I had a fantastic day in the Netherlands with Walter and Julia. I still am not a fan of Holland, and am quite convinced that I never will be -- I last visited under somewhat inauspicious circumstances, but even today, when I was hanging out with Walter and Julia in completely cheerful and convivial company, I still found myself realizing that I was completely apathetic about my surroundings. So while I now feel neutrally towards the Netherlands, I don't think I will ever love it as I have loved, say, India, even though the Netherlands is much cleaner, more orderly, easier to get around, and generally 'nicer'. But that goes to show how weird I am, I guess.
When I woke up, Walter made pancakes, and we had a lovely, leisurely breakfast that was a welcome relief from the full Scottish breakfasts with their sausages and eggs and other deliciously deadly proteins. We then caught a train for 's-Hertogenbosch -- you would think that I would love the Netherlands just because of their crazy names, and it's true that someplace like 's-Hertogenbosch holds a special place in my heart just due to the name alone. We did have a nice afternoon in Den Bosch, as the Dutch call it -- we walked around the town, saw the cathedral (interesting -- they have painted the Gothic ceilings, which I don't recall seeing in quite that style anywhere else), had some awesome ice cream, and stopped for coffee at a cafe before heading back to Eindhoven.
While in 's-Hertogenbosch, we discussed my romance novels, and I mentioned the plots for the next three books. While Julia comes up with some completely absurd ideas that can never be placed in a romance novel, she did come up with the title 'Sweet Master of Deception', which could be awesome -- I'll have to write a book about a spy in the near future. And I was devastated/hysterically amused when I started explaining a concept to Walter about a later series of books I would like to write, and he pointed out that I was explaining the concept using *exactly* the same dialogue as when JB Pruitt, the famous hand model (played by David Duchovny) in "Zoolander", explains to Derek and Miranda that male models are perfect assassins because they are in peak physical condition and can gain access to the most exclusive places. I won't divulge the concept for my books, but it was shocking to realize that those 80+ times that I watched "Zoolander" so engraved the movie on my consciousness that I'm reusing bits of it to fuel future writing ideas.
Poor Julia had to listen to me and Walter quote half the movie on the train back to Eindhoven, and when we got back, she excused herself to watch dinner (and make popcorn for us), while we watched "Zoolander" and laughed hysterically. Then we had dinner and hung out for a few hours, until it was time for the working people to go to bed. Now I should go to bed too, so that I can get up in the morning in time for Walter to put me on the right bus to the train station so that I can go to the airport and catch the flight back to America.
It's been an amazing trip, and ending it by seeing Walter and meeting his fiancee was perfect. I will recap properly and post tons of photos in the next few days, but it's time for bed -- when I post again, I will be in the US!
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