Ready for week 2?

It's quite a relief to get back to Dusseldorf on time, there was construction, so there was only one train from Amsterdam to Dusseldorf today, and it pulled in to the station at 9:50. Talk about cutting it close! Backing up, Friday we went to the Hills plant. I'm always a bit humbled by the enormous equipment. The plant is so automated that only 25 people have to be working at the plant to produce several tons of dog food each day! It was very interesting to hear about all the checks they do, too. The manager of the plant didn't know what I was talking about when I asked him about the huge pet food recalls in the States last year. I guess they weren't affected at all. I really thought that they would have been, at least to the point of shipping food to the US to replace what was recalled. Friday afternoon I took off on my own for Delft, a small town south of Amsterdam. I wandered around the city center all afternoon, and picked up a few gifts for people back home. Saturday, I hopped a train to Den Haag, and saw Little Holland and the beach. They have a gorgeous beach, with lots of people out enjoying the beautiful weather. Little Holland is a mineature of 1:25 scale of a lot of the major buildings in Holland. It was incredibly detailed, to the point of having figures of tour groups walking around. The highlight of the day, though, came when I wandered off the beaten path. I found a local (very local) museum of local history. My ticket included a drink at the bar where a dozen elderly locals were thrilled to see a tourist who was interested in them and their lives and town. I saw first hand how proud they were to have the Queen in residence. I heard stories from a gentleman whose father was a fisherman. I got a private tour full of personal anecdotes throughout the entire museum. Amsterdam couldn't compare when I stopped through for a few hours this afternoon.