June 24, 2014

Monday - Linda and I grew up with our mothers washing and cleaning on Mondays. I don't know why, it just was. Maybe for that reason, Linda announced on Sunday evening that the next day would be cleaning day. I took care of the vacuuming and she mopped, cleaned the bathrooms, and I helped with clothes washing. She walked and mailed a letter while I vacuumed and then she did the rest when she returned.

Since we had our exercise out of the way, I read and she practiced the sax. In the afternoon, we walked to the de Lindenhof for espresso and sparkling water. This is the closest and nicest spot for lounging. We bought some sprouts and watercress at Erko for a small dinner. We have discovered that watercress has all the nutrients you need to lead a healthy life. So, eat your watercress.

The event on TV this evening was the World Cup game with the Dutch and Chile. The first half was uneventful and looked to me like Chile had the momentum. That continued into part of the second half, when, all of a sudden, as these things happen, the Dutch scored with a pass and a header. Then, not too long after that as Chile was trying to get their act together, another Dutch score and that was that. This is three games in a row for The Netherlands team. They look very good to us. At the end of the game, we could hear Noor blowing her long orange plastic horn. Thank you Joke.

We ended the night with Netflix on the computer - Madison Park.

Tuesday - For the past three years we have driven over to Muiderslot (castle) and every year we arrived too late to take the tour. We were determined to get there on time this year and today was the day. A short drive without using the GPS and we were at this very traditional castle. It looks just like a kid would want a castle to look. It is square, with matching towers at each corner, and it has a moat and drawbridge. When we purchased our tickets we were assigned a guided tour time (in Dutch) an hour and a half away. We decided to guide ourselves.

As we were entering, we came upon a young lady dressed in a 1700's-looking dress. We asked her why she was dressed like that. It was her wedding dress. We eventually met her fiancé who was also dressed in period garb. They are getting married tomorrow and are having their pictures taken today, so at the end of the ceremony, everyone can go right to the reception without delay. We thought that was an excellent idea.


Inside and outside of the tower. On the ramparts there were plenty of places to shoot arrows. There was also a game set up for kids to see how good they were at tossing  stone balls onto invading troops. We tried our hand at it and discovered we weren't very good.











After climbing up one of the towers and looking in rooms along the way and walking the ramparts, we came back down and watched a falconer show off falcons and owls to a group of children. The falcons were beautiful and the owls looked much larger than I expected an owl to be.

Up against one of the inside walls we came upon this cute little hut. It looks like it should be in the middle of the forest waiting for Hansel and Gretel to show up.

Guarding the drawbridge.

By this time it was after 2:00 and we walked into town and had espresso and sparkling water beside a water lock and watched the boats come and go and be lifted up and down. It reminded us of our two tours driving our chartered boats on French canals. One of the boats that came by was a Le Boat like our French boats. The young people driving it had a bit of trouble getting it into the lock.

The inside of the tavern that we were being served from reminded me of an English pub. I talked to the bartender. He told me it was very old. He also said the fort was originally built to guard and collect tolls not for Amsterdam but, Utrecht. In the 1500's, that was where the bishop and many of the people lived. Many more than Amsterdam. I quizzed him about his liquors. He showed me some of the Dutch alcohol and let me taste one. A little sweet, but very nice. I only remember two of the names. One was Ketel 1 - a jenever. Another one was Rutte & ZN. The only reason I remember those is that they happen to be in our freezer.

We found our way back home using some of the back roads instead of A1. Just as we got inside the house it started raining for 15 minutes. Perfect timing.

Linda prepared a hamburger dish and almost made a BIG mistake with a yellow curry from a local Chinese shop. She put just a little in the frying pan and that's all we needed.