Thursday/Friday, June 11/12

Thursday:

We needed to wash and pack today but we decided we still had time to do some sightseeing. Muidenslot, a perfectly preserved castle and near by seemed to be the best choice. So, after a couple of loads of wash were done, we headed out. 

We dropped off Heidi and Doug at the entrance, parked the car, (and one of my credit cards worked in the meter machine - yeah) and walked down the tree-lined canal to a cafe by the locks and had our espresso and mint tea. Heidi and Doug really enjoyed the castle. They have added stuff since we were there. They jousted against each other on wooden horses and did some other interactive stuff. 

When they showed up, we had some bittenballens. We wanted them to have some real Dutch food. 

We arrived back at the house just in time to fix tacos and nachos. We ate the tacos and served the nachos to Peter and Liesbeth and the kids a little later. Last year the kids really enjoyed some nachos so we decided to treat them again. 

Duco had been in Amsterdam with his dad most of the day. While he was there, he asked for a beginning computer programming book and brought it over. I had him sit with me and show it. He seemed to fully understand the concepts: flow charting, decision trees and scripts. I was surprised. The last chapter introduces Java. I was surprised again. 

We always enjoy their visits. It turns out Peter has the green thumb in the family and he said he would watch over the plants while we were gone. 

Friday:

Today was one of those transition days otherwise known as a traveling day. We were out of the house at 11:00. We had not made up our minds if we were going to take the train to Baarn or the other one Utrecht. When we got to the station a woman was there and wanted to be helpful. She saw all our suitcases and asked if we were going to Schipol. We said yes and she told us we were very early for the Baarn train. For some reason, all the locals want you to use the Baarn train to go to Schipol. Could be because there are just a very few minutes to make the connection which we missed by seconds. BUT - there was another train on the other side of the platform in 15 minutes.  No worry. 

Checked in to our hotel. Heidi and Doug got an elevator to their room and we got 4 flights of stairs. Oh well. A short walk around town and then dinner at a cafe by the canal. We were sitting at the canal that is always shown in ads for Copenhagen with multi-colored houses. Heidi said it reminded her of Burano, Italy.

A little more wandering around and it was time for bed.