Welcome to Holland, guys. I hope you're not afraid of heights!

I actually dragged myself out of bed at 0500 this morning. And that after having to wake up at 0630 for the past two days so I could get to Veenendaal on time. Yes, so it was my own choice to spend my nights in Leeuwarden. That doesn't mean I'm not entitled to a good bout of whining, does it?

But today I had an extra special reason for getting up so early! Matt and Dan were coming into town! I was even a good little girl and checked the teletext the night before to make sure their plane was going to be on time. It was actually scheduled to be 30 minutes early (groan) so it's a good thing I checked! It wouldn't do to have them waiting around for me like I had to in Seattle. *grin*

The drive into Schiphol was easier than I had expected. I mean, Marnix told me that he had driven around for quite a while before figuring out where to park, but traffic was thankfully light, and I just followed the signs until I found a parking spot. Piece of cake! *wink* I spotted Matt and Dan while they were waiting to get their luggage, but I suppose my jumping up and down outside the big glass windows wasn't conspicuous enough for them because they didn't seem to notice me... or were they too embarrassed? At any rate, I had to wait for them to come out into the main airport before they saw me. I was immediately rushed and had all of the air crushed out of my lungs. I should have known something was coming by the way they were eyeballing me, but I claim early-morning tiredness and was totally unprepared when Matt (or was it Dan? - sorry, like I said, it was early!) cried out, "That's the same shirt you had on when we picked you up in Seattle!" ARGH! How could they have remembered? How could I have remembered?! I mean, come on! That was a year ago! I muttered something under my breath about how people remember the darndest things, and hurriedly asked if anyone was hungry or thirsty.

The drive back to Delft was dandy. Matt and Dan tried out their Dutch pronunciation, which, I'm selfishly happy to say, was just as horrible as mine was when I first got here. No one was tired enough to take a nap yet, so I dragged everyone into downtown Delft to have a look around. I did my best to act the tour guide, explaining what things were as we went. No one complained, and I think Matt went through about 3 rolls in less than an hour, so I suppose no one was too bored. (^^)

We wandered into the central square, and I noticed that the Nieuwe Kerk was actually open, so we walked into the bottom and I asked if the guys felt up to a climb. Everyone eagerly agreed, and we paid, got our little tokens, and started the climb. Did I fail to mention that the climb up was on an extremely narrow, old staircase that wound up and up and up the tower? Sorry, guys! We just took our time, Matt and Dan both not really liking they could see down through the stairs, and stopped at every landing to catch our breath. (Yes, I am sadly out of shape) We made it, though! All the way to the top. And if I do say so myself, the view was as breathtaking as I remembered. The wind that felt as though it was trying to sweep us right off of the top of the tower only added to the experience in my opinion. What? Uh, I was only clinging to Dan to make sure he didn't blow away. Yes, that's it! ... Let's move on, shall we?

I pointed out Rotterdam and Den Haag to them, and the general direction of Amsterdam, and the fact that the big blue glass thing actually did look like a heart from up here, and then we climbed back down the tower. All of those steps reminded me of my general PE class in college where we had to pass a step test in which we had to step up and down a little wooden bench for what felt like forever. And all that to a horrible tape that kept chanting "Up, up, down, down!" at us. And hadn't I sworn not to climb up this tower anymore? ... Erm... where was I? Oh yes. We made it down in time for the lady at the store to tell us that they were closing the tower due to the increasingly strong winds. *inno* We discussed, and decided it was time for lunch.

Off to Benjamin's Bagels! The best bagels in Delft, of course. (^^)

We did our best to order and not confuse the waitress too much, and had a wonderful lunch. Our bellies full and my legs still somewhat trembling from the climb, I decided I had to show them the remainder of the city wall, as it was my favorite site in Delft. Rain? No, that wouldn't stop me! After all, this was good old' Dutch weather. And since they were visiting me in Holland, the weather was of course a part of their experience! Thus I proceeded to drag them all the way to the wall in the drizzle, which eventually turned into good old fashioned rain. Uh... no, that's not why Dan had a cold for the rest of the trip! But the guys weren't too thrilled with the weather and it seemed the jet lag was finally kicking in, so we caught a bus, went home and took turns taking warm showers. I sneaked off to the grocery store later that afternoon while everyone was taking a nap, even though we all ended up going out to eat at an Indian restaurant that night.

It's not my fault I was exhausted after dinner. I mean, I had been running on fumes all day, and I didn't take a nap that afternoon to refuel! So I gave Dan my keys, a piece of paper with my name, address and cell phone number on it, and wished him well in finding a bar. Everyone else tumbled into bed and I sank into exhausted sleep, having been assured by Dan that he was fine and would find his way back. Hey, I was tired, okay? :p