We returned from July's China adventure a little over a week ago. It is a misery to try and publish blogs through the Great Firewall, I will try to remedy the lack of entries sometime. A summary: It was wonderful to be in China again. I found a new luscious dried fruit tea. I rode a camel. I had few hours of really good sleep. Mattresses even in high end hotels are like bricks. Our test if we can go it alone in China while in Beijing was a mixed success. We need to take a basic course in Mandarin. We still haven't figured out how to contact the church community. We ate too much. We walked the skin off our feet. We visited places where few Western faces have ever been seen. We survived the challenge. In other places we were hosted generously. We saw amazing things; we traveled overnight on a train. We saw 1000 years of Buddhist art tucked into mountain grottoes. We saw the edge of the Gobi. We got upgraded to business on the way home and had possibly the worst food and beverage service ever suffered. Himself had a royally wonderful time science wise and is all fired up about Sabbatical planning.
Since I finished every last bit of the washing and ironing yesterday, and had a wonderful trim found in Beijing for next to nothing that was asking for a linen to go with it, I bused in to Amersfoort to the market as a little treat for myself today. Amersfoort has a rather good number of fabric and notion merchants on Friday morning. For once the sky was clear, the sun was out, it was dry, not too cold, so I packed my little shopping cart on wheels and set off.
I love walking Amersfoort. It is an ancient walled town that has enjoyed the bustle of trade by water for centuries- though I don't know if it was on the Hanseatic route. It still has canals and walls and robust number of preserved ancient buildings to delight me.
But it was when I passed through the shadowed pathway to the market square that I realized again how I appreciated my adopted country and it's lifestyle. The bells were telling the hour from the churches nearby, and the carillon from the city hall added more music. Rainbow flags were in abundance because it's that week again, and the coffee and tea establishments were busy; the outside tables were full of folks enjoying the first decent day we have had for a while.
The fruit and veg stall-keepers were vying with one another; their bellows competing with the belfries. Flocks of customers lined up for fresh fruit, veg, bread, and cheese at one section of the market square, others crowded through the clothing stalls looking for a bargain. Still others rummaged the fabric stalls for just the right bit of stuff.
Into this bustling cacophony went I gladly.
So interesting, so Dutch, so....home.
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