Today was mundane except for the dinner. We spent the day cleaning, washing, packing, and a little shopping. We have invited Liesbeth and Peter and the kids, Ducko and Noor, for dinner. So, we pick up a few things to make that happen. We stop for an espresso and some chocolate at Jon Mets and say goodbye.
The doorbell rings at 6:00 and its not them but a woman and her daughter collecting for cancer. When she asked us where we were from and we said Bradenton, she said "isn't that where the outlet stores are?". We all laugh and she is embarrassed because it seems so superficial. We think its interesting that so many people over here know so much about our area.
Noor is standing behind the cancer lady with a gift. We welcome her in and she is followed in a minute by the rest of the family. Duko also is carrying a gift. Hers is a coffee cup with Dutch scenes on it and his is chocolate from Jon Mets. Both excellent. The kids sit right down and start devouring the nachos that just came out of the oven. We thought they might like them and we were right. Duko is learning English and practiced a little. Linda went upstairs and found a full-size football for Duko to try to learn to throw. Later, after we ate, he and Peter and I threw it around in the street in front of the house. Duko is 10 and a future athlete. He was throwing spirals within about 4 tries. Very impressive.
We had wine outside while the kids watched TV and then went inside to eat dinner. They ate almost everything and Linda gave a little chili to Liesbeth to clear out the kitchen.
After the boys finished throwing the ball around, Linda and Duko planned getting together on Skype. Mom and Dad don't know how to do that, so he's on his own. After they left, Duko returned because Linda was not answering because she wasn't in the room with the computer, so they worked it out and plan to stay in touch.
We always have a good time visiting with Liesbeth and Peter and this was no exception. This was a good way to end our visit.
Tomorrow morning, Hans and Jose will drive us to the train station in Baarn where we will catch the train to Schiphol Airport. In London, we will meet up with David and Johnny for dinner and a free bed. Then, the next day we're back to Gatwick Airport for our flight to Tampa and picked up by Kees and Joke.
So ends a lovely trip.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Monday, September 2
When Janie and Dan were here and we were visiting with Jose and Hans, we talked a little about making chili and eating Tex-Mex food. We wanted to have Jose and Hans over to show our appreciation for the nice things they had done for us so we made tacos and a pot of chili and some rice and they came over for lunch. As I said yesterday, we already made the chili and played around with the spices. We were afraid of making it too hot, but I think it came out all right.
We sat at the table and talked and explained how to eat a taco and that it was alright for you to make a mess and eat with your hands. All very American. They ate everything we gave them and I went into the kitchen and filled several more tacos for Jose and me. We always have a wide-ranging discussion with them. In fact, that is true for the other two sets of neighbors. We asked them where they kept their poor people in this country. We don't see any evidence of them except in Amsterdam. They told us that 10% of the population is under the poverty line. That seemed alarming but, I don't know what our percentage is in the States. There must be public housing around someplace. They told us that the poor people are embarrassed that they cannot afford to go on vacations or enroll their children in sports so they keep a low profile. There are recycle bins for clothes (textiles) and the sign looks like our Goodwill signs. These bins are next to the other recycle bins for plastics, glass, plastic, etc. However, we think that Soest and Baarn are very affluent towns, so its not a good place to look for the poor.
After they left, we cleaned up and I mowed the lawn for the last time. Linda put in some wash so we wouldn't arrive home with a bunch of dirty clothes. (Isn't this interesting stuff?).
Tomorrow we will have Peter, Liesbeth, and the kids over for the same food.
Wednesday we fly to London for an overnight layover. The adventure is almost over. How time flies. But, that's the way it always feels at the end of a trip.
