Europe - Trip 5

Day 3 - February 6, 2002

This is a water tower. No kidding.

Todd had not woken anyone in the house on his late entry the night before – practice during university must have helped. He discovered that Ite had left a note that evening with some suggestions for the next day including a bite with him at breakfast. We got up at about 8 and had showers before heading down for breakfast – Todd felt the heavy smell of booze and smoke would not have been conducive to morning conversation. We enjoyed a nice chat over bread, cheese and hagelslag. When Ite left we went back to bed – Sue got up a bit later for a run and Todd continued to get much needed sleep.

Sue’s run took her through a park that used to be part of the old city walls and outer canal, seeing various works of placement art and some cultural sites. Todd eventually got up and attempted to get on the net using AOL in Holland but as would be expected, there was no hope. AOL really sucks. Todd believes that the only reason that you would use AOL is if you had no other choice in the world, kind of like being in a Thai market and looking for mcburgers. Not that burgers are bad in anyway, just that burgers in a Thai market are likely to cause intense intestinal flux. Ok, bad metaphor but Todd thinks that AOL gave him gas.

Later Rolf returned home and we headed out into the city with him and he helped us navigate through a few more things. We stopped at the Goud-Kantoer an old renaissance building that is now a lovely café/bar.

We headed back to the house for dinner and then out for a lovely evening at the symphony with Ite and Willemien (and later Marten) where we were dazzled by both Bach and Haydn pieces. The hall was excellent in its sound and both the choir and orchestra were fab – the soloists didn’t overshadow an excellent performance.

After, we stopped by Ite and Willemien’s favorite pub, found it was closed and stopped at another, enjoying brews and conversation. Just super.

Less rain today and not as much blowing and the bike ride to the symphony was not at all wet.