Tuesday, August 26 - Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Tuesday - It was a rainy looking day. Not a rainy day. It never actually rained, but looked like it would. I stayed in most of the day but did walk downtown for some grocery shopping. Lots of TV and Netflix. I guess this is what old bachelors do?

Wednesday - Today started bright and sunny and stayed like that. I waited until about 12:00 and then headed out. I thought a train ride to Utrecht for lunch would be a good idea. It was. 

When I arrived, its a really big station, I walked out the wrong side. Therefore, when I exited it, I had to walk all the way around on the outside to get headed in the right direction. The right direction is toward the old cathedral. I walked around a lot of construction and finally got to the main square where it was market day. Just off that square, I found a nice little alley-way and stopped for a Montepulciano and a shrimp salad. Just right for a still, nice day. 

I walked back to the station in the most direct way and came back to Soest. Lana, our contact with de Lindenhof is leaving tomorrow, so I stopped by to see her and have an espresso. She is leaving for Greece tomorrow for a holiday and we will be gone when she returns. We chatted and she gave me my espresso for free. Nice. 

Back to the house, I mowed the lawn. Liesbeth came by to say hi and maybe we can get together this weekend. 

Most evenings I watch a BBC 2 program about the history of the railroads in Great Britain. He uses a travel guide by a guy who wrote during the Victorian era. Its very interesting to see how the railroads affected Brit communities. This episode was about Newmarket - a place where our friends Jill and Jim used to live. He told about how it was a very posh place to go in Victorian times. It was originally just a place for the wealthy to go to watch the horse races. They wanted to keep it that way until they decided they could make more money if they let the "lower classes" in. And the railroads facilitated that. The host stayed in the Rutland Arms Hotel - I'm sure Jill and Jim know where that is. I think we may have eaten a dinner at that hotel. The special thing about Newmarket is that the grass has not been touched since the 16th century.

Later, I got some pictures from Linda from the south of France.

It looks like Claude is trying to train Joy on how to row a boat. That is probably not what is happening.

Claude and Pierre.

Claude and Pierre's house just outside of Gordes has four different places around the grounds to sit, eat and drink. Here's one of them with Joy and Diane getting used to one of them. Life is good.

Joy's place is in a place called Riboux. That's all I really know.

And looks like this from the outside.

And here's the living room and Linda's bedroom.

Here's two girls who are obviously having a good time. 

And then here is the hostess doing just fine.






This is called a compact and efficient kitchen. You don't have to walk back and forth to get things. Joy calls it a "one butt" kitchen.

A nice little cottage on top of the mountain. They can see the Mediterranean from the house. That's got to be good.