Murph's trip through the Netherlands, Day 2

Its odd, I've gotten no more than 5 good hours of sleep the last two nights yet I'm wired at every turn. It was 2 when I got done with recording the worst opening lines episode, and 3 by the time sleep got me. I tried to find a good place to go. The lobby was loud with bad internet. Nobody around, just the night manager who was vacuuming and listening to pop. The workout room was little help, so I went to the elevator foyer. That was a poor but still best solution. Listen to the episode to see why.

We ate at a food hall before walking around the inner city. It had a very extensive network of shops and restaurants that were all closed at 8 in the evening. Odd. My sister attributed it to the ascension. The hotel we found was next to a large square, that in turn was next to their provincial government seats. Will have to go to the large market that looks to be there. Dinner was fine, nothing outstanding, and the wind was crazy. The wind has been crazy throughout tbh. We sat outside and it was a good example of car infrastructure, where the whole area wasn't no car, but it was so damn hard for cars to get through, we were surprised they were even willing to drive down. Some of the road was blocked off further up, but true care free space it wasn't. My comment of there not being much was proven wrong when we were walking around the centrum area large shopping area, no cars.

The ride in was pleasant. We stopped at the airborne museum. Very cool place. It had a few artifacts and such, a great wall of medals from those fallen (or not, not specified). It was very interesting however in the basement, they had an interaction of sorts, where you walked around and saw and heard the battle in lights and sounds. They also had a very cool audio visual diagram of the battle of Arnhem with 3d models on the wall and lights and troop movement making it very obvious of what happened and when. We learned the real story, not just the Band of Brothers and Bridge Too Far renditions, which weren't wrong, but took liberties as you’d expect. More reading is needed to find specifics.

We ate lunch at a lock, watched as the boats went through. One of them was “etat desprit” “State of mind.” Lunch was the cheese from the vending machine and a brotchen from fruhstuck. We had some actual hills. 7% down/up. Only a few hundred feet long mind you, but it was unexpected nonetheless. Immediately after leaving our first hotel, we stopped at a gravesite. The “mountain” we were on was the last stand of the invasion, so much of the dead were from the middle of May 1940, when the Germans took the country in 5 days. They had flower holders and watering cans for your service. The Dutch national anthem is apparent both the oldest that’s in current use, and an acrostic spelling out Wilhelmus, some king, I'm too lazy to ask my sister sitting right next to me.

Breakfast was good. Had two cups of coffee, or rather milk with espresso, so add in the three cups I've had this morning (27th), that’s more coffee I've had in the last year. Need something to counteract the 5 hours of sleep. We’re off to the market, then a slow bike around. Should be cool today, low 60s.