Guus Bosman

We had a wonderful and very romantic weekend in Paris. It was super to see each other and to spend time together. Neither Sasha nor I had been in Paris before, which made our visit even more special.

Friday, April 9th 2004

My train journey was quick and comfortable, with coffee and a magazine. I arrived around 11:00 o'clock at Gare Du Nord, the northern trainstation of Paris. From there I took the metro to the hotel.

In a few minutes I'm leaving to Amsterdam Central Station, where I'll take the Thalys train to Paris!

The Thalys leaves at 7:00 o'clock, but I want to be there a bit earlier. First of all, I don't want to miss the train, and second I have to get a newspaper, coffee and breakfast (for in the train).

The Thalys is a high-speed train (TGV), that will reach a maximum speed of 300 kilometers per hour in France. In the Netherlands the speed is "limited" to that of a regular intercity train, because the highspeed tracks are not ready yet. It's a really fast connection; I'll be in Paris at 11:00 o'clock.

Sasha arrived around this time, her plane was scheduled to arrive at 6:00 o'clock in Paris. My train arrives at Garde Du Nord, the North-station of Paris. From there it's about 15 minutes to the hotel.

Yesterday we learned about the prepositions and corresponding cases (Falle) when talking about time and date. So now I know for sure how to say: "in the weekend", it's "am Wochenende" (Dativ and preposition an).

I also signed on for the Zaterduitsdag, Saturday April 24th. There will be lessons German all day. It's organized by the Goethe Institut, where I'm doing my German course, and it's open for everybody.

There are a couple of different programs that Saturday, such as a conversation training and "intercultural differences". I choose the grammar program: cases and prepositions. Ten years ago I would have never imagined voluntarily spending a Saturday learning German grammar.

This weekend I spent in Friesland, in Leeuwarden and Heerenveen.



I had a very nice evening with Ettie and Gerben Saturday. After dinner we saw a funny movie, Finding Nemo -- hilarious! A really cute movie about a little fish. We went out in Leeuwarden later. We visited a number of different pubs and it was cosy.



Sunday I spent with my grandmother and my parents in Heerenveen. We went to the Douwe Egberts museum in Joure in the afternoon. That was interesting. They had a lot on the history of this Dutch coffee brand, but also other things such as mechanical printers from the early 1900's.



The train journey back went really smoothly. This morning I learned that I've been quite lucky, just after I left the station in Amsterdam there was a bom alarm that shut down all train transport for the rest of the evening.