Yes, love has won the day!

Hi Everybody!

I don't know how I could be any happier to tell you that Nina Rossi and I were married on April 19th this year. We have been together since August of 2020 (remember the pandemic?) and we decided to formalize the promise that we've made to each other many times. It was a joyous affair with our families and friends offering their own love and congratulations to us.



We thought our honeymoon should be just as special as the wedding so we headed off to Amsterdam and Venice to enjoy our honeymoon walking around these marvelous places.

Amsterdam is loaded with fantastic art in some of the finest museums and in April has two special attractions that every tourist has to enjoy; the flowers and King's Day. Rembrandt and Van Gogh figure prominently, and rightly so. But there was much more we also enjoyed.



The farmland surrounding Amsterdam offers not just a bucolic landscape, complete with windmills and bike paths galore, it is dressed with the most spectacular swaths of vivid color in the flower fields. It's hard to overstate how striking this is to see.



Almost every person we met in Amsterdam asked us if we had been to Keukenhof gardens and there's good reason for the question. They tell us that 40 full time gardeners plant 7 million bulbs in the most dramatic landscaped grounds. It is not just tulips but they are all bulbs, all 7 million of them! Everyone is awed.



Amsterdam is more than charming. It is a culturally fascinating place, firmly grounded in the present and offering a wonderful place to be a guest. But after a week of walking along the canals, we departed to enjoy a different set of canals in Venice.



I don't know who said it but I believe all the cities of the world, to some extent, resemble one another, except Venice. It is so beautiful that it looks as if it couldn't possibly have been built but must surely have grown out of the water. It took my breath away sometimes.



As honeymoons go, this was about as romantic as one could imagine. What a great privilege it was for us to be able to enjoy these two marvelous cities with each other. Back home in Turners Falls, Massachusetts we've settled into our wedded bliss working on art projects and the garden.



Thanks for going along with this trip and for making it possible. I'll be in touch again soon.


            William H. Hays