Monday, August 11, 2014

Monday - We were packed and out of the hotel by 10:10. The Garmin took us out of town and onto the highway. Lynda wanted to stop at Bremen to see its main square and the Rathaus. Apparently, many towns have Rathaus buildings. 

We were able to park just a few blocks from the square. After a short survey, we found an appealing cafe for lunch with outside seating and with a view of the Rathaus.

Lynda and I had a pork and rice dish. My Linda had a kohlrabi leaf stuffed with ground lamb and potatoes on the side. Frank had a very nicely displayed fish dish.

After eating we walked around a bit - down an interesting alley that seemed perfectly designed to get tourists in the mood to spend money.

There was a bit of interesting artwork on both sides and between the shops. A Ramada hotel and several others were stuffed into corners and looked like appealing places to stay during a visit to Bremen.

Yes, we purchased a few little things and then walked back out onto the square and Linda met this mime.

She tipped him and then as we walked away, he gestured for us to come back and take a picture and sure enough we did and gave him more money. A real professional.

We headed out of town and onto the main highway. There are a lot of windmills in The Netherlands, but on the highway you see many more turbines.

Because of the Garmin, we turned off the main road and ended up on a two lane road for about 50 kms with trucks. We're still not sure why that happened. When we got back to a 4 lane, divided highway, we were ready for an espresso and were looking desperately for a sign. All we saw for awhile were fuel places. When we finally saw a small sign showing a fork and knife we took the exit to a small town named Straphorst and came upon a small cafe.

The town seemed like a very conservative place and we felt definitely out of place. The people looked at us as if we were aliens. The waiter was brusk and all business-like. We didn't stay long.

Before we left, we saw a guy wearing wooden shoes get into his car here with a wooden shoe covering his trailer hitch. You might not be able to see it very well. This was another indicator that this might be a town like Spatenburg.

Also, there were many houses with thatch roofs, like this one.

Even with our time on the 2 lane road, we arrived back at Soest when we expected. The girls invaded the butcher store even though they were closed and persuaded them to sell some chicken and sausages. That enabled us to have a nice chicken wrapped in bacon and salad for dinner.