Monday: With a pretty day, we at first decided to take the train to Amsterdam and visit an exhibit at the Rijksmuseum. But, then decided to just go to Amersfoort, much closer.
We've been several times, but every time we go, we find a different part of the town and this continued to be true. Many of the stores are closed in Soest on Mondays or don't open until 12:00. We guessed that the Amersfoort stores would all be open and so it was. I needed my watch bracelet repaired and Linda wanted to shop for pants or jeans and maybe a jacket.
We decided to make sure the jeweler was closed before we left and sure enough he was. As we walked across the Albert Heijn (grocery store) parking lot to our bus stop we encountered a car smaller than our Smartcar.
We took the bus and stayed on until be arrived at the Centraal train station. When we asked a vendor for a map, all he had was big ones. But, he told us to just follow the signs to the centre of town. Not only did we find plenty of signs for the 1 km walk, but these metal markers in the sidewalk.
If you can't make it out, its a figure of a girl walking and underneath it says Centrum. Nice idea.
It didn't take long to find a busy shopping street. I asked a jeweler if she could fix my bracelet and she said they would need to send it out but I could check in the V&D department store just a few doors down. And, sure enough, the lovely woman at the watch counter had the pin I needed but didn't charge me. Meanwhile, Linda was finding things she "needed": a purse and 2 scarfs, but no pants or jeans. She looked at a nice leather jacket but they didn't have her size. It seemed like everything was on sale and because the euro equals about $1.08, the prices look good to us.
Then down to one square, look at menus, down another street, and into another church square.
This is the tallest tower in Amersfoort and we use it as a landmark to help us figure out where we are.
This is a door to enter the tall tower.
Walking along the streets you come across old buildings like this. This building was constructed in the 1400's.
And newer stuff like this.
And this.
The second church square was bordered by a church (we think St. Joseph's) and what look like old buildings.
These buildings are touching the sides of the church. In other towns, buildings like these were originally dorms for the nuns and or priests and then later shops. Maybe that's what we have here.
This is a typical square with cafes and shops all around lots of space in the middle where sometimes vehicles come through. And always bikes. Bikes are everywhere. I think in Holland, you have a better chance as a pedestrian of being hit by a bike than by a car.
As we walked around comparing menus, I saw this. It was unusual and just the thing for us this day.
Linda ordered the Dutch Dog, mainly because it had sauerkraut. When it came, she also noticed it contained cut cocktail onions - nice idea that we will use when we return to the States. I, of course, ordered the Mexican Dog. We also started with an order of chips, salsa, and guacamole.
And a beer.
And Linda found an Internet connection.
It started misting and the wind picked up. The waitress put up their umbrellas, but we were getting cold, so it was time to move on. Surprisingly, as soon as we stood up and got out from under the umbrella, it seemed warmer and the rain stopped. A stroll back down some of the shopping streets and back to the train station just in time to hop on our bus.
A good day - we both got something.
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