For the first time this trip we don’t need the heating this morning.
As we start our walk into town it’s bright and beginning to feel warm as we wander through quiet streets remembering to keep out of the way of bicycles. The Dutch appear very orderly with perfect gloss finish on the woodwork of houses, simple potted flower arrangements and tidily decorated windowsills with net curtains.
We arrive in the abbey’s square just as the clock chimes start; a lovely, delicate carillion of bells playing the Beatles’ ‘Here comes the sun’. Under the bare branched trees are a few bronze cannon and statues of modern foundrymen, honouring the father and son who made cannons and bells here in the 17th C.
In the big main square we enjoy a coffee with ‘mokka’, a meringie and cream cake the waitress describes as delicious, and she is right.
There are flower and fruit stalls in the market, fast food vendors and hundreds of people sitting at cafe tables in the sunshine.
We wander through the pedestrian areas [bikes also allowed] admiring the buildings and trying to translate menus.
An old fairground organ plays adaptations of modern songs and many people walking past it lurch into some form of dance-walk.
At lunch time we find one of the few empty tables and enjoy dishes of schnitzel or pasta, which NickW and Grete treat us to for this Nick’s birthday. By the time we finish the temperature has reached 20C
We walk out to and over the canal taking in the dates on the gables, and through a couple of bricabrac markets before wending our way back to the vans.
Supper is picky-bits and a drink while we muse over our next port of call.