Sunday, June 29 - Tuesday, July 1 ,2014

Sunday - Most of Soest is closed on Sundays. We had our normal slow morning and Linda practiced her sax. Pablo Casals was asked why he still practiced at the age of 90. He said he thought he was improving. Linda continues to improve. Lizzie, next door, invited her over to play duets with her again. Then Duco came over and invited me to come over and play chess with him. Well, someone should have warned me. He's 10 years old but he's good. The age old question: should the adult let the youngster win to help him with his self-esteem? Not a problem or a question here. He beat me in the first game in about 5 moves. He used one of those standard openings that I don't know. About that time, Peter, his dad, shows me his certificate of achievement for playing chess at school. He is in the 3rd level of 5 levels. Hmmm!! We played two more and I held him off for a little longer. THEN, he shows me a variation where the pawns are arrayed across the middle of the board in 2 alternating rows. And, they don't move. They're like trees, they just get in the way. This completely changes the game. I do finally beat him the second time with only a couple of pieces left on the board. I was worn out.

Along with a New York Yankees' cap, I had brought him a Boeing 747 model to assemble out of a punch-out metal sheet. The pieces were small and had to be delicately pushed out of the metal sheet. Then tiny tabs needed to be fitted into holes and bent. Peter, Duco, and I worked on it for awhile and got it half assembled before we decided to come back to it later.

After about 2 hours, it was time to go home. As we were leaving, Duco asked if he could come over and watch the GAME with me. The game was The Netherlands vs. Mexico in World Cup competition. This is the knockout phase, so the loser goes home. I told him absolutely and sure enough he showed up for the first half of the game. Then he had to go home to eat dinner, but came back for the 2nd half. His English is getting so good, that we can carry on conversations with him. He is so eager to learn English that he bought himself one of those small Dutch/English travel dictionaries and looks stuff up. We have one too, but the problem with those books is that there is so much that is not included.

In the second half, Mexico scored a goal and we all thought that the Dutch looked tired playing in 90 degree heat. We had almost given up hope when with 5 minutes left in regulation time they scored. And then just a few minutes later, as they have done previously, scored again and won the game. We immediately heard Noor blowing her special orange horn next door. We "high fived" and talked a little longer before Duco left. Its nice to feel a part of the community.

Monday - Not much to report today. Its a little chilly - light jacket most of the day. But, if the sun comes out in the afternoon, then it warms up and the jackets come off.

I'm fighting a cold, so going a little slow. While Linda practiced her horn, I read and wrote. Linda had an appointment with the osteopath at the end of the block at 3:30, so I walked downtown for an espresso and an International New York Times. She came back two hours later wiped out. The doctor only held and pressed on certain points of her body and told her she had been holding her head wrong. She needs to stand with her ears above her shoulders. You can't do that without standing up straight.

We're not eating much - a lot of seeds and nuts and small snacks, so that frees up a lot of time to do other things. 

Tuesday - We needed to do a small amount of shopping, so we started at the de Lindenhof and I showed Linda the couch and the fireplace. Lana came by to say hi to Linda and we talked a little.

This is what the fireplace looks like and the other part of the room.

Later we drove over to Baarn (Tuesday is market day there and the only day and place that the vitamin man is around) and picked up some Zinc and some yarn at the large Hema there. Its much larger than ours. Hema is a chain which has a large variety of everyday items: school supplies, bike stuff, some clothes, kitchen utensils, etc. I bought some french fries with mayo in a paper cone and then we sat down along the edge of the square where the market was closing and had the daily espresso.

Linda couldn't find the correct size needles she needed for her knitting project and she knew there was a shop in Spakenburg, so off we went - just 6 kms down the road. 

Look hard at the bottom of the sign and you will see the word Spakenburg. This is my title slide.

It was very different to walk around this very traditional town without the market. For four weeks in late July and early August on Wednesdays, there is a huge market that brings crowds. Not only is it crafts, odds and ends, and food, but they set up a stage and traditionally costumed children and adults sing and dance. But, not today. It was just a normal town with the normal amount of people out enjoying the sun. 

Here is Linda showing off her new Dutch-style pants. Liz Dodds seems to like these. She is standing outside a fish market and the sign is advertising new herring. A bartender in Muidenberg told me this is the season. We've eaten it before and as soon as we buy some vodka, we'll try it again with lots of onions.

After Linda found just what she wanted, we walked around some. The attraction for me at Spakenburg is this collection of boats.

 

 Notice the boats in dry dock

 We talked to a woman at the visitor center and she gave us details about catching a boat and riding to the other side of the water for lunch. We will put that on our schedule.

The lighting is bad, so this statue is hard to see. Its a traditionally dressed Dutch woman. On market day you can see live ones.

Back home, we watched episodes of Mad Men and Orange is the new Black, waiting for the US to play Belgium at 10:00 in the World Cup. It was exciting, but they were always shooting at our goal. You just knew eventually they would score even with our really good goalie. Well, regulation time came and went and overtime was going to be another 30 minutes. I went to bed and missed the bad news: Belgium 2, USA 1. Bummer!!