the world whirls on...

After leaving Turkey I spent four crowded days in the Netherlands, happily occupied with clothes-washing, chatting with friends, and spending a joyful day with my son and family (this means playing with the lovely two-year-old Yara). The weather was pretty friendly, I dried the washing in the back garden!
Then a pleasant flight to Boston (slept quite a bit on the plance, so no noticeable jet lag...).
It was raining when I arrived in Boston and continued to pour down the rest of the day.
Nevertheless, Nancy and I made a sortie in the late afternoon and walked down to Harvard Square and introduced me to some of the famous Cambridge Mass haunts...
We supped in a small sushi bar in the same housing block as Nancy's apartment where I shall be staying.
It is on the twelfth floor, looks down over Harvard with is many cupola-like college towers.
Here a hazy impression:

Above a sample of Nancy's impressive book collection, covering many walls, dealing with Architecture, Urbanization and general Dutch humanities topics...

Day Two started cloudy and I went to have my hair trimmed while the sky lightened, so that when I emerged the day was becoming warm, and I found a fine place to munch a slpendid salad lunch ( Dana Tea I believe is the name...).
Then I made my way to the Harvard Museums, to survey the unique collection of Glass Flowers (made in Dresden in the 19th century, shipped to Harvard, to be used in the teaching of Botany) and through to the Peabody, where I revelled in the collection on the top floor, showing maps by Blaeu and Indonesian articles that were familiar from my Amsterdam days.
On Saturday a concert of Ottoman etcetera music as part of the Boston Early Music Festival; simply stupendous, group named Hesperion XXI, led by the renowned Jorde Savall. Ah food for the soul... and out into a blue and golden afternoon.
Supper at Legal Sea Foods where I had my first New England clam chowder, followed by oysters and a boiled lobster... All excellent...
Then to a new film made by Terence Nance (also shown in the 2012 Rotterdam Festival). Enthralling. Title: How would you feel? (there is another title too). A kind of Virginia Woolf experience: one moment explored and embroidered... talk afterwards with the filmer, in the cinema.
More culinary primeurs on Sunday, when we ate in a Korean restaurant, dipping veggies into bowl of boiling meso soup...
Interesting that I comment on the music and the meals...
There is much else, but it slips through the interstices of time.
We read about the rioting in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey (David far away from trouble I
suspect) and the elections in Iran. The sky lightens there...
Tomorrow I fly to Portland Oregon. Another America.