The alarm clock radio
was tuned to a channel that was playing lots of 60's and 70's music
last night but this morning it was a deep discussion programme. We
realised just how different Dutch is from English, French and German
and how little of spoken Dutch we could understand. In 20 minutes we
understood the words 'socialist', 'liberal', 'Nederland' and 'okay' –
we tuned to a music channel!
We are right on the
edge of satellite reception of BBC channels and our 60cm dish
couldn't pick it up. This is a disaster as we won't be able to watch
the Rugby World Cup Final. I checked the Internet for possible
coverage but couldn't find any. Next attempt was to find radio
coverage. The BBC are not covering it but TalkSport are so we listen
to the build up and at the kick-off, they announce that commentary is
not available outside the UK! Getting really desperate now.
Eventually I find live text feed on PlanetRugby.com and give Jane a
commentary as details are displayed every two minutes or so. Shortly
before half time, I switch on the radio tuned into BBC Radio 4 long
wave, expecting to hear commentary on the India v England one day
match. However I am too early and Broadcasting House is on air. The
presenter is talking to Henry Blofeld, who is shortly to be
commentating on the cricket, and bizarrely asks him to commentate on
the Rugby World Cup Final. Henry, it appears, is in India watching
the rugby on a television and his commentary is full of Blowerisms
such as 'My dear old thing' although there wasn't any mention of
buses or pigeons. He only has a brief slot and it is clear that his
cricket knowledge is better than his rugby knowledge! However we did
learn that in his opinion New Zealand were well on top.
Back to the second half
on the Internet – it is tense just reading the updates. And it was
tense right up to the end. I'm glad that New Zealand won – the
whole country loves rugby and they have been waiting a long time to
win again. They were certainly the best team by far all the way up to
the final and France did very well to come so close to winning.
There was a very hard
frost this morning but the sun warmed everything up and by early
afternoon it was very a very pleasant temperature, especially in the
sun. The friendly campsite owner gave us a walks leaflet when we
arrived and although it isn't very detailed, it gave us some ideas as
to where we could walk. We set off towards the village and had a
quick look around it before heading off into a park on the other
side. The whole area is very sandy but the moorland of the park is on
deep sand and walking on the sand paths was like walking on a beach.
The park also had hills - a very rare thing in Holland although it
must be said that they were very small – 20 metres at the most. We
subsequently discovered that the hills were actually sand dunes.
The last time that we
visited Holland was 37 years ago, before we were married, and one of
strongest memories was of the food. Being students with very little
money (we stayed in segregated dormitories), we looked out for cheap
food. Two dishes that stood out were chips with mayonnaise and Nasi
Goreng (an Indonesian dish very popular in Holland). The former is
known as 'friets met' (chips with) – they don't even mention the
word mayonnaise, that is taken for granted. Apparently, if you want
chips without mayonnaise, the phrase translates as 'chips without the
with'! We asked the campsite owner about the local availability of
both delicacies although we probably won't be able to try both here.
It turned out that there was a restaurant that produced very good
'friets met' just down the forest track. We managed to include this
on our walk and felt very decadent, but very happy, tucking into
chips and mayonnaise at five o'clock in the afternoon.
Photos: A typical foot
and cycle path through the forest at Otterloo.
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