Another week has gone and it is election day in the US. I have been watching some of the coverage on CNN BBC. Of course everything says the republican’s are in trouble. We will see after the votes are counted.

This past week was fairly quite. I went solo this past Thursday and have had to help cover for a co-worker needing some emergency time off this week. No disasters, looks like I will keep my job another week. On Saturday I took a train trip up to Haarlem, a town just west of Amsterdam. Haarlem’s 17th century charm is what draws people to its streets. I went to roam through the Frans Hals Museum. Next to Vermeer, he is one of my favorite Dutch masters. Hals is from Haarlem and his paintings of the companies of the Civil Guard hang in the Museum. There is also a large outdoor market in the Town Square on Saturday’s and of course I had to explore the wares. I also had to buy (and consume) a large, freshly made stroopwafel. After walking around the square, I wandered into the Grote Kerk; a gothic cathedral that houses a Muller organ that I read was played by Handel and Mozart. There was a book fair going on inside the church and different music concerts were being performed hourly. Two of my favorite things are explore Museums and old churches, I guess I came to the right place.

At the end of the day I walked back through the market toward the train station and bought a large bouquet of flowers for 5 euros. Flowers are incredibly cheap here. It is a common sight to watch young me walking down the streets on a Friday or Saturday night with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, hum…date night.

On Sunday I road my bike down to the harbor that is basically right up the road from me. I found another grocery store that is a little bigger than the Albert Heijn, which is on my way home from work. I also found the Dutch equivalent to Home Depot, called Gama. It is about a third the size of Home Depot, though for me it was fun to look around.

I have included a few photos. There is one of Mojo and me at the request of Pam. It was a challenge getting Mojo to cooperate while taking a picture using the timer on the camera as you can see. The photo was taken in the dinning room. I have another picture of Mojo setting on the little table in the kitchen looking out at a nice fat pigeon. Next is a picture of my street. My front door is opposite the handy cap parking sign. The other pictures are of Haarlem. Inside the church and the town square.

More soon
Cheers!