Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Wednesday - Today was Frank's birthday - he could do anything he wanted. He chose to ride the train to den Haag to visit the Mauritshuis Museum. This is my favorite museum in The Netherlands. It is the former house of one of the Nassau-Orange royal princes - I think. It is a beautiful space and contains many Vermeers including, my star: The Girl With The Pearl Earring.

This museum was closed last year for renovations. It looked like the major change was modernizing the visitor entrance and gift shop area on the lower level. It didn't look like they messed with the gallery rooms.

Besides seeing "The Girl", we wanted to see the Goldfinch. I just finished reading the bestseller by the same name and Lynda is in the process of reading it.

This museum is not large, so it doesn't take a long time to see the pieces, but there were a lot of people and you needed to skirt around them. Some of the still lifes were remarkable. Especially, when you consider some were painted in the 1500's. How good can you make a hunk of cheese look? The answer is - amazing.

Lunch was at a cafe in the square beside the museum. The food was good, but the waitress was a bit snotty.

My tunafish salad and my Linda's egg and ham.

Lynda Adamson's salad. Frank had a large club sandwich with thick pieces of dark bread. 



Back to Soest on the train and an espresso at the train station.

We had an interesting conversation with our 16 year-old waitress who has visited the States once with her family: Las Vegas, LA, and San Francisco. She wants to go back. She told us about the school system in Holland and what she was taking.

Dinner was the most important part of this day. We had a hard time deciding where we wanted to go. We finally picked the place down the main street that serves a meter of meat. After the ten minute walk we arrived to see a crowd. As I approached, a woman came up to me to explain that the restaurant was closed for an event. We asked her for suggestions and she recommended de Lindenhof. Duh - our favorite place and so close to the house.

This turned out to be the perfect place. The wait staff was very solicitous and the food was excellent.

Lynda and I again ordered the same thing: a veal ribeye cooked medium rare without us telling them. Perfect.

And, my Linda and Frank both ordered the sea bass and were very happy with their selection too.

Lynda and Frank shared this mixed salad.

And the Grand Finale. We asked our waitress if there was some dessert they could put a candle in for the birthday boy. The kitchen came up with these fireworks in addition to a separate creamy sorbet selection that we all got a spoonful of before Frank ate the rest. 

Now that was a birthday.