On Tuesday, I was truly lazy.  I woke up sore and cranky and just wanted to rest.  So I was determined not to do anything at all and I mostly succeeded.  I started out by going to the pool, where I read more about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology.  I dozed off a couple of times and was a genuine pool rat until a couple of hours had passed and two women showed up to swim.  By that time, the room was made up again, so I went back down there and took a nice hour long nap.  That did a lot to help restore me.

After my nap, I went down to the lobby/bar and had the same lunch I had on Sunday…  asparagus and ham soup and a grilled tuna salad and cheese sandwich.  The tuna salad was made with olives and tomatoes and it tasted like they used Gouda cheese.  I washed it down with beer.  Then, at about 3:30, I went back to the room and started watching TLC.  I found myself watching Say Yes To The Dress and some other show about weddings.  Bill came back and we decided to go out to eat.

He drove us back to the Centrum.  We parked in a large garage and picked up some cash at an ATM.  I get the sense that the Dutch are not as cash oriented as Germans are.  Seems like credit cards are more easily used here, though we’re now in the habit of using cash.  While we were getting cash, a woman belched loudly and unabashedly.  It made me laugh.  We also witnessed a bunch of street workers (as opposed to street walkers) howl at a woman trying to climb over barriers they set up near their construction site.

We ended up having dinner at a Greek restaurant.  I think it was called Parthenon.  The guy who greeted us wanted to know where we were from.  Bill said we are Americans, but we live in Germany.  Then he said, “Maybe I should tell people we’re Canadians.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because people don’t seem to be as angry at Canadians as they are Americans.” Bill replied.

“Or you could act in a way that doesn’t embarrass anyone and be a good example of an American citizen…” I suggested.

“Yeah…” Bill agreed.

We were approached by a tall woman who appeared to be Greek, but was super tall like so many of the Dutch folks we’ve seen here.  Her English was passable.  She didn’t seem to understand when we said we wanted a bottle of water and a bottle of wine.  She brought us a pitcher of ice water (which I think was from the tap) and two glasses of Nemea red wine.  No harm, no foul.  She also brought out a couple of amuses that were made of eggplant.  I made the mistake of saying the eggplant reminded me a little of snot.  That immediately grossed me out.

Ice water in a pitcher!

Snotty eggplant…

A salad… this was confusing to us, because it looks like it’s for one person, yet it had serving utensils.  But we had no plates to share it on, so we had to wait until our main courses came out.

I had the Thalia platter, which was gyros, souvlaki, and a very small sirloin steak.  Bill had the Nemea platter, which was gyros and souvlaki.  The meals came with rice and potatoes as well as a small salad and t’zatziki.  Gotta say, I think it was some of the best Greek food I’ve ever had.  Afterwards, Bill had raspberry sorbet with whipped cream (slagroom) and raspberry sauce.  I had an Irish coffee.  There was no parting house shot of ouzo, but that was okay.

Thalia platter… yum!

Bill’s Nemea platter…

And our sides…

Irish coffee in a Greek restaurant…

And raspberry sorbet.

Parking cost five euros.  We passed a beautiful park on the way back that I may explore today.  We went back to the hotel and turned in somewhat early.