Frankie goes to Maarssen

Wake up early at half past six and tiptoe downstairs, where I make tea and breakfast on some mature Gouda cheese on Ryvita. I don't fancy a fry up again and it also means I can cook for the others so we can be ready when Graham arrives. The others get up by around seven thirty and we have all eaten and have showered and dressed when Graham arrives at a quarter past ten, they are slightly late due to a traffic jam and diversion, but after a cup of coffee are soon restored. Graham takes Frankie for a walk round Hof van Ede and then we all set off and walk into the village. On the corner of the square is an ice cream parlour and bakery, which boasts two stars for its confections, so we decide to sit outside there and test their apple pie. Unfortunately there isn't quite enough to go round, so Lillianne has a cheesecake and Jackie an ice cream. Of course we all have coffee and then afterwards we take Frankie for a walk in the small park that contains the town hall. Later we stop and have lunch by the canal side in a little pub cum restaurant. The tables are on a floating wooden pontoon and once again the sun shines on us and our lunch lasts an hour or so. Frankie sits next to Graham and plays with his tennis ball that Graham bought for him from a sports shop in the village. Around four o'clock we wonder back and persuade Graham and Lilliane to stay for dinner and leave once the traffic has quietened down. Gino and I cobble together a salad that includes the last of our eggs, boiled and quartered, some left over spaghetti and a tin of tuna, we christen it insalata tutti mondo, as it contains just about everything. We also eat up the last of our ante pasta. The salad is good, but the crusty bread from the bakery is spectacular. Jackie bought an apple pie from the bakery later on, but we are all too full to eat it. Graham, Lillianne and Frankie, leave around half past eight and we then drink coffee and go to bed fairly early, as tomorrow we have to pack and be out for ten.