to hang around San Antonio untill after dark ......

Oh My God
Actually it is Oh My Godard San Antonio! Or www.ohmygodardsanantonio.com
When I was walking along the river (I guess that’s why it is called “The River Walk”) my eye caught this amazing painting behind this darkened window.

I went into this gallery and could just not believe my eyes. Here was an artist changing ‘real live’ into martinis, olives, muscatel, grubs, strawberries melons and thing like that. The colors of the paintings are vivid and bright. The subjects to funny to describe, lucky for me I found his paintings on his website and I have been so free to download some of them so I can share them with you.





Then all of a sudden i saw this Godard impression of The last supper, called 'The last martini'.





If you want to see more then I suggest you go to 111W. Crockett St. Suite 200, San Antonio Texas. If That’s too far the at least visit this website and be amazed.

Down Town River Walk (Paseo del Rio)

If you ever find yourself in down town San Antonio, you can’t miss the river walk. The waterworks in San Antonio date way back to the time of the foundation of the Spanish mission The Alamo. The canals were dug to draw water from the San Antonio River to irrigate the land.
The River Walk is not just a stride on the banks of the river, but it is an adventure of discovering architecture, art shops and restaurants & hotels.
There must be restaurants of every country of the world (except Holland), but it seemed to me that most are TexMex orientated or steak grill. So it was it bit hard for me to find a decent veggie meal. I found some, but nothing special.
The walk however is wonderful and the weather was just fine. Warm but not humid o I walked along those banks for hours, making pictures left and right and just feeling good.
Just if you can’t make it for the real walk, just go to this web-site to find out all about the history and events

Remember The Alamo. March 6, 1836

To my father, captain Eugene Bodenstaff.

I’m sure there is much to write about San Antonio when one visits it, but the very first visit I made was The Alamo. It seems that I have known about this building and the battle all of my life, specially as my daddy once gave me a book with all kind of stories about the west, including Roy Rogers and of course the story about Davy Crocket and the battle of The Alamo. I must have been not much older than 6 when I got this book and I read it over and over again. I have lost this book many years ago, but even now, as I write about it, I can even smell the odor this book had.
So, all of a sudden, I found myself in front of The Building I have known almost all of my life, but until today I never saw.
It was smaller than I had imagined, but it had a strong feeling about it. As I stood in front of this so small but so important building, I suddenly felt the strong presence of my father, it was if he was there, looking at The Alamo with his arm over my shoulder.
Together we have seen the movie of The Alamo over and over again, and it in our fantasy that we had been there with all the brave defenders of The Alamo. I closed my eyes and I could 'see' the battle. I became overwhelmed by emotions and as I opened my eyes I noticed that the tears rolled over my cheeks.
I had not realized how important this trip would be to me and how it affected my state of mind. I feel like I have come to a place where I met a part of myself that had been hidden for many, many years.
When I walked towards the mission post it was if I knew my way around. I went to see the bronze plaques with the names of all the heroes of The Alamo and found myself 'face to face' with these brave men. I also at last saw the plaque of Marcus L. Sewell, to whom I might be distantly related through my mother’s family, Sewell.
So I feel I have made one of the most important journeys in my life and not just to a place, but towards a better understanding of myself.

I'm sure that I will always remember The Alamo.

Amtrak Austin to San Antonio
One of the adventures I promised myself was a trip with The Texas Eagle. Already the name seemed enough to take the train from Austin to San Antonio, but I got more then I bargained for.
Train doesn’t seem to be a common way of transport in the USA and now I understand why. First of all there is not many of them on a regular timetable. For example there is just 1 train a day between Austin and San Antonio and it leaves at 8:10 pm.

I had booked the train to San Antonio and my friend Chelsea was so kind to take me to the station. Even though she lives in Austin she was not sure were the station was or how to get there, so we looked it up on the internet and she then knew where she had to take me.
But the station is so well hidden that it was hard to find and there were no signs indication the direction at all. I guess that is another reason people don’t take the train: it is hard to find a station.

The trip normally takes 3 ½ hours. But this time the train already arrived at Austin with a 2 ½ hours delay. Some of the people also waiting for that train where quite surprised, for usually the delay is just 1 hour! But now I did arrive in San Antonio at 3:30 hour’s pm (that’s after 2 o’clock in the night on 22 Oct) instead of 11:30 pm (21 Oct). That is a delay of over 4 hours for a 79 miles a trip that takes you not even 2 hours by car.

I don’t know what the polices of with Amtrak, are but in Europe if the train from Amsterdam to Paris is 20 minutes late; you get a refund on your ticket.
But the man taking care of the station was a nice and kind man, so that maked waiting a little less of a bore.

Another thing that surprised me is that the train moved really slowly I guess it wasn’t going faster than 60 kms. per hour and kept blowing its horn almost all the way. Also the train stopped for almost 1 hour to let a freight train pass. So I guess to Amtrak cargo is more important than passengers?

I wonder what the trip back will be like …….. It is supposed to leave San Antonio at 06:00 hours.

