< ![CDATA[  This country just keeps getting better. We can't say enough how much we are enjoying the Netherlands. Today was a rest day in Delft. We rolled out of the tent late, ate waffles with cooked apples on top for breakfast (very Dutch!) and spent a couple of hours messing around with maps and laundry and book reading. When we finally cycled into Delft to check out the town the bells on the steeple of the big, beautiful church on the square were singing for noon. We timed it right. Today there was a huge street festival in progress to celebrate something... we never figured out what. The children were beside themselves with delight to discover that the big, inflatable bouncy/climbing pole was free for all and happily stood in line for half an hour to scale its rubbery heights. From that they moved to the treasure hunt: it seems they trucked in about a quarter of an acre of sand and piled it a foot and a half deep in the center of the town square and then they hid coins in it for people to dig for. Buried treasure! Our budding pirates were ecstatic. Needless to say, they each found a coin and we came away with two bicycle bells, two lanyards for clipping cameras around their necks, a lovely picture book on Delft, an address book and card combo and a set of four coffee cups. Yes, four HUGE, HEAVY coffee cups. They belong to Ezra and he can't wait to serve coffee in them tonight at dinner. My great lament is that the post offices won't open for two more days and we'll have to cycle those suckers half way to Bruges before we can mail them to Grammy. GRAMMY: WARNING: Coffee cups, coming your way!! Along with some assorted other stuff the kids collected today that we are NOT riding all over Europe with on our bikes. Elisha, kind soul that he is, gave his Delft blue address book to Megan since she did not lower herself to treasure digging, and he has no addresses to store. The first card he wrote from the package was to his little friend Jillian, back in NH. We ate our picnic of greek bread, homemade salami and the crispiest apples we've ever tasted on a little bridge over one of the canals, packed in between antique vendors. Ezra and I lay on the warm cobblestone street, soaking up the sun and making a scent memory of the garlicky fish stand, mixed with the sweet smell of hashish burning, mixed with the sounds of a thousand people swimming in the sea of humanity all around us. Tony took our picture and I asked him to remind me to title that picture "Perfect." The whole afternoon was whiled away up and down the canal streets looking at little trinkets and popping in and out of Turkish grocery shops to purchase huge flat breads, "kipfilet" (chicken breast, which I ordered in Dutch, thank you very much!) black olives and garlic to spin into an eclectic dinner later on. Meg spent a joyous hour sifting through souvenir shops, lovingly choosing treasures for her loved ones back home. The best ones were real antiques, which she actually bartered the price on all by herself. I won't spoil the surprise of what they are... It was with full hearts and over flowing panniers that we headed back out to our campsite. Right now I'm sitting on a log I stole from the sitting area at the front of the campsite. I've placed it next to the men's shower entrance on the sunny side of the building, where there is an electric plug. I look a little funny, staked out where clean and dirty men, alternately wander past. The women's side is shaded though, and colder. I've been cold often enough on this trip, and today I want to be warm. The kids are journalling. Tony is crafting dinner, who which I added a sprig of rosemary from the twenty foot long hedge of rosemary that is alongside the campsite garden. Soon it will smell good. Meg just wandered by with two full water bottles (which means she's cooking the rice tonight) and I read her the story so far... up to the part about where I'm sitting. She laughed and asked to be notified when it is her turn to stake out the mens room and send her e-mail. I sincerely hope that each of you reading this is as happy, warm and blessed as we are this evening. God is good and we're having so much fun exploring His great big world. He really out did himself with the Dutch and their lovely land.]]>