Saturday

Saturday 20 july A day to catch our breath a little. Off to Amersfoort for shopping! Even during a holiday one learns and develops. Steven and myself had been very accommodating during shopping sprees over the past week in Holland. In practise this meant that both of us would walk ahead of the female section of our party sine they kept insisting in zig-zagging maneuvers through the shopping lanes. No shop was safe from them if it even remotely had something to do with clothing... Inevitably Steven and myself would have gone the distance of the shopping street waaay before the girls had finished with the second shop. We would usually seek consolation in one of the many food shops; they were easy to find and offered the kind of eye candy more appealing to the males. But this Saturday we decided to leave the girls to what they do best and we were off to a very large electronics store. There Steve to his immense delight found a WII (say 'wee') set up as display. It took him about an hour before becoming less interested in it. By then I had walked around the whole store and compared the wares and prices. So we were off again Now any well meaning dad visiting Holland with his son, would feel compelled to enrich his sons experience of life by visiting Manneke Bunt. For the uneducated among this audience, this is the uncrowned, best chips shop with crockets and fricandellen. Well aware of these duties I took Steven there. We enjoyed a bun with an extra large crocket which found its way into our stomachs rather easily. Then the two of us went through the long shopping mauls, oops: malls. An interesting thing happened in 2 stages. On our way to the meeting point, Steve and I got a little peckish again (did I mention it was a long walk?) On the Saturday morning markets one can buy a variety of foods. The safe bet was the bakery. They offered these lovely croissants 4 for 1 euro. So we chose the correct ones and consumed these on the last leg of the 10 min walk ahead of us. We made it to the Koppel poort where we were to meet the girls. Special highlight: HannaLee had her ears pierced! Other special highlight: The Candy Shop!! Wow what an assortment. In the end it ws easiest to not choose too much; just take some of everything instead! As we walked back we passed the markets and on our advice the girls also bought some nice warmed up buns of another sort. They ate them on the spot. While doing so I spotted the family with little kids that had just before me bought some of the same croissants as Steven and I ate. A sudden screech of "getsie" was followed by some involuntary convulsions of the 6 or so year old girl. Curious as I was, I went over and asked what the matter was; after all we had eaten the same food a short while before. I was shown a hollow part of the croissant in question. A healthy brood of lively but young maggots was wagging tails in the sunlight. A quick check revealed that the sign at the baker shop only made mention of cheese and ham content so these fellows were definitely uninvited guests. The girl did not take long to reverse her eating habits. The father needed a bit of convincing from his adamant wife and myself that he ought to return the extras and make the merchant aware of the unpaid extras they received. Sure enough, the merchant did not charge them; well I saw him shake his head rather indignantly. Somehow it seemed better not to reveal these details to Steven till a few hours later.. After this successful hunt and gather morning we headed back to fill the fridge and visit Oma once more. Another good visit! We had to go back on time because we had a bbq (Dutch style) invitation at Johan & Anneke's where Anja would be as well as Friso nd Will and Gerrit Koolsbergen. Arend Zwarteveen even made time to come and visit for a while too; he is an old friend of mine We enjoyed it very much and the mr Bean imitations were at times better than mr Bean's performance himself. Then home for rest and sleep. Tomorrow is Sunday! g'night all. Dad Friday - Alkmaar