This morning we took our boxes to the post shop to send back to New Zealand. Mine weighed 7kgs and Paul's was just under 10kgs. As long as it was under 10kgs it only cost us €58.30. My box was full since I had the raclette cooker and my beer stein inside, as well as some clothes and books. The adapter I ordered from Noel Leemings has already arrived at Mum's house. I'm really looking forward to having my family over when I get home and cooking on it. After we posted our boxes Heidi drove us into Amersfoort. Paul wanted to have McDonalds for lunch. No surprises there! We found the McDonalds pretty quickly and ordered lunch. There were three levels in the restaurant where you could sit so we decided to eat upstairs. Paul ordered a combo and was given another Olympics glass. In the end he decided to just leave it on the table, rather than carry it around all day. We couldn't take it with us anyway. We walked through an undercover alley way lined with shops to H&M. I wanted to get another top with the lace. We also ended up buying Ariana a top from there too. Then we looked around the shops for more presents and tried to find a suitable gift for Frans and Heidi. We ended up putting together a gift box with different toiletries, all themed lilac and cream to match their house. We found a wooden box to put everything in at the gift shop. At the gift shop there was also a cute three pack of miniature herb pots that you can use to grow your own herbs so we added that to the box too. After we had finished shopping we caught the 102 bus back to the bus stop and then walked home. Paul and I decided to go for a bike ride to the supermarket, which is about 3kms from Heidi's house. By the time we got there the shop had just closed. It's only a small supermarket. Kind of like Four Square, but maybe not even that big. It was good to go for a bike ride though. I hadn't rode that far yet. We had Nasi with Heidi and Fran's for dinner at home. The Dutch people always put everything on the dining table and then you dish up your own dinner. They don't like how in New Zealand when you go to someone's house your meal is dished up, because then you're obliged to eat it all. I know what they mean because I always used to feel like that as a kid. While we were eating dinner Heidi asked if we would like to go and see her friend that has the dairy farm with the milking robot. We said we would like to go so she rang the guy up and told him to get out his English dictionary because we don't speak any Dutch. I was really interested to see how it works and wanted to take some photos and a video for Dad. We biked to the dairy farm. Paul said it was roughly about 2.5-3kms there so by the time we had got home I had done a lot of riding! On the way we stopped at a windmill and took some photos. On a Saturday it is open and you can go inside, but we will be leaving too early on Saturday morning for that. The farmers were really friendly. There was an older guy and a guy that looked to be around our age. I'm guessing they were father and son as they lived in the same house. First we walked into a shed where the calves lived. The farm dog followed us inside too. He wasn't sure about us and hadn't stopped barking or growling since we arrived. He calmed down after awhile and seemed harmless. There was also a tabby cat wandering around. I miss my animals. After we had seen the calves we moved onto the milking shed. I asked the younger farmer brown how much it cost for the milking robot and he told me they cost around €110,000, no biggy! The downfall is that it only milks 65 cows. He said they milk a few less than that so their farm is pretty small. I had envisioned a large dairy farm like we have in New Zealand. The cows also spend their entire life in the shed, which I thought was a bit sad. Although in saying that they are well looked after and the cows seem happy enough. The robot milks the cow when the cow goes to feed on the grain, in the cubicle. First the machine cleans the cows teats, before milking it. If the cow kicks the cups off the robot just puts them back on. If a cow tries to eat the grain too often throughout the day then the machine pushes the cow through the cubicle. Detailed information is given about each cow on the computer upstairs. The farmer can tell when the cow was last milked, how much milk it's producing, how much it is expected to produce next time it's milked and if a cow is sick. There was more information it recorded, but it's hard to remember everything. There is also a robot that moves around, cleaning the shed floor. It was interesting to go and observe and both the farmers were really friendly. They invited us in for a drink after we had finished looking so we went and sat down for awhile. After a cold glass of coke I got back on my bike and we rode home. It was a pretty busy day, but we got a lot done too.