July 12:

We were up at 7:00, early for us, and out the door at 7:30. We always plan for traffic on the highway to Schipol, but no slowdowns today. We delivered Janie and Dan and were back at the house for coffee by 9:15.

We found out later, that when they changed planes in Manchester on their way to Inverness, Scotland, Janie was relieved of much of the food she thought she could transport to her friend's house. But, at the end of the day, they were safely settled at their destination.

We cleaned and then Linda decided to try out Hizi Hair on the main street for a color and cut.

I put this image on Facebook without telling her and everyone liked it.

During Linda's walk, she came upon this plant. Does anyone recognize it?


In the late afternoon, we walked down to de Verkeley bakery, just before they closed to buy some chocolates for Duco and Noor. Liesbeth had invited us over for dinner and we needed to take something and we were tired of taking flowers and wine.

Liesbeth and Peter have a lovely yard set up for dining, but the weather was iffy and we were treated to a mixed, fish platter inside. There was smoked trout and mackrel, two kinds of shrimp, salmon, and palin (eel). After we finished with that they served us raw herring with onions. They told us the herring with such a strong taste, was served last so it didn't mask the flavor of the other fish. The fresh herring was served whole except for the head, but cut and deboned into several pieces to make it easy to pick up. On the street at fairs its served whole and you pick it up by the tail and gulp it down. We're not there yet.

I guess we liked it - we were already eating before I thought to take a picture. Incidentally, this was one of the first meals we were served by Kees and Joke on our first visit to Holland. Its a different experience for us, but we have learned to expect all these different fish and we both had seconds. 

We had a good visit and as the weather had cleared up, they walked us home - really nice.

Notes: if anyone is interested in the spices that Janie and Dan use for their chili, you can order it from cinchili.com. 

Also, after this Friday we will be on a boat on the Trent and Mersey canals in England and later in France, all with no internet service. Therefore, I'm not taking this laptop and there will be no blogs. I will be taking pictures and posting on Facebook from my phone if I can find a hotspot at a cafe, but it will be iffy. If you're interested in our boating experience, you can get an idea at: canaltime.co.uk.