The last few days have been just right for a vacation. Some down time, some up time, some shows, some YouTube, some IKEA assembly, and a little sleep.
Let’s work backwards. I still have not been able to adjust to Netherlands time. I’m trying! I find myself nodding off during the day, etc. I realize it takes time to adjust, but by now I should be a little bit more adjusted. However, that hasn’t stopped me from having a vacation!!
On Friday, John and I had breakfast HERE - it’s a place called “The Breakfast Club” and the good was really great. Afterward, we did a little adulting HERE at a cigar place called “Cigaragua” where we met up with Mike and Bart. We had a lovely time with some sparkling conversation and some lovely cigars. Afterward, Krijn and the dogs met us there and we did some errands and headed home. We relaxed a bit and John made dinner and we watched “Solo” which I hadn’t seen yet. I thought “Solo” was a great movie and did what it set out to do which was to give us a backstory for Hans Solo. If you paid attention, you caught all the references that would foreshadow the “upcoming” adventures of Hans Solo.
On Saturday morning, we set out for the town of Maastricht which was about 2 hours south of Beets to see the NL National tour of “Evita”. The drive was lovely, everything is very green here and there is a lot of water everywhere. Sometimes it reminds me of how the Walt Disney World area looks. When we finally made it to Maastricht, it was cold and sprinkly, and we couldn’t find parking - sounds like home! LOL. We finally found parking and we walked into the town proper. There was a cool Christmas Fair happening. Almost like a small version of Christmas in the Park in SJ.
We found a lovely restaurant for dinner - after a not-so-lovely host at another restaurant decided that 3 big sized men would break the chairs of his restaurant. - we immediately started a campaign on the FB and YELP giving this place a bad review and encouraging others to do so as well. Anyway, we ended up at another place with lovely chairs! I had the Wiener Schitzle which was fantastic.
The show, (EVITA) was in Dutch, obviously. But who needs to know the words when you have all the English memorized! We did have Krijn to help with some of the “newer” translations and things that might be different from the English lyrics. This was one of the most slick productions of Evita I have ever seen. It was directed well, sung well, played well and the set was perfect. Why couldn’t the recent national tour/Broadway revival been as good as it totally paled in comparison. I wish I could say the same about the British National tour of Cats which we saw the next day. The ride home was quick and we got in after 1:00am, so it was to bed we went.
Here are a few random pics from Maastricht
The next day, we had breakfast and set out to put together a trundle bed from IKEA as we are expecting another house guest on Monday! Krijn and I put the bed together in a few hours. It was fun putting IKEA furniture together with another person. John and I completed the drawers today and here’s what it looks like.
After we cleaned up, we had dinner and headed into Amsterdam to see the British National Tour of Cats - which was performed in English. Over all, the show was the same staging I saw in NYC in 2017, but this production seemed “slower” and not as well sung. Old Deuteronomy cracked several times in his big numbers and Grizabella cheated on her vowels in the big climax section of “Memory” which was a disappointment, and the tempo’s were a little slow for my liking which made the show drag a little. Still, a great show. I realize people don’t understand why I like this show as much as I do, I have to admit, if I hadn’t seen the original Broadway production in 1999 to see how the show was originally conceived for Broadway, I probably wouldn’t feel the way I do about the show.
Today, John and I finished the bed and I had some time to update the blog, which will be published in the right blog this time. Tonight, we are heading to my cousin Melinda’s for a New Years Eve party - which is the reason I decided to take this trip a few years ago!
More soon!!
