Here was my nest last night
With the Dutch Frisian boat boys drinking beer en eating sausages yesterday evening
The boat of the Frisians leaving this morning to the Netherlands
Moin = good bye in Danish
L the boxer, ri the motor man
Nice evening colours in Ostrum Logum
Ostrum Logum. Only a couple of streets, nice
farms
My apartment in Bruhngaard. O.k.
Diner
No sharing diner on Saturday night. I was served my food in my bedroom. Is this service or detachment? I chose for the first, with mixed feelings. The boss came to ask if I was happy. Should I have been assertive and tell him that a young man who walks all day, can swallow food like a mowing machine?
Yesterday evening I went outside to go to the toilet washing facilities. First you pass through the social area. Unexpectedly I met there the two announced Dutch. While enjoying a beer and a Frisian dry sausage they told that one of them had bought a boat and the other one had to join because of his truck driver’s license. Some social talk about such and so, about my journey, the cows of one of them, the Frisian language and the Limburg language, that is often referred to as “dialect”. In Leeuwarden in Dutch Friesland are canals where it’s nice speeding with this boat. I pointed them out that of the five bathrooms only the middle bathroom had toiletpaper, just in case someone wanted to do cascas. One of them made a comment in Frisian, something like “sjiete doe je mar hus” ( shitting you better do home), which I translated as: I wished we had the boat at home. So in my bed too late again.
Half an hour before my alarm rang: knock on the door. The landlord. He asked his salt and pepper set back that he had put in my room yesterday with my supper. Yes, you can have it,, but therefore my night was shortened with another half hour. OK. Then better just get up and shower. One of those showers with those damn buttons. One has to press such button God knows how many times before you finally get hot water and then, while one is standing shivering in the unheated N-European shower room, one eventually may be blessed with a tiny little waterspray. Well, as long as I can shower the essential body parts, the rest of the corpus can wait till next turn. The Limburg man waves goodbye to the Frisians. Pictures.
At breakfast, my host and hostess proved to have more guests than I thought. Silently a man and a woman were sitting at the table, some as young as me and a slightly younger man. To break the silence, I ask why they are here. For a sports tournament, says the elderly man. What sport? Boxing! Oh, interesting, I say that I, as a student, also did boxing during a few years. Very nice, super tiring, but the only real man’s sport. Yes, he said, most people stop after a while. But then, I thought, you can not possibly become everything? If I as a boxer had to settle in Mechelen, I couldn’t even offer a crest of dry bread to my kids. The younger oldy at the table came for a sporting event: motorsport. Then developed a lively conversation, of which I only understood the word Harley. For the rest, I wondered where she had learned speaking Chinese so well. In any case, I had started the conversation, though I couldn’t participate a bit.
At 9 am on the way. Again beautiful weather, only 23 to 25 km., Whichever route I would take, it would be an easy route. I bought a map, have a Garmin GPS, have a route planner on my handy and in yesterday’s evening I always check tomorrow’s route on my i-pad on the app “maps”. So getting lost is pretty hard. Furthermore, there are many signs at the road. Again quiet, mostly paved and unpaved roads. Coffee break in Rodekro in a snack bar. A shy young man in camping suit (tracksuit) stood in front of the cafetaria and inquired about my trip. Even before I had my coffee he had informed the boss allready. My second coffee I got free from the boss, out of sympathy. Beautiful, I earned 1 E . Photo.
A few km. more up Northat another picnik place along the old military road, the haervej, my lunch disappeared into the bottomless pit of my stomach. And far too early, at 3 pm, I was in hostel Bruhngaard in Ostrum Logum. I shook hands with the boss and congratulated her on her golden wedding tomorrow (50 j!). Heard from the innkeeper this morning. Ah, that was a good introduction.
An entire attic floor with 4 bedrooms and 8 beds just for me. Again toilet and shower outside. Kitchen with coffee maker and even coffee, also on the top floor, only for water I had to go back downstairs. And milk or sugar isn’t there either. The Lutherans you learn thrift. Those hypocritical, southern Catholics should not think that life only exists for food and drinking. Food one takes not to die. It need not be tasty and certainly not much, let alone enjoyable. A nation’s customs are a nations honor. First I have to seek accommodation for tomorrow night, before I do anything else.
It’s already 5:59 pm. I sit up here in my room and look out over the garden, where Tosca rest after a few hours, now has just eaten her food bowl empty. They may last night in a stable. I have again taken a shower, my second today, although that was not really necessary. At my request, my landlady does my laundry. Then I’ll have to take off the clothes and I can just as well scrub myself too. Now I have about nothing left but a spare set of underwear and an extra shirt and plastic rain pants. When I asked my landlady where around here I can have diner the answer was: 5 km. away, or at ours: Bratkartoffeln mit Wurst, 7 E. Einverstanden. So I can afford to do nothing else the rest of the day than some I-patting, watch TV or updating my blog. A kind of Anne Frank in the back room in Amsterdam. Only after long searching I found a German channel. A satirical announcer notes that in Dresden, at an international! gathering of nationalists !, the foreigner Wilders collaborates with other foreigners, to keep out foreigners.
After careful thinking I decided not to book a shelter for tomorrow. Within a decent day’s walking distance there is a campsite in Haderslev. In this period of the year there is always room and if not, they can send somebody away. I got a nice text message from someone that more than 50 years ago he had around here a Danish girlfriend in his Navy time. If such reports subsequently will come in, I might organize a reunion.
It’s supposed to be 21 gr. C., for here, an absolute winner this season, so wthout reservation to that camping site tomorrow. Very cheap. And that is important. Lots of little expenses make one year expensive. I don’t want to take Sonja, at the end of the year Sonja, for skinny model Twiggy. I know, money can not buy happiness, but Pecunia non olet. Just check what that means!
A voice in the stairway. Ha, a little fun? My food is presented at the bottom of the stairs. What you call cozy. Is that all there is? Fortunately, I have a few slices of dry bread and hunger is the best sauce. Tomorrow I compensate the meager meal again somewhere. Sweut dreums (supposedly Danish).
