Thursday, August 8

The weather forecast was for rain today so, we couldn't make up our minds what we wanted to do. Turns out we had blue sky and big puffy clouds all day - no rain. Breakfast was scrambled eggs using the  peppers and mushrooms leftover from previous dinners. Linda had a headache, but I convinced her to take an Alleve and she slowly got better. This is a rare event, she doesn't get headaches.

Eventually, we walk downtown and discover its market day on the main street, but they are packing up. Dan told us the market schedule when we arrived but we forgot. We buy some oranges for juicing and 3 avocados. You can always use avocados. We have an espresso at the chocolatier and sit out for a long time and watch the people parade. This is called a vacation.

Before we return, we decide we need some fish for our late lunch, early dinner. One of the many things we enjoy about Soest are the different shops - butcher for meat, fish monger for seafood, bakery, chocolate shop, wine shop and more. That's really nice to walk to all of these and visit with the clerks. The fish guy recognized us from last year and was very helpful. We bought two pieces of plaice and some seafood salad. That's what we had to eat in the garden later.

Dan and Sue were returning from  Paris, so we drove over to Utrecht and found an open air cafe to sit  out, have a coffee and wait. Talking to  our waiter, we find out that his wife is from Tampa and they may move back in the next year. This is at least the third person we have met with a connection not only to Florida but to Tampa. Even though they were teased about arriving earlier, they ended up arriving exactly on the original time of 9:00. We spent a couple of hours back at the house drinking wine and having show and tell. They saw a lot of Paris in a very short time and had a wonderful visit.