Thursday, August 22

Today being Thursday, it was time for Janie and Dan to pack. It was also Market Day in Soest. Market Day won for first priority and the girls left after breakfast for the main street. Dan and I drove over to the other side of Soest to the health food store and bought non-gluten cereal, cocoanut oil and milk and then headed back downtown to the Verkley for coffee. I told Dan we would probably see the girls and indeed they came by after a short while. Joke has a large plastic square crate with wheels and a retractable handle that's good for hauling things back home. Well, the girls had that thing full and left it with us to take home in the car. After the girls order an apple pie and an apple tart (can't remember the Dutch names) and Dan investigates what we can only call a big bitte ball, they left to checkout the other side of the street. You have to stay on schedule because the vendors start closing their stalls about 1:00. 

 Surprisingly, we all arrived home within about 10 minutes of each other. Later in the afternoon, after most of the packing was done, someone suggested we eat dinner at the Chinese place. My first thought was the one on the main street, but Linda said that Jose said the Peking in Baarn was better, plus its in a park and you can eat outside. So, after a small drink, that's exactly what we did. 

As you drive into the center of Baarn there is a sign for the Peking that seems to point you into the park. I take it but end up first at the Poffetiges restaurant. After turning around, I take the other path which ends in a dead end. The only other option is to drive out of the park and around it and that was the answer. There is a parking lot for the restaurant that's what we use. As we walk up to the restaurant, we see Liesbeth and Peter, our next door neighbors, sitting on a coach having a drink without the children. We know this must be a rare event and we tell them to stay put and we'll sit at a table. We don't want to disturb their special time together. I tell Peter he must be romantic and he says I should show him and Linda laughs. Oh well. 

Once Peter and Liesbeth finish their soup, they come over and join us. Its nice to have them there with us and they help us decipher the menu. Its Chinese food described in Dutch. A little difficult for us language-challenged Americans. They show us on the menu where they have small portions, tapas-like dishes and that is what they have ordered. When Liesbeth receives her dishes, I decide that's want I want too: a shrimp dish and a duck dish. Everybody likes the look of the duck and shrimp. Plus lamb and tempura fried green beans are ordered. Linda adds a vegetarian dish of balls the size of bitte balls covered with sesame seeds and with a small dark something in the middle. I tried a different kind of Heinken - dark. It had a very different taste, but I liked it.

Liesbeth and Peter had to leave us to pick up the kids and we finished eating. As we walked back to the car, we showed Janie and Dan the large (about 15 feet high) cage of birds at the edge of the park that we had discovered last week. Peacocks, parakettes, chickens, roosters, and some unidentified birds. 

Back to the house, Janie and Dan do a little more packing and then the guys are off to bed and the girls have another pajama party.
Janie brought some white wine that seemed to be a hit. We will try and get some back in the States. See below. 

I think this wine may have been invited to the pajama party.