The puzzles

Why are there so many Argentinian Steak houses in Amsterdam? It is baffling - I don't know the connection between this city and loads of beef and cowhide sofas!




The second quandary is this - what's the channel about?


We have 35 channels at T'Eekhhornnest and most of them are in a foreign language - Spanish, French, German, Italian and Dutch. They're entertaining and fascinating but Sterren is just odd. It seems to be a highlight package of all the most crazy music videos to come out of Holland or Europe in the last 35 years. I say 35 because I saw a video of Mississipi in a run of assorted bad hits. It's intriguing and we haven't really met any locals who we feel comfortable enough with to ask them about it. I think it's a talent show but when you watch it you feel that you've been thrown into the past and given a good whack around the head with a pair of pastel lemon shorts and a banana clip. And we watch this so you don't have to!
And then there are the mannequins. I never quite got over mannequins in shop windows after watching Carry on Screaming circa nineteen seventy something.

Found this at a prestige car firm on the Champs Elycee


And then this on the road through Switzerland
And then there are the moments when you really know we live a world away when you look to the sky of a morning and this is the foreign thing you see...

Imagine having all these flight paths to choose from!

Of course there are times when it all gets a bit much and all one wants to do is sleep...and some of us can do it anywhere



Especially after a chocolate fix and some tele with your big blister


We've found Holland very beautiful and very relaxing.



We leave for England again tomorrow night so today is our last day around Soest. We've gone on walkabouts to family haunts although we haven't caught up with any family member directly. It's enough for the OC to know that her father once cycled these streets as a young whippersnapper and that his mother before him paved out her early life here.


We had our last ramble today along to Soest to catch a few last bargains before we pack up and head to Rotterdam tomorrow lunchtime. We say goodbye to the rural life! Rotterdam to Harwich Friday night. To the city of London then, for one final burst before the return to the southern hemisphere!