With the heat from yesterday gone, we woke up to much milder temperatures today. I was up and moving a little bit before Brandon, so I got upstairs in time to help with some final breakfast preparations. My job was keeping an eye on the scrambled eggs :) Brandon was upstairs and ready to go in time to help with setting the table. Each meal, that is always a team effort!
The plan for the day was a drive to the Netherlands to visit a town called Enschede. I was very excited about the prospects since we were going to be in another country, and Brandon was excited because he had been there during his time in Germany in 2010, so he was looking forward to going back. After cleaning up breakfast and getting a few things together, we all piled into Alina’s car and headed to Holland! It took about an hour and a half, and I saw a ton of windmills along the way! Once in Enschede, we parked in a garage near the center of the city. I think I included a photo on a previous post, but one of the things I have found particularly nice, in general, about parking garages in Germany (and now the Netherlands) is that they actively indicate the availability of spaces within all the garages in the area. So, you don’t have to guess or be disappointed once you get to one just to find out it’s full. The garage we went to was also beautiful, both generally speaking and in the context of parking garages. It was so brightly lit and clean, I was amazed! We parked right near a set of stairs leading up to the street, so it was also very convenient! In town, there was a big plaza area with some different food and miscellaneous vendors set up. Peter told us that the plaza is full of stands on Saturdays, but I thought there were still a decent amount of stands given it was a Sunday. Brandon and I went with Peter into a store called WE to look at some clothes. The three of us then went and met Alina and Alicia at a sporting goods store called Decathlon. It reminded me of Dick’s Sporting Goods, but bigger in size and cheaper in price. After Decathlon, we found a video game store that Alicia wanted to check out for Pokémon things. Brandon and I went in with her and walked around a bit. They had a lot of very cool things, including some old gaming systems you could play on. We didn’t stay too long because then we had to head to the center of the town where a friend of Alina’s, Wouter, was waiting to meet up. He was very nice and told us a lot of neat things about a trip he had just come back from yesterday. We all had some drinks at an Irish pub called Molly Malone’s, and then Wouter showed us the best place he knew of in town to get fries. The gentleman who owned the place was very funny, and we found out that he was originally from Syria. He made all his fries fresh cut and then served in paper cones with whatever sauce/toppings you wanted. Brandon, Alicia, and I had mayo on ours, and Peter and Alina got a special sauce of mayo, ketchup, and onions. It looked extremely delicious, and though I did enjoy my mayonnaise, I did regret not getting the mix. Wouter walked around with us a bit more before heading home, and then we started to get ourselves ready to head to the car. The stores were closing at 5 today, and it was just about 4 by that point. Brandon, Alicia, and I popped back to the video game store where Alicia got a small Vulpix figurine. I was really glad she was able to get it because I had seen her looking at it earlier and was probably going to get it for her anyway :) On our way back from Enschede, we stopped by Peter’s parents’ house so he could be “technical support” for their iPad, and also to say hello. That drive was only about 30 minutes or so, and I napped most of the way. We got a tour when we arrived of the very extensive garden; there were potatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, a plum tree, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, black currants, red currants, and a few other things I know I am forgetting. The garden was beautiful and had very fun little stone paths running between the garden beds. The house was equally lovely, and we all sat on the porch having some water and chatting. Peter told his parents about our trip, where we’ve been so far and where we plan to go. I used a little German to add some details as his parents don’t really know any English. I was very nervous and stumbled a little, but they were very gracious :) Because we had been sitting and the evening air had cooled a little, I got chilly at one point, so Peter’s mom kindly gave me a nice zip up jacket to use. When we went to leave and I tried to give it back, she said I could take it with me! It was so kind! When we got home we had a small salad to eat just to “fill in the cracks” before we settled in for the night. It was simply another great day! I’m not sure what we might do tomorrow, but you can be sure you’ll find out! Until next time!
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