Monday October 6
Not sure Esther’s cold is getting any better – she woke up not feeling great. The weather was cool and rainy and she decided not to go into the Lab this morning. After coffee, oatmeal and a shower I rode my bike downtown to a bakery where I had seen slices of apple pie that I wanted to get to celebrate Andy’s birthday. When I got the bakery there was only 2 pieces left but was told they would have more in an hour – it was going to be close because I needed to leave for the airport to pickup Jen and Andy by 1:30. I rode to the grocery store went home, had lunch and hung out for a while before biking back to the bakery only to find out that I had to specifically order the pie – oh well I settled for a apple/pear tart that was very good. instead.

I took the public transportation to Schiphol airport to escort Jen and Andy back to our place around 1:30
Dinner – Esther made roasted root veggies, porkchops and a salad for dinner – it was verytasy and nice to have Jen and Andy around.

Tuesday October 7
Both Esther and I are struggling to get over our colds so the prospect of a low key day was sounding pretty good. Esther headed for work around 9AM and Jen, andy and I hung out before heading downtown to explore. The weather was cloudy with a little drizzle but not too bad. After visiting some shops we decided on a place for lunch and Esther joined us.

I talked to both Robin and Greta today

Wednesday, October 8
Our trip to Amsterdam and the Rijks Museum today.

We took the museum audio tour and it was a amazing to hear about the individual pieces of art, the artists and symbolic items in the paintings. I was very interested in seeing the work of both the older and younger Willem Van de Velde and their naval pieces.

Some of the other great pieces of art at the Rijksmuseum that we saw; The Night Watch, Rembrandt(1642) but it was being restored at the time, The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer(1658), The Jewish Bride, Rembrandt, The Threaten Swan, Jan Asselijn(1650), The Little Street, Vermeer(1658), Women Reading a Letter, Vermeer(1664), Winter Landscape with Skaters, Hendrick Avercamp(1608), The Windmill at Wijk Bij Duurstede(1670)

The 17th century saw a surge in great Dutch painters due to a combination of economic prosperity, a thriving and competitive art market, and the rise of a wealthy merchant class. The Protestant Reformation also shifted the demand for art away from the church and towards secular subjects that could be bought and sold on the open market. This led to an increased number of artists and a focus on everyday Dutch life, leading to the “Dutch Golden Age” of art. 
We had a late lunch at this little cafe and the weather was nice enough for us to sit at a sidewalk table – they were delicious open faced sandwiches.

Thursday, October 9
I was still a little high from the previous day but I had enough faculties to navigate the buses and trains to get Jen and Andy to the airport in time for their flight home. The quickest way home. after dropping Jen and Andy at the airport, was to take a train to Utrecht, take another train on platform 19 and take the 103 bus – it’s pretty easy using the NS.NL app.

Had some lunch, spent some time cleaning up and finished drying and putting on the sheets for our bed. At 3:30PM I left for my meeting with Zazana for a possible house to rent in December (5th through 17th). She was a very nice person and the place was not great but it would probably do for just 12 nights.

Esther got home about 5:30 we had a beer and heated some leftovers for dinner, watched a little comedy with tea and went to bed at 10PM. Esther didn’t sleep that well but I was out for most of the night.

Friday, October 10
We got up and went on a 3 mile run / walk this morning – it felt good. I got 32 miles of riding in today. Esther wanted me to buy a stamp and mail a sympathy card for her and when I Googled post office a bunch of locations should up but those were just mail boxes. I finally asked someone who pointed me to a bookstore that also sold stamps and mailed packages. After that errand I rode my bike out to the Ede-Wageningen train station to see how hard of a ride it would be – not a bad 4.5 mile journey. Then I rode out the the VRBO we rented in May,

Had to make 2 trips to the grocery store because we where out of some many items and I still didn’t get everything.

Saturday, October 11
Sunrise: 7:55AM and Sunset: 6:51PM Cloudy with a high of 64 and a low of 54 – up at 5:30 2.5 mile walk at 8AM while listening to my book. We had an early lunch around 11:30 in town at the Bagel & Bean we both had the bagel with avocado and smoked salmon – it was good. We then went shopping at the open air market they have every Wednesday and Saturday – we got some fish, bread, cheese and apples.

We had an early light dinner because we were going Esther(#2) birthday party – Sea scallops, we got at the open air market, couscous with onions, garlic and red pepper – and of course a salad. In hindsight I wish I had put the rest on the mushrooms. I left, on our bikes, for the party at 6:30 – it was a 4.5 mile ride. The party was amazing and it reminded a little of Esther’s(#1) party at Hendershot’s. There was cake and coffee, tea when we got there and any kind of coffee from the bartender and servers were delivering beautiful petit fours to the guests on silver trays. There was a short speech from Esther, the birthday girl, a prosecco toast and a live band with plenty of dancing, beer and wine. We rode our bikes home a little after 10PM. There was a pretty descent climb on the way back and Esther put her arm on back to help me up the hill with her e-bike – I wasn’t sure how much it was helping until she took her arm away.

Sunday, October 1
Sunrise:7:57AM Sunset: 6:49PM
Went to bed at midnight last night and got up around 8:30 – Esther made us some eggs with cheese and lot of veggies for breakfast then we booked our train from Norwich UR to Grantham and back to Norwich – on Sofian’s advice i downloaded the Trainline’s app (it’s suppose to be good all over Europe). Then we booked our whole trip to Vienna – taking the night train there (about 459 euros for the both of us), then our hotel Stefian (one of the oldest in Vienna 1600) then our KLM flight back home.

I downloaded the fietsroutenetwerk, a biking, app today – this cycling route network has over 9,000 junction points in the Netherlands, Belgium and the border region of Germany. You can create your own route or use one of there many routes of different lengths – I decided on 38.5 km ride that starts close to our house.

….. and this officially ends the busy week 2.