We sat at the table and talked and explained how to eat a taco and that it was alright for you to make a mess and eat with your hands. All very American. They ate everything we gave them and I went into the kitchen and filled several more tacos for Jose and me. We always have a wide-ranging discussion with them. In fact, that is true for the other two sets of neighbors. We asked them where they kept their poor people in this country. We don't see any evidence of them except in Amsterdam. They told us that 10% of the population is under the poverty line. That seemed alarming but, I don't know what our percentage is in the States. There must be public housing around someplace. They told us that the poor people are embarrassed that they cannot afford to go on vacations or enroll their children in sports so they keep a low profile. There are recycle bins for clothes (textiles) and the sign looks like our Goodwill signs. These bins are next to the other recycle bins for plastics, glass, plastic, etc. However, we think that Soest and Baarn are very affluent towns, so its not a good place to look for the poor.
After they left, we cleaned up and I mowed the lawn for the last time. Linda put in some wash so we wouldn't arrive home with a bunch of dirty clothes. (Isn't this interesting stuff?).
Tomorrow we will have Peter, Liesbeth, and the kids over for the same food.
Wednesday we fly to London for an overnight layover. The adventure is almost over. How time flies. But, that's the way it always feels at the end of a trip.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Sunday, September 1
Its Labor Day weekend in the States and here we are just plodding along in rather cool weather. Last year, we had a massage every Sunday and we've only had one so far this year. Well, we agree, its time for a final one. We walk over to Soest Zuid, through the cornfields and past the windmill. We don't have reservations but they can take us in about 15 minutes which gives us enough time to walk further down the street to the bank to get some cash. When we return, they are almost ready for us. I get the owner this time instead of Linda. It was cold to me outside and I overdressed for walking. I'm sweaty and my Thai masseuse doesn't really like my skin that way but she deals with it. She's tougher than the other girls I've had in the past and actually hurts me. Linda gets the same treatment from her girl. This may be my last time.
Now comes the hard part. After an hour of being beat up on we have to walk back home. We retrace our path across the cornfield and then run into trouble. This has happened before both walking and driving. We get confused how far to the right we should turn and don't turn far enough. After walking through a complex that looks like a retirement community we emerge onto a large park with a flea market. Just before that we pass a dad and his two sons (probably 7 or 8) shoveling sand from a trailer into wheelbarrows. The smaller boy has his own small wheelbarrow and its attached to a bike with 3 wheels. Real cute. Linda is interested in the market until we get to the entrance and see that we need to pay. We buy an order of french fries and sit and eat them.
Now comes the problem - we think we know what we're doing. As we learn later, we walked away from the house, around a very nice looking farm and then back into a residential area. The farm contained chickens with feathers that went all the way down their legs. Made them look fat. Several roosters were struting about too. There were also cows, horses, but no pigs. Now, we're sure we have made a mistake. We find a couple working in their yard and the woman tells us we need to walk about three blocks over. Once we get to the first turn, we see the flea market. All we had to do was to turn around and walk in the opposite direction from the market and we would have been home in 5 minutes. So, we learned a little more about our community.
Linda cooked some tartar meat for lunch with mixed vegetables. Then we put together a large pot of chili. We're having Jose and Hans over for a Tex-Mex lunch on Monday and Liesbeth and Peter and the kids for dinner on Tuesday. The chili needs to
"age" a bit.
Later we walked over to the van Loon's for coffee and wine. We had a nice discussion about traveling, food, and the Dutch language.
A little TV when we returned and then to bed.
Now comes the hard part. After an hour of being beat up on we have to walk back home. We retrace our path across the cornfield and then run into trouble. This has happened before both walking and driving. We get confused how far to the right we should turn and don't turn far enough. After walking through a complex that looks like a retirement community we emerge onto a large park with a flea market. Just before that we pass a dad and his two sons (probably 7 or 8) shoveling sand from a trailer into wheelbarrows. The smaller boy has his own small wheelbarrow and its attached to a bike with 3 wheels. Real cute. Linda is interested in the market until we get to the entrance and see that we need to pay. We buy an order of french fries and sit and eat them.
