Guus Bosman

Saturday evening Tibor brought bulbs for tulips and other flowers, for me to bring back to the States.

We were all curious if it is allowed to bring flowers bulbs into the States. On my way home I had the tulip bulbs in my hand luggage and when I arrived I showed them to a custom representative -- she said it was fine to bring them in the country.

Monday morning I brought some chocolate for my colleagues to work and they liked it a lot. I placed a box of Dutch chocolate tulips in the kitchen and the chocolate was gone quickly.

Much more successful than the drop I brought to my work last year.

My mother woke me up at 8.00 o'clock, and waking up took a few minutes because of the party the night before. A traditional Sunday morning sandwich and good coffee made all the difference. It was sad to realize this was the last morning in Middenmeer, but mainly I was happy with the great memories of this week -- it was a great vacation and was very, very nice to see everybody again. I really should visit more often.


I packed my second suitcase in the morning and we left around 9.45 -- a bit later than scheduled but still well on time.


At Schiphol airport we parked in the "Wooden Shoe" section of the garage. After the check-in we had a last cup of coffee together and around noon we said goodbye and I went through security.


In the taxfree zone I bought some more Dutch chocolate. I was tempted by many other souvenirs but decided I had brought plenty of these.


I bought a 0.75 liter bottle of water just before entering the gate. This was a mistake. Because bottles with water are not allowed on flights to the U.S. I had to drink everything before I was allowed to enter the waiting area. Some cool fresh water was just what my body needed, although I didn't expect to drink it all at once.


I like flying during the day when I don't have to force myself to get some sleep. There were Dutch newspapers in the plane so I read Saturday edition of the De Volkskrant. The flight wasn't very full and the seat next to me was empty so I had plenty of space.

After my work I took a train back north, to Utrecht, where I took an intercity to Amsterdam. I am traveling quite a lot this week. Today I saw Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amsterdam in one day.

I met Jelly in Amsterdam! It was so nice to see her. We had a few drinks in a bar at the train station (a nice Dutch brown cafe called "1st class"). Of course we stayed in contact by e-mail etc but meeting in person is always better.

I took the train from 7.00 pm to Hoorn, where I waited a bit and then took the the bus to Middenmeer.

In Amsterdam I bought a few books, of most interest Ayaan Hirshi Ali's autobiography. Even though I do not always agree with her, I find her a very courageous woman and admire her for the way she has dealt with what came her way after the murder of Van Gogh. As I discussed with my father, there is surprisingly little literature on "current affairs" in the Netherlands. After everything that has happened in the last few years (Fortuyn, Van Gogh, Ali's story) you would expect at least a few books on Dutch politics but the bookstore on the station in Amsterdam only had Ali's autobiography. The book was 19,99 euro for a paperback -- very expensive if you ask me.