Finals Rugby World Cup 2007

Unfortunately I could not see the finals at home or in at Hole In The Wall Irish Pub in Amsterdam, but it was possible to see it in Fadó Irish Pub in Austin. Here watching the games however was not free of charge like in Amsterdam, here was a $ 20,00 cover fee.
Service at the bar was outstanding and Kim (always a smile on her face) could just keep up with the demands for beer.

It was quite busy in the pub and the atmosphere amongst the supporters of South-Africa and England was excellent.
The game was so good and exciting. For a minute or two I thought that England might even win the game and be the holder of the world cup, However the SA team played so much better that the well won.
So after the game all the supporters in SA jerseys where so exited and kept on cheering for long time. It was good to see the president of South –Africa being with “his” team to celebrate. Even better to see that Sarkosy, the president of France, could not claim that, due to his efforts France had won. He seems to claim victory for everything that goes well, even if he had nothing to do with it.
Now we have to wait another 4 years and then the World Cup will be played in New Sealand.

Austin day 2 (Tuesday 18th Oct)

Today I need to book my train to San Antonio and also a hotel.
I want to see the Alamo, but I can’t miss the finals of the World Cup Rugby, so I can’t leave before Sunday. I booked the Amtrak for Sunday evening and a hotel in the centre on San Antonio. I don’t know if it is in a good neighbourhood, but at least it is close to all the things I want to see.
I was lucky enough that another friend had a day of and she proposed we go to Austin together and have a walk around the lake and after which we would have dinner together.
The walk was just great and I was even more pleased with it as there were so many squirrels hopping around, I could not believe my eyes. I made some real great pictures of them.
After this nice walk we went to down town Austin and had dinner in a real nice restaurant.
And to top it all, she was so very very kind to borrow her car for me to use the next few days.

The Oak’s
We went to see Tommy Vandenavond and Mario Mattelio.



Tommy started playing guitar and writing songs when he was about 25. His style is hard to describe but is best I can set it is as country with the voice of Bob Dylan.
He played acoustic guitar accompanied by slide- and electric guitar.
This was a special evening for Tommy as it was his birthday.


After Tommy we enjoyed the show of Mario, lead singer of the former Weary Boys. Mario went solo a couple of months ago and formed a new band to accompany him. In one of his interviews he mentions to be influenced by Tommy Vandenavond.
Mario mostly played songs he wrote himself and they were brought out on CD 'Hard Luck Hittin''

This is dedicated to my new found friend Larry Washington.
I don't know much about him (yet). He is in his late 60's and a Jack of all trades. He weights not more than 55 kilo's and has had a stroke that sometimes bothers him. But even with all that he has survived the floods that came with the Katrina. He had been hanging on for three days with the water up to his breast. He was evacuated and my friend Anne was one of the many volunteers to help the Katrina victims. When he came out of the bus she knew he was the one she would be taking care of.
Now Larry and she have become good friends and Anne sometimes takes Larry for an evening out. As Anne's brother was playing in "The Oaks" and it also was his birthday, Anne took us out there and that is when I met Larry.
He is just a wonderful person and it seems that everybody that meets him loves him. He is the kind of person that brings some sunshine in your live.
Therefore: "Hang in there Larry and bring some more sunshine to us for many more years".

There is so many to write about, that I don’t know what to start with. Let take as I found it. So that would be the good working public transport to Down Town Austin and back to the Brodielane. It’s so good I wonder why it isn’t used by more people. So if, you like me, would be staying way out of Austin there are all kind of busses that would bring you to the bus that will bring you down-town. And it will do so at a fair price, no cheap! It costed me just $ 1,00 for a 24 hours pass, to be used on all metro bus lines. Then once in down town Austin you can you used the free “Dilo” bus lines.
Then there are these wonderful old building right next to the real modern 20 flight buildings. Well conserved and sometimes completely restored. There is this one building I really liked, but is in bad shape and not an original Austin building. It is the home of Mrs. Susanna Dickenson, the lady that survived The Alamo battle and brought the news of the defeat to General Sam Houston.
Also, for the first time of my, life I saw a drive-in bank.
I guess I walked around Austin between 2nd and 8th street for a couple of hours and I just can say: 'Come over and find out for yourself how nice Austin is'. Then I met my friend Anne and we went to the Elephant Room to see the Jazz Pharaohs play. Yes my friends I went to see a Jazz band play and I mus say I had a nice time and they were just great.
The guitar payer, is a friend of Anne and during a break he came over to us and we had a nice talk, well mostly Anne and he did. After the show we went out to eat a Pizza. While we were waiting for a table we went across the street to listen to some live music in the garden of Gueros taco bar. Quite by chance we saw Ruben Ramos sing a few songs with tha band that was playing. Then we went over to get our pizza and I was told it would be a real nice pizza, and I must agree it was a goooood pizza.
So that ended my 1st day in Austin.
Oh, and it true what they say, everything is bigger in Texas, but it becomes a real problem if you want just a small cup of coffee, than it is still one half of a liter :-)

