Thursday, June 4

The day dawned beautifully. We needed to do something and taking the bus to Amersfoort sounded good. Later, we would remember that Thursday is market day in Soest - bummer.

But first, Linda fixed one her new crepes with egg and sausage. Excellent.

Since we had tested taking the bus the day before, we felt quite confident about taking #74 to Amersfoort. Walking down to the main street, we passed a school and heard what sounded like kids at recess. And, then we saw these boys:

They hid in the trash container and then when they heard a car coming, they popped out to scare them. They were getting ready to get out, but I made them stop so I could take their picture. Boys being boys. I wonder if their teacher had any idea how they spent their free time.

We caught the #74 bus on the main street and the driver told us where to get off for the center of town. Interestingly, the bus that we use in Washington, D.C. that we board just across the street from our condo is also #74. Hmmm. In Florida, we live just off Florida Rt. 64 and our house in North Carolina is just off North Carolina Rt. 64. Double hmmm.

We left the bus across the street from a shopping mall and just outside the old city wall. Amersfoort has lots of canals. Previously, we have taken the canal tour with Jose and Hans.

Nice scenery to start our walk around the town.

This bell tower doesn't seem to be a church. Its just a standalone tower. We have seen this same sort of thing in Edam and Utrecht. In Utrecht, the tower was part of a church that was destroyed during a really bad storm.

We soon found shopping streets that we had not seen in the past and that was the point of today's excursion. Along the way we saw different kinds of bikes like this one.

The tower is visible from many different places in town and we used it as a landmark.

Linda decided to get a manicure and I found a nice way to wait for her.

After some more wondering, we decided to take a bus to get to the train station so we could pick up the #74 to get back to Soest. One little fact that eluded our attention: there is more than one train station in Amersfoort. We got off the bus at the OTHER station, not the Central Station. Our recovery plan was to take the train that was sitting there to Centraal. When we boarded and I passed my train card to the check-in reader it showed me a red light. I ignored it because we were hurrying to catch the train. On the train, a woman came up to us and told us the reader beeped at us because we didn't have enough of a balance on our card. We thanked her, but the train had already pulled out of the station, and we were only going to the next stop, so we did nothing.

Once at the Centraal station, we walked over to the Help desk. Nice thing about this station: its big, it has service desks, and we can us our American credit cards in the machines to add money to our train cards which is a rare capability.

The nice man behind the Help desk read both of our cards and reminded us that we needed at least 20 euros to enter the system. We had forgot that rule. Then he told us what we already knew: I had ridden the train for free. We thanked him and walked over to the nearest machine and added a bunch of money to both cards. We never know which credit card will work. This time my Chase Visa didn't work but the Capital One without a chip did. My new theory about this problem is that our credit card needs to be registered with the right network like Plus or Maestro. There are others.

Now we're feeling pretty good and walk outside and find our bus stop. The automated sign says it won't come for 38 minutes. We find that strange because #74 leaves Soest about every 15 minutes. Oh well. There is a Starbucks right there and since I have not had my afternoon espresso yet and its almost 5:00 I decide to violate my principle of never using a Starbucks oversees and buy a doppio for me and a water with gas for Linda. 

Halfway through my coffee, I notice our bus sitting at the stop. Chug the coffee and we get on that bus.

Back to the house, Linda fixes a crepe thing and I have 3 modified tacos using leftover meat, greens, and sprouts. We thought we were in for the night until our phones beeped at us to remind us that we were going to walk to the park by the horse and chicken farm to meet Duco and Noor who were completing a community kids' walk. They had been walking each night for the last 3 nights - Duco 10 Kilometers each day and 5 Kilometers for Noor. 

We met Liesbeth and Peter at the ice cream truck and they led us over to the Soest Town Hall where the mayor was positioned to shake each child's hand and the band was playing and some guys were dressed up in medieval uniforms carrying flags. It was quite the thing. We stood on the side of the street and watched what Peter estimated to be 2,000 children walk past. I think it was at least that number. This was a huge thing for such a small town.

Noor arriving at the Town Hall with her school mates. Each school wore different colored shirts. Duco and Noor  both attend the same school and wore green. I missed taking a picture of Duco because some big guys got in my way just as he came down the street. 

We had told Liesbeth that we had presents for the kids. She sent them over later. A bracelet for Noor and a baseball and Yankees' jersey for Duco. He plays baseball and loves the Yankees. Its hard to find a baseball jersey in Washington, D.C. for a team that is not the Nationals or Orioles. We used Amazon.

Here they are in their school t-shirts. 

We were worried about the size of the jersey, but it fit him perfectly and he seemed very pleased. We were relieved. They sat with us for about 30 minutes and talked. Duco's English is getting much better and Noor, who is now studying it in school also, seems to understand much of what we were saying but doesn't want to talk. And, Duco translates. He told us that next school year he goes to high school. Its nice making a connection to these kids. On Saturday, he plays baseball and she plays field hockey. I don't know if we'll be able to see them. We'll probably try.