Maxima

Friday:

I woke up and heard the clock bong 10. I had slept so good that I was surprised by the time. We started the day with looking at some of the best pictures followed by coffee and breakfast. The food just kept coming, I thought we were back at the buffet in Amsterdam. One special item here was leverpastei, a nice old fashioned liverwurst type treat.

Then on our bikes for a ride through the city to the fish auction. The boats are now in the harbor and sea gulls are everywhere searching for any fish that escaped the nets. The men seem glad to be back on land after 5 days at sea. Back on our bikes, a bit farther to a rarely used (except by locals) walking trail along the shore. We have the trail to ourselves. A beautiful day with perfect sunny weather so there is no need for our jackets. It’s windy of course, but not cold. There is an abundance of black raspberries which we can pick along the trail. Blips warns me not to touch the “itch weed” which is nasty but not quite as bad as poison ivy. I suddenly notice the itch weed everywhere.

We meet a dog on the beach whose owners insist she is not a pit bull but an American Staffordshire Terrier. Pit bills are banned in Holland, so “of course” she is an AM Staff. On our bike ride home, I notice Els watching the traffic for me. I appreciate that since I have no clue about the bike rules here. Sometimes the car and sometimes the bike has right of way. It is good NOT to get those mixed up. And now a reward for our 4 hour bikeride-walking tour: a magnum ice cream followed by coffee.

Mar arrived home after a busy day at work and we had a nice talk between dog lovers about how they own a piece of your heart forever. Mar made a wonderful chicken dinner with rice. She added leeks, peppers and a salsa type sauce. We all had seconds!

It is Friday night and some shops are open so we go to pick up some Dutch treats for the family back in the USA. We have tirimisu ice cream because it is the only thing I can read in English. Everyone else walked right by the sign, but when I said…”hey, look at that”…all four of us ordered it and really liked it. The people watching was interesting. I noticed everyone under 20 is wearing blue jeans, including the toddlers. In just a few years a whole generation will have switched to blue jeans = no longer the American uniform.