War on terrorism or, war on tourism?
At last I was able to make a boys dream come true and go and see Texas. I should say that last year we met this lovely young women that live in Austin Texas, and they let us know that we were welcome to stay at their place if we ever decided to Texas.
So this stayed in our mind and finally I decided we should go over and see them and Texas! Due to illness of my wife unfortunately we had to decide between not going or I had to go alone. My wife decided for me going alone.
I guess so far I was glad she did not come along as the flight coming in was not as good as I hoped. Not due to the fault of the carrier (Continental). No the flight to Houston was quite good. It was at Houston immigration where the problems started. In the plane they showed us a video of how we had to fill in some forms and how we had to clear through immigration. Well it wasn’t as simple as that. When our plane arrived we had to pass through immigration and our plane wasn’t the only plan to arrive.
Now of course I knew that USA is not the same since 9/11, but it seems that the war on terror, started by the Bush administration, is almost like a war on tourism to. There was a queue of at least 300 people and all waiting to get passed immigration and only 4or 5 counters where we (non Americans) could pass. And then the passengers off our plane were added to that queue. You can imagine that it took quite some time, and I had a connection plane in just over 1 hour! I waited in line for more than 2 hours before I could pass through Immigration, and all that time we all had to just wait and stand in line, no chairs, no water no nothing! And it was getting hotter all the time and one moment I even thought I was going to faint. It took at least 6 minutes for every person to get cleared. They take digital prints of both of your index fingers and also a picture with a webcam. Also you have to hand in 2 forms with all your personal information. Not real smart forms either, because on one you had to fill in your name twice. Like it would have changed after filling it in the first time!
Of course I missed my connecting plane, but I was told that they are so used to people missing planes; they would just book me to a later plane.
But the strange part is that after I finally passed through immigration, I had to collect my luggage and check it in again for the connection plane.
Now while we were waiting a thunder storm broke out and most planes were delayed, so I was booked on a plane that had 1 hour delay already, but would leave within a couple of minutes. I rushed to the plane, but I had pass through customs first! And there I had to take of my coat and even my shoes. Wondered if I was able to catch the plane, and I did just in the nick of time. As soon as I sat done they however announced that there would be another delay of 45 minutes. The folks on that pane already had been waiting for over an hour!
And then after 45 minutes we were informed that we had o wait for a tow truck and that could be some 20 to 30 minutes. And after about 40 minutes the plane finally was towed away and we proceeded to the runway. And guess what…… another announcement of delay because now the rain had stopped all planes where cuing up and we were 6th in line on this runway. So more then 4 hours later then planned I arrived at Austin international airport and waited to claim my suitcase. However when there were no more suitcases on the belt, I informed where my suitcase could be. And just as I feared, it was left behind in Houston. Even with the extra delay they had not been able to get my suitcase on the plane. So I finally arrived without luggage, but it was delivered the next day at 11:00 hours.
So Mr. Bush has to shape up immigration a bit. If you think law should be enforced more strictly, you also have to make sure that you have enough and well trained staff to do so!
Which reminds me that the visa stamp in my passport was not put on the visa page, but on the page to add my children…….. I guess the immigration officer was tired as well!

BUT after passing through all that and arriving in Austin at last my friend Anne came to pick-me up at the air-port and I was glad to see an familiar friendly face again. She had organized that we would be meeting her (and my) friend Chelsea in a Korean restaurant, which I was quite happy to do as I was having a good appetite and I had never had Korean food before.
So the evening ended well with a dinner with my dear friends!

Will write more about my Texan adventures soon!

Oh, this blog was made at Seatlle's Best Coffeeshop in Austin. They have a free WiFi internet Acces, good coffee and nice sandwiches!

The Dale Watson concert at Newland in Klaaswaal was very good!
Again the joint was packed, with hardley enough space to breath.
Old time favorites and songs from Dale's new Cd "Justice for All"
.
This time Dale had Redd Volkaert (Guitar) and Nate Rowe (Bass)playing with him instead of his regular band The Lone Stars.
Support act was Claude Diamand.
Just be sure to be there next time Dale, from Austin Texas, is around and check out how good he is!

Dale Watson was not the only country performer in Paradiso this week, but as far as I'm concerned the most worthwhile watching.
There were some great names amongst whom Richard Thompson from the former Fairport Convention en some less known as Claude Diamond. Claude was the support act to Dale Watson. Unfortunately there was an other band to play after Dale so he had this time limit and that was new to me. Every other time I saw Dale play there was always some extra time to prolonge the show.
But even as it was not as long as I hoped, and he played with Nate Rowe (bass) and Redd Volkaert (guitar), instead of the Lone Stars, it was a good show.
Also Dale presented a new guitar (at least it was new to me). A wonderful Tomkins acoustic guitar.
I'll be seeing him again on Saturday at New Land in Klaaswaal and I hope he will be playing somewhat longer then in Paradiso.