Now comes the problem - we think we know what we're doing. As we learn later, we walked away from the house, around a very nice looking farm and then back into a residential area. The farm contained chickens with feathers that went all the way down their legs. Made them look fat. Several roosters were struting about too. There were also cows, horses, but no pigs. Now, we're sure we have made a mistake. We find a couple working in their yard and the woman tells us we need to walk about three blocks over. Once we get to the first turn, we see the flea market. All we had to do was to turn around and walk in the opposite direction from the market and we would have been home in 5 minutes. So, we learned a little more about our community.
Linda cooked some tartar meat for lunch with mixed vegetables. Then we put together a large pot of chili. We're having Jose and Hans over for a Tex-Mex lunch on Monday and Liesbeth and Peter and the kids for dinner on Tuesday. The chili needs to
"age" a bit.
Later we walked over to the van Loon's for coffee and wine. We had a nice discussion about traveling, food, and the Dutch language.
A little TV when we returned and then to bed.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Saturday, August 31
Today dawned overcast and dreary. Are we in the movie? We say goodbye to Veronica and walk around the corner to the private garage where we are parked. Its part of the building where we stayed and has a private entrance from the living space, but we enter through the garage door. As Linda gets into the car she notices a water pump in the corner. See picture below. Wonder what that's used for.
We have all day to travel the 3 hours back to Soest, so we decide to drive to the "beach" at Brakenburge, about 30 minutes away. Its an easy drive through some drizzly rain. When we get there, its windy and still drizzly and not very inviting. As we approach the city center we drive past at least 2 KMs of a flea market on both sides of the road. It looks like everyone in the town put out a few pieces of junk that they hope to sell. We don't stop. Just keep on going but down the coast instead of the way we came that had a lot of traffic on the other side of the road. We thought we would be able to see the water, but large sand dunes or dykes prevented that.
Eventually we are on A27, an interstate-like road and on our way home. As we get close to Soest we decide that the Peking restaurant in Baarn is the perfect place to have lunch. We will be able to have some hot soup and that will do wonders for my throat and my cold. By this time, the sun is out and blue sky and big puffy clouds. We sit outside in the park, I have sweet and sour soup and Linda has wonton soup and we share an egg foo young. We are not very good at deciphering the menu, so we decided to just describe what we wanted to the waitress and hope for the best. We got all we wanted. That may be our new procedure.
We're having some of the neighbors over for Tex-Mex food on Monday and Tuesday, so we need to shop. We stop at A&H and buy our supplies. We'll cook the chili tomorrow and let it "age".
Back at the house we read and watch dumb TV. We find one of those cartoon movies about animals in the forest. Its cute but we don't know what the name of it is.
Time is getting short and we're thinking about what few things we need to do to get ready to leave on Wednesday.
We have all day to travel the 3 hours back to Soest, so we decide to drive to the "beach" at Brakenburge, about 30 minutes away. Its an easy drive through some drizzly rain. When we get there, its windy and still drizzly and not very inviting. As we approach the city center we drive past at least 2 KMs of a flea market on both sides of the road. It looks like everyone in the town put out a few pieces of junk that they hope to sell. We don't stop. Just keep on going but down the coast instead of the way we came that had a lot of traffic on the other side of the road. We thought we would be able to see the water, but large sand dunes or dykes prevented that.
Eventually we are on A27, an interstate-like road and on our way home. As we get close to Soest we decide that the Peking restaurant in Baarn is the perfect place to have lunch. We will be able to have some hot soup and that will do wonders for my throat and my cold. By this time, the sun is out and blue sky and big puffy clouds. We sit outside in the park, I have sweet and sour soup and Linda has wonton soup and we share an egg foo young. We are not very good at deciphering the menu, so we decided to just describe what we wanted to the waitress and hope for the best. We got all we wanted. That may be our new procedure.
We're having some of the neighbors over for Tex-Mex food on Monday and Tuesday, so we need to shop. We stop at A&H and buy our supplies. We'll cook the chili tomorrow and let it "age".
Back at the house we read and watch dumb TV. We find one of those cartoon movies about animals in the forest. Its cute but we don't know what the name of it is.
Time is getting short and we're thinking about what few things we need to do to get ready to leave on Wednesday.
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