12 May: Journey to Rotterdam. Utrecht. Beautiful gardens all the way there. Everything is in bloom. Weather cold and damp. Picturesque country houses. Elegant gardens full of flowers and beautiful trees; almost everything green. Storks with their nests.

Visit at the home of a farmer. He has twenty-eight cows[and] makes sixty pounds of cheese every day. It is sprinkled with salt. After the cheese has been made, the remaining milk yields butter, which is scooped off daily. Butter made in the front part of the building in a large churn with a special machine; a horse propels it. Good, agreeable people. Here in this wet country, wooden shoes are most practical. All cows have blankets on their backs. All over Holland the cattle are spotted black and white. More water; we reach Gouda. Large beautiful church, very long, with magnificent, colorful, high glass windows, all of them donated. At ten o'clock in the evening, Rotterdam.