Another week or so in Holland

I forgot in the previous post of an afternoon walk we had with David. He wanted to see the Soestdijk Palace. I think it was originally the Queen's summer palace. It was used enough that a special rail spur was built to provide access. This was a very good thing because it created a train station 3 blocks from where we stay and we use it all the time.

The palace is 2.2 miles from the house. We decided to walk it. About 2/3 of the way we stopped to sit and rest at a restaurant and they offered us free water. That was so nice and the day so lovely that when we came walking back we stopped for dinner. When we got to the palace, I decided to walk back to a bus stop we had passed and sit. David and Linda went around the far side of the building and tried to buy a ticket. The woman at the counter would not sell them a ticket because she said they didn't have enough time to see everything. Even over their protests of not wanting to see everything, she wouldn't budge. So, back they came and we had dinner.

We're alone now and occupy our time with walks and excursions around town.

We've started walking around the chicken farm that's up the hill from the house.


These chickens were pushing each other around to get into a hole.

There are a lot of hedges around many of the houses and some are cut into interesting shapes. Lots of greenery

On a Friday, we were invited to have a fish dinner with our neighbors, Liesbeth and Peter, and their kids: Duco and Noor. The fish platter consisted of two types of shrimp, trout, salmon, halibut, mackerel, flounder, and paling (eel); most of it smoked. They served the fish with what seemed to be toasted wonder bread. Its supposed to be Turkish bread but we don't know exactly what that is. They put butter and a piece of fish on the toast. After we finished that, we had raw herring and onions. We were told that you can't eat the herring until after eating everything else or all the other food will taste like herring. I ate all of it.

On Saturday, we met our reflexologist, Marjoleine and her husband, Peter, at a restaurant called Madonna in a town down the road called Amersfoort. Marjoleine was born and still lives in this town and two of her three sons work in this restaurant. One is the sous chef and the younger one is a dishwasher. We got there by taking three buses, got there early, and felt very proud of ourselves. 

We started with appetizers: Linda ordered carpaccio and I asked for a caesar salad. The caesar was large with 4 pieces of chicken. We shared both. Then I had a delicious hamburger with fries. 

Marjoleine had a tuna dish

Linda and Peter had steak medallions.

At the end of the dinner, we had coffees and teas. Linda had a fresh mint tea, which she loves and cannot get in the States. It was served in a glass, mug. While she was waiting for it to cool, it exploded. Glass everywhere and tea. Linda ended up with a few pieces of glass on her and a little tea. I had glass on me and there was glass on the floor,  two tables away. No one was hurt, miraculously. The waitress said they had been having problems like this and had switched to a heavier glass. Whatever. They gave us the wine free as a compensation.

Other than that, it was lovely evening with new friends.
We even got back to the house on our own using the same 3 buses. 

On Sunday, Kees and Joke returned to a dinner we had invited them to. They were coming back from somewhere up north to babysit their granddaughter, Emmie. Linda prepared a simple dinner of hamburger, cauliflower, and cabbage with apple cake for dessert. They brought Emmie with them. She's 3 1/2 and cute, cute, cute. She speaks Dutch very clearly and some English. Liesbeth and Peter came over for some wine and to say hi.