Hickox (DD 673) - Naval Cruise Book

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Dikes, canals, windmills, and wooden shoes — just what you ' d expect to see — appeared before us as we moored portside-to in Den Helder. But alas, people didn ' t seem to know much about Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates or that legendary hero who put his finger into the dike. We took a tour to Amster- dam where we learned that there were seventy canals which if put end on end would be fifty miles long and that the water averaged ten feet in depth. We visited the Zyder Zea, and stopped at Alkmaar where we were greeted by cows, pigs, and goats in the market place. We drank Bols, Geneva, and Neut met Neut, and also ate big platefuls of ham and eggs. We bought miniature windmills, wooden shoes and Blue earthenware and wondered how someone in stress could find his house when they all looked the same. When we left we had to look forward to two full days at sea before reaching another country. RUGGED!!! Hi in iii Hi nihil

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DEN HELDER, HOLLAND

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EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND A night at the Mecca Dance Palais with a beautiful lassie, a walk down Princess St. looking at all the beautiful things in the store windows, and then a wee bit of tea beside some open fire in a quaint Scottish home . . . these were the memorable nights spent in Edinburgh. By day, we saw Edinburgh Castle, the famous Loch Lomond with its Bonnie Banks, Loch Katrine, where Sir Walter Scott wrote his Lady of the Lake, and the Trossachs, a bit of the Highlands in the Lowlands. Color and cold seem to come to mind when we think back. Color in their tartans, Tarn O ' Shanters, argyll socks, their ties, silverware, and cashmere sweaters and scarfs. Cold in all their houses where central heating consists of a fire in the center of a room. It was here that we first heard ourselves referred to as Yanks. ' Till now it was just something we heard in war movies. Yes, we will remember Scotland ... its beautiful countryside ... its beautiful girls . . . the way they talked . . . the dancing multitudes at the Palais . . . the many homes we were invited into . . . the many families we met . . . the effect the country had on Cawley. In short . . . We were treated like Kings, by Queens.