Learning our way around - July 21 through 23
Sunday
I slept in while Daddy got ready for church. Shortly after he left I heard rain pounding on the roof again. I didn't think he had taken an umbrella, but I knew he'd manage.
When he got back home I had checked my email and found some breakfast.
We decided to take a ride on the waterbus that stops just across the street, and went across the river on it to Dordrecht. We walked to the big church with the high bell tower, and climbed all the way to the top. I might not have done it if I had known how high it really was. We had to stop many times to rest on the way up. But the view from the tower was probably worth it.
Then we took a walk to the local McDonalds. Carmen was with us to show us around, and she told us she hates McDonalds, but she was a good sport and took us there and even had a milkshake.
The stores in Dordrecht were almost all closed because it was Sunday, so we weren't tempted to spend our money. But we may just go back there another day, now that we know how to get there.
After lunch we went home to take it easy, probably for the rest of the day.
Carmen and I have agreed that if I will buy the food she can cook it, and we'll all be happy. We haven't decided who does the dishes, but it seems to work out that we all do our own and everyone's happy.
After we got home and checked our email and fooled around for a while with the computer we went back to the house and found that Carmen had baked a cake! What a nice surprise. So we had cake and tea and tried to have a nice conversation. Unfortunately Carmen's English, while much better than my nonexistant Dutch, really isn't up to a meaningful conversation. But Daddy was there, and he was able to do a good job of translating. He left to go do something else while we were talking, and after 15 minutes or so we were stuck and I didn't have any idea what she was trying to tell me. So we called for Daddy and he came and saved the day. She wanted me to know that she would be going away tomorrow morning but would return around 3PM and then she and I could go grocery shopping.
Monday stairs report:
7AM, Down one flight to see if anything interesting was going on in the kitchen. Nothing.
Up one to get the laundry.
down two to the door.
oops - up two to get something I forgot
and back down two
Out the door, over, and up two to where the computer is. A quick check and
up one to start the laundry. - But something doesn't work right, so I'll wait for Daddy.
Down one to check email.
Up one to try one other thing to see if I can make the washer work. Nope.
Down one to mess with computer again until Daddy gets here.
Daddy's here, and up one we start the washer. - down one to help him get started on his email
down two more to go outside, past one door and into the next.
Up 1 floor to the kitchen.
Up one more to my room.
Down one to the kitchen for breakfast
Daddy's back and ready to go shopping. Up to my room to get what I will need, and
down 2 to the door.
10 minute walk to the shopping area. -- 20 to 30 minute walking around, most of the stores are still closed, but we buy some groceries and carry them
10 minutes walk back home.
Up 3 to take the clothes out of the washer and hang them up to dry.
down 3 (detouring to check for email)
One floor up to the kitchen with the groceries, and one more to our rooms to put away our things. We'll go back later when more stores are open.
11:30:
Up to our rooms to get what we will need for this trip, and down 2 to the door. 10 minutes to the shopping area, and another 30 in stores and travel agencies. Finally get what we needed to do done.
10 minutes home, carrying more groceries.
And up one flight to put them away, and up another to our rooms. Daddy takes a nap and I go down 2 and over to the next building and up 3 to check on the laundry (still drying on the line) and down one to check email.
Oh no, it's almost 3, and Carmen will be home soon, and we are going to go to the store to buy groceries so she can fix us all a nice dinner. I'm not sure I want dinner that badly, but I guess I'll be doing more walking.
I wonder why my legs and feet are tired.
Carmen didn't get home until close to 5. Something about an accident on the train. Someone fell, or jumped, or was hit. This language thing is a problem sometimes. Anyhow the train she was on was delayed for a long time.
So we went off to the shopping mall. My third time there today. She picked out some chicken that looked good to her, and some other things, and I bought them and we headed home.
She suddenly turned into an amazing cooking machine, zooming through the kitchen and making the most beautiful dinner I have ever seen. She had a cookbook on the table, and it had a picture. The food really looked exactly like the picture, and it smelled wonderful, and tasted even better.
We all ate chicken, and rice, and the sauce she made, then she and I cleaned up, and we adjourned to the family room to watch CNN on TV. Before long we were all falling asleep, so we decided we may as well go to bed. In the morning Carmen has to go to work, and Daddy and I will become tourists again.
Another Tuesday!
Last week we discovered that we could go about 50 steps from the front door and get onto the waterbus to ride across the river, and get to the McDonald's in Dordrecht by walking 10 or 15 minutes.
Today we discovered we could make a 20 minute walk to the train station, take the train across the river to the main Dordrecht station, walk about 10 minutes and be at the McDonalds again. It took us a while to be sure it was the same place. So now we know 2 ways to get to a place we could have seen at home.
While we were in Dordrecht vainly trying to find a place we could book some day-trips, we did see a sign in a travel agen't window about scheduling a shuttle ride to the airport. So we got that taken care of, at least.
Several days ago we went to the grocery store, and Daddy bought some bananas. When we got to the checkout counter the woman wanted to know how much they weighed. We said "um..." and the man behind us in line grabbed them, ran them back into the store, and came back with a sticker stuck to them. We didn't know how he had done that, so we would pay better attention next time. Then yesterday when I went there with Carmen to buy things for dinner, she picked up a couple of onions. When we got to the checkout the woman asked, and Carmen said "oh I forgot" and ran back and returned with the sticker on them. I still don't know what they do to get the sticker. I suppose I'll find out eventually. I'm sure you're not supposed to do it the way we've been doing it.
I'm going to sit by the river for a while and watch the boats go by. I'll take pictures of everything that passes for a while, so anyone who's curious can see them with me.
OK, I'm back. I took pictures for 17 minutes, and they aren't as good as I had hoped, but I guess they are better than nothing. A lot of things went by in that time. I have bigger, better versions of all the pictures, so if there's anything really good I can clean it up later. You can see my pictures at http://www.grantvogel.com/riverpix/
return