A day in our life at Almelo

 

The canal by the park. 

How does one spend time in a foreign country?  Well, I suppose it depends on the time allotted one.  This isn't a typical vacation.  We have way too much time and not nearly enough flexibility to play tourist all the time.  Seth works five days out of the week, so Boogaloo and I are on our own most of the day.  I'm not the most adventurous of persons, and the Boo isn't the most patient of walkers, so we don't go far from home or hotel at any given time. 



Boogaloo by the canal that runs through downtown Almelo.  The
ducks have the run of the whole town and go wherever they want.

Our average day looks like this:

8 or 9 am breakfast 

A church in downton Almelo.  It's a real church,
not a tourist destination.  I could tell because
the parking lot was still private. 

It takes a while to the Boo motivated down to the breakfast hall, but Seth has to be at work by 9, so we do our best to get down there as soon as comfortably possible.  European hotels serve (surprise!) continental breakfasts but on a much grander scale than most American hotels.  There are at least seven kinds of breads to choose from, and only one of them is sweet. (This seems to be a trend with European food.)  Meat is presented in bacon, sausage, pancetta, sliced ham, and pastrami forms, plus there are eggs, fruit, real and canned yogurt, and all the usual drinks plus buttermilk.  I didn't know that people actually drank buttermilk. 

9 am Preparation

We head back to the hotel room.  Seth has left for work.  Boogaloo plays with her Escher lizards while I read my Bible, pack the backpack, and stow away any personal belongings.



10 am Clear out so as not to inconvenience housekeeping 

Boogaloo chases the ducks in the gardens outside the Huis van
Almelo. 

The maid comes by at about 10 in this hotel.  Intending to be out of her way,  we bop down to the elevator and betake ourselves out the door right about 9:56.  Each day we set ourselves a task.  Monday's task was to find the grocery store.  Wednesday's task was to find out if the Huis van Almelo  is open for public tours.  It isn't, but it sits in the middle of a very nice public park with deer, ducks, and a pair of black swans (yes, I'm not kidding).  Friday's task is to investigate a candy store, a toy store, and a chocolatier.  You get the picture.





The butterfly bush. 

 

After completing our "job," we always end up at a little park by the canal behind our hotel.  This park is unique in that it has a slide and a sandpit, which keeps the Boo happy and makes it a necessary stop each day.  This park also has a beautiful butterfly bush which is full of, you guessed it, butterflies.  Sometimes they'll flutter just low enough that Boo thinks she can catch them.  She chases them halfway across the park. 

Lunch with Seth in the plaza. 

12 pm  Home for lunch

The maid is finished well before noon, so we head back to the hotel.  By this time, the Boo needs a potty break, and as there are no public toilets in Dutch parks, we find this a good time to go home.  Lunch is peanut butter and nutella sandwiches with whatever fruit we have lying around.  Sometimes it's leftovers from the night before.  Today at lunch, the Boo and I ate cold Greek pork and French fries with our fingers out on the patio.  It was an oddly freeing experience. 

Sometimes Seth comes home for lunch rather than buy it from the cafeteria.  Then we go out and enjoy the plaza scene. 
12:3o to 2:30 pm

I put in a movie for the Boo and get some work done.  Sometimes I blog.  Sometimes I pay bills.  Sometimes I grab a nap. We only have two hours of Internet each day, so we have to be sparing, but the Boo stills gets a half an hour of educational website, and I get my fifteen minutes of facebook. 

2:30 pm

A black swan is supposed to be a rare thing.  Huis van Almelo has
a matched pair in its gardens. 

Sometimes Seth is home by 2:30, and then we go and investigate the results of our morning's explorations.  If he isn't home, I leave a note that tells him where we're going, and we take off on an afternoon walk that most likely ends up at the park with the slide again. 

5 pm  Dinnertime

If you're ever in Almelo (it's not a big tourist town, so that's not
very likely), Seth had a perfect steak at this restaurant.

Seth is definitely home by now, and we go out in search of dinner.  The Dutch custom for dinner is to wander out to a cafe area, sit down at a table, and spread the meal over the whole evening.  The cafes are many and varied, serving food from all over the world.  We've had British food, Italian food, and Chinese food since we came.  We meant to stop at a Dutch pancake house one evening, but we couldn't find it, so we settled for a Greek restaurant instead. 

This Greek restaurant was once a textile mill.  You wouldn't
know it from the food. 

7 pm  Home again

We've over reached Boo's patience again, so we head home.  All the stores here close as early as 4 and no later than 6, so there's no touristy stuff to do after dinner.  Almelo isn't much of a tourist town anyway.  Tonight, we understand, there's a professional soccer match pitting the local team against a team from Turkey, but from all I've heard about European futbol, I think we're just as well off staying home.  Seth plays a little computer.  I put the Boo to bed.  Once she's asleep, we slip out to the patio with a glass of wine and watch the color disappear from the clouds and the lights come in the alleyways.  Then we head back inside and fall asleep ourselves.