March 20, 2012
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Amsterdam, Netherlands
I did it! I had been dreading this quite a bit, but I did it, I managed, and it turned out to be great. I got up at 6:15 this morning, an hour and half before I normally get up. Just over an hour later, with my lunch, and a towel and swimsuit in my bag, I got on my bike and cycled towards work… but stopping at Zuiderbad, the swimming pool. There, I did my usual 60+ laps, then showered and got ready to go to work. So, instead of going to the pool after work, I now went before work, and it was so much better! The pool was quieter, and those who were swimming did so in a much more disciplined way, so it was much more enjoyable. Tomorrow I will definitely return in the morning, before work.
In the evening I needed to do a lot of shopping, because Günter and Rob are coming over for dinner tomorrow evening. I decided to prepare a salmon dish, but of course that meant buying a lot of stuff in the supermarket tonight, after work. Normally I go to the big Albert Heijn Food Plaza, right behind the Royal Palace on Dam Square. It’s a big shop and especially for tourists they have quite a lot of things that you wouldn’t always find in a Dutch supermarket. At five this afternoon, however, a shoplifter who was stopped by one of the supermarket’s staff member had decided to start spraying pepperspray everywhere, forcing the supermarket to shut down. So, instead, I went to another Albert Heijn, just next to City Hall in Jodenbreestraat. Not as nice as food plaza, but at least quite big, so with lots of choice. The picture is of Zuiderkerk, close to where I live, just as I had left the supermarket again and the sky had a very nice pinkish hue. Not sure if that was still from the pepperspray though…
