Holland-America Line
Born in Schiedam, raised in Rotterdam in the fifties and sixties of the previous century a confrontation with the ships of the Holland-America Line could not be avoided. As toddlers my brother and motherr and I, took walks on the south bank of the Meuse river. In a little park near the ventilation building of the Meuse tunnel we watched the ships sail by. We lived in the south of Rotterdam at that time.
Later when we moved to Rotterdam west on the north bank of the Meuse river, our walks to the harbour continued. On sunday afternoons my brother and a neighbourhood girl went to the Parkquay in the Rotterdam city centre for our ship watching. We saw the ships sail past and the Holland-America Line ships moored across the river near the head office of that famous shipping company.In april 1960 we moved to Canada and sailed to Montreal on the s.s. Rijndam of the H.A.L. and after a stay of approx. 6 years returned to the Netherlands december 1965 on the same ship. The forementioned perhaps explains my love for painting the freighters and passengerliners of the Holland-America Line. This album will show you quite a number of them.