Sunday, June 22, 2014

Saturday - This morning we watched Duco play what we would call Little League baseball. The kids were 7 to 12. Duco's team is named the Knickerbockers and they all seemed small compared to the other team. Duco started at catcher then was moved to center field and finally to 2nd base. He scored a run and tagged a runner out at home while he was playing catcher. His run was originally ruled an out but later the pitcher who tried to tag him out at home admitted he didn't actually touch Duco. Duco was happy with that.

The tactic for these games seems to be: get on base and then steal a base on each pitch. The kids seem to know a lot about general baseball tactics but lack the skills to perform. They need to continue working on throwing and catching. But, they're just beginning and every time they are on the field they are learning so much. At this age they play for 1 1/2 hours. When time is up, they finish the inning and stop. A good thing to do on a cool Saturday morning.

After Liesbeth drove us home, Linda practiced her sax for a couple of hours. Normal routine.

Then, after a little snack standing at the kitchen sink - elegant huh? - we walked down town to a flea market called an "outlet". Lots of vendors lining both sides of the main street for about 2 long blocks. In the middle of checking all of this out, we stopped for an espresso and a wine for Linda. She doesn't like to drink so much coffee, so she's going to become a wino.

Once we had passed by every table at least once, we stopped by the Batavia for dinner. This place is an Indonesian take-out place where you have them build a dinner from a buffet-like counter. We had stuff like chicken satay, meatballs, cabbage, broccoli, sprouts and spicy green beans. When we got home, Liesbeth invited Linda over to play duets. They enjoyed themselves for about an hour.

After we ate our take-out dinner, we drove over to the Cabrio amphitheater in the woods on the south side of Soest to hear a jazz concert. We had done this in 2011 when we were first over here and decided it was time to do it again. The first act was called The Locals and they were the local group: three saxophones, drums, bass, and an organ. We thought that was different. Instead of a piano like brother Alan's group uses, it was a Hammond organ. Different.

After about an hour of The Locals, and a 30 minute break, the starring group came on with the same lineup of instruments plus a xylophone. The group is called Casey's Tenor Madness or not. Its hard to figure out these kinds of things when you don't speak the language. I'm listing the seven names in the event one of the musicians in the family recognizes them: Cees Schrama, Hans Dulfer, Alexander Beets, Boris Van Der Lek, Erick Barkman, Gus Dukhuizen and Lodewijk Bouwens. One of them is a famous sax player from Holland.

There were a lot of high notes and long notes, but they finally got around to playing actual songs that we recognized. It was a good time.

Sunday - How do you spend a sunny, low humidity, day in the mid-60's in Holland. One option is to go on a garden tour in Amsterdam. Yesterday, Jose, our neighbor, told us about a garden tour in Amsterdam this weekend. It's a once a year event. Twenty-nine private homes and some hotels and museums open their gardens to the public. This gives us a chance to see what is behind some of those beautiful homes mainly in the Jordaan neighborhood.

We took the train into town. During the 55 minute ride, at one stop I watched a small, older white-hired woman with a baseball cap and a medium size suitcase, hop on and pull the suitcase up onto the floor of the train car without any effort. Here was a woman who presented herself has independent and confident. Good to see. Once at the Amsterdam Centraal station we walked over to the Pultizer Hotel where we thought was the place to buy tickets. Nope. They sent us back a few blocks from where we came.

For the price of 15 euros apiece, we were each given a pamphlet that showed a map of the location of all the gardens, a brief description of each (in Dutch and English), and a grid for each place to stamp our pamphlet to show we had entered. Amnesty International was where we purchased the tickets. It had a large garden to tour to get us started. It had three sections and was a good start for our tour.

During the next 3 1/2 hours we wandered up and down several canals and visited eleven gardens. Some were large with sculptured hedges, statues, and arbors. Others were made up of herbs and vegetables and looked more "wild". Many of the places offered drinks and pastries, but we stuck to our water. One of the nice attractions during the afternoon was the large of number of short skirts among us. We went to Oscar Hammerstein's house. At the front door they had a book about him for sale. I asked them what the connection was and I was told he lived there. Oops. This is a lawyer, not the guy who wrote musicals with Richard Rogers. The young guys at the door had no idea who I was thinking of. Another house belonged to the Lord Mayor of Amsterdam. At the front door was a large portrait of the beautiful couple.

This picture below shows a typical row of houses along a canal. Its hard to see because of the lighting, but many of them are leaning. Most blocks have at least one building that is leaning. We saw one that had a large tapered wedge inserted between two houses.

This is Bill in one of the last gardens - The Waldorf-Astoria of Amsterdam. He's tired and ready to drink and eat. Which one is the flower?

The tour closed at 5:00 and we were ready to quit anyway, so it was not a problem. Walking a few blocks and before hitting a heavy tourist area, we found a corner cafe with outside seating with a view of a canal. I ordered chicken satay and a glass of red wine. It was served on a small board. The frites came with mayonnaise. Linda had a steak salad with a Presecco. There was steady traffic, on foot, on bicycles, and cars. We saw one young couple skate boarding down the street pulling a suitcase behind them. At one point a car pulled onto the one-way street beside us and the canal and then backed up across the busy four lane street so he didn't have to drive around the block. That took nerve. Was he an experienced native or just crazy? When we first sat down, there was an American couple with their grown daughter sitting next to us. After they left a Canadian family sat down. So, we were hearing English for a change.

I wanted an espresso after the meal but Linda said we should wait and have it on our way back to the train station. We had to walk a few blocks to find the tram stop and when we did, there was a nice floating cafe across the canal.  It made for an interesting place to watch the boat traffic and drink coffee. When we were done it was almost seven but the sun was still high in the sky. Sunset is just after ten in June.

We took the tram back to the station and caught our train to Baarn. At Baarn we transferred to the train going to Utrecht and arrived home at the first stop.

A little TV - I found the Austrian Grand Prix and watched Louis Hamilton come in second.

And that was the end of a busy, for us, and delightful weekend in Holland.