Tuesday, August 6

Its amazing that several days ago we were suffering in the heat and now the mornings are so cool we can't eat breakfast in the garden without a jacket. However, this is what we are used to here in Soest, Netherlands, this time of year - low 60's in the morning and low to mid 70's during the day. Its wonderful.

We received an email from Dan and Sue showing them at the Eiffel Tower with big smiles on their faces.

After a small breakfast, we walk back downtown to do our errands. Mail some postcards and pickup Linda's set of contact lens. Just before we left on this trip, she got several pairs of contacts, but when she tried to use one of the new pairs, the prescription was wrong. Before we left for Germany, she had talked to a guy at Pearle Vision on the main street. He told her he would order one pair for her for free and do it without a formal prescription. Aw!! love the Dutch. So, we picked them up and yes, they were free and yes they were correct. She can now see. Then, it was next door to the Verkley for an espresso and a little hazelnut sweetie for Linda. Its hard to walk past this bakery. Our server remembers us from last year and the older woman behind the counter jokes with us and tries to teach us Dutch words. Its not working very well but we enjoy the experience.

We drive to Edam, cheese you know, with the hopes of returning a silkworm necklace that Linda purchased last year. The necklace has balls of raw silk connected with a wire. The problem is that inside each of the 6 balls is a dead silkworm. Not so nice. We didn't know that until we were walking out of the store.

The first store we walk into is a very nice store with lots of stuff. We bought our girls watch rings there last year. But, it isn't the store we're looking for. While we're in there we chat a little with the clerk and she tells us a great story about her parents-in-law. Last summer they took her for a road trip from Las Vegas to Calgary, Canada - get this - in a Model T. The year before they were in South Africa. What they are doing is called Model T World Tour (catchy title, huh?) to raise money for SOS Children's Villages. They have a website: www.modeltworldtour.com. They started in 2012 and expect to finish in 2015.

Around the corner is the place where the shop with the necklace was, but now its for sale. Too bad. Linda opens the sealed bag she has been carrying around for a year and puts on the necklace.

Its a nice day, so we walk around places in the town that we have not seen previously. Working up an appetite, we stop at a hotel/cafe and have lunch sitting by the edge of the canal that goes through the middle of the town and one of the bridges that carries road traffic over it. Linda has a hamburger that she likes, but doesn't look that great to me, and I have chicken satay which is excellent. Dutch restaurants, besides offering local fish also have Indonesian food - former colony. While we eat, a boat comes up the canal and needs the bridges opened. We have seen this before, but its really cool to watch. The bridge tender opens the far bridge by just using simple leverage. After opening and closing it, he gets on his bicycle and comes down to the one by us. This one is different - he unlocks a compartment that is part of the bridge support and takes out a crank handle, attaches it and cranks up the bridge for the boat and then lowers it. Fun to watch.

We walk around a little more and buy some cheese and candy and head home. On the way, we hit a long traffic backup and let Louise suggest an alternative. Ironically, the area we're in is Muiden. This is where we had the same type of problem two years ago and because of the alternate route we discovered Muiden in the first place. So, we drive through this cute town with its canal lock in the middle of the town and its fort that we never seem to visit when its open on the side. A little farther down the two lane country lane we see a fire along side the road. As we approach, we see its a motorcycle on fire. There is a young woman with a small girl standing opposite it talking on her phone. We stop and Linda gets out to ask if we can help. A couple of other people have come up to her also. She's talking to her mother to come and pick her up. Its sad. The cycle is totally destroyed. Burned to a crisp skeleton. Quite the detour but we were not in a hurry. We're in Holland and don't have an agenda, so everything is OK, at least, with us.

We have tea and a snack for dinner because of the big, late lunch. Another good day.