Easter Weekend

Easter is a big 3 to 4 day holiday in the Netherlands.  They not only celebrate Easter Sunday but Easter Monday too.  Today, Good Friday, is the annual flower market in Groningen, which is held in the Grote Markt, the pedestrian only old town square.  Groningen’s town square is old but not particularly charming; it could use some sprucing up.   Hundreds of people crowd into the square to buy from merchants selling everything from plants to de oliebol (supposedly doughnuts but in reality greasy lumps of tasteless fried dough).  There is also entertainment, a tiny old fashioned merry-go-round for the children, music and puppet shows.

 
When I first heard about the flower market I expected to see rows of cut flowers but it is just a giant plant sale.   The prices must be excellent because lot of tour busses from Germany come to this particular market every year.  Too bad we are not ready to buy plants yet.  We will need pots with flowers and a small kitchen garden on our upper deck.  Right now though, we are concerned with more mundane things, like our leaking toilet, which might necessitate taking the boat out of the water. Growl.

Dwight has had a very pleasant surprise.  As most people know, one of Dwight’s small pleasures in life is getting his senior discount for coffee, especially at fast food restaurants like Taco Bell, Burger King, etc.  Well, Ikea has put  them all to shame.  Dwight now gets free coffee at Ikea anytime he wants….well, whenever the store is open.  He signed up for Ikea’s Family Plan which entitles him to a discount on certain products plus a free coffee or cappucino or espresso…….49 times a day if he wants.  We spend a lot of time in Ikea. 

Yesterday, we bought a docking station-clock radio for our Ipod so we would have music again and, in honor of Easter, got a half a dozen eggs as a present from the store.  Terrific, 6 fresh brown eggs, yum.  Maybe we shouldn’t concentrate so much on our leaking toilet but rather on our nice Easter present.  Good idea?

If we concentrate on accentuating the positive, perhaps the constant rain won’t bother us so much.  It has rained each and every day we’ve been here.  It is cold, too.  Tiresome? Yup.  Can we do anything about it and will we come back this early in the season next year?  Nope.