Rest of the week in Leiden...

OK, I'm finally getting to the part where I'm having to REMEMBER what we did a year ago. The photos helped, but it's still not so easy, so this might be a bit short...

Hmmm...

So after Dan's final birthday dinner at Woo-Ping and ensuing visit back to De Kroeg, we of course stayed up very late. Lorraine slept in till 11 or so, telling work that she had a stomachache (which I expect she did!), and got to work sometime after noon. I got up and messed around on the internet a bit, had a shower, and went to the supermarket for the needed grease. I made myself some breakfast, and then told Dan I was going back out to run some errands for Lorraine (she needed me to go pick up Peter's glasses, and send something at the post office). Dan met up with me eventually, looking extremely rough, and then we went back to the supermarket to get some things he wanted. Deciding that the hair of the dog was what we really needed, we stopped at the Stadhuis City Hall café for a beer. The weather was decent, and we sat outside on some couches next to the canal, but apart from Dan's have a Kath and Kim moment after ordering a cheese plate with toothpicks and giggling about making a “Statue of Baby Cheeses”, we were pretty much too hung over to speak. Lorraine texted us from work (well, the pub next door) saying that the office had decided to knock off at 4 to have a biertje. She was at work about 2.5 hours, I think! Sigh.

Lorraine met us in Leiden a little after 6, and we made the decision to have some pancakes, and the best place to have those is Oudt Leyden restaurant. Dutch pancakes are big, crepe-like things, and can be sweet or savory. I had one with salami and cheese. We kept pretty quiet, instead listening to the random conversations around us, which were nearly all in English. Dan was quite happy when I assured him later that this was indeed the case, and his mind had NOT been playing tricks on him. :-)

Upon returning home, it was time to simply stare at the television...

The next day was Thursday, and I can't really remember all that we did, but eventually Dan and I went out. There are photos of us in the Botanical Gardens, so maybe that was it! We did eat at a little Bagel Shop on the canal either Thursday or Friday, so let's say it was Thursday! It was windy and cool and the stuff kept blowing off the table. That evening we met up with Lorraine again and went to La Bota, a bruincafé in the Pieterskerk district, where I had some tasty ribs. The end of the night was at Odessa (the North End English pub MAY have come in between, because I DO have photos there, but who knows?) Unfortunately Odessa seems to have gone downhill, clientele-wise, and was not nearly as much fun as it has been in the past. No random dancing, so we finished our few beers and went home.

Friday evening we met up with Lorraine and some of her colleagues, including her boss. The place was a Belgian restaurant called Olivier's, which was super-tasty. YUM! After a few hours there we took some of them back to De Kroeg, where Lorraine proceeded to get her boss super-drunk and Dan continued to flirt with the bartender that we'd seen already three times that week. Some things never change!

At some point, either Friday or Saturday (can't remember which), I went with Lorraine to the Hague to pick up the car, which was finally fixed. Saturday evening about 5 pm, we made for Antwerp to pick up Birgit, and begin the real road trip!

Once againk photos from this part of the journey can be found here.