Euro Treasure

Drawing comparisons is always tempting when travelling. A few days ago we were invited for dinner to the home of some old family friends in Amsterdam. They live in one of those gorgeous tall skinny canal houses filled with antiques, books, subtle lighting and the smell of delicious food. Being collectors of many things is no problem for them as they have five floors and lots of glass fronted cabinetry. I was struck with a serious bout of display space envy. In fact so struck was I that I forgot to take any photos, until the dessert was served, a mega rich chocolate mousse served in this lovely old pâté terrine with tastiest meringues ever. Mmmmm...

Over dinner we got to talking about old stuff generally, and in particular artefacts dug up during building. There was I thinking my old shoe discussed earlier was pretty special. Well, you can imagine what surfaces when you excavate the basement of a 400 year old canal house. Delft tiles, of course, but when these guys pulled out their floor in the 70's they dug up human skeletons, and have the skulls perched around the house to prove it. These days even they would probably feel the obligation to tell someone, but in 1976? No way!

Our travels have turned decidedly less glamorous since then, with a hotel in Brugge that looked charming on the net but ended up being almost on top of the bus terminal. I guess that is our obligatory (Belgian) rough to go with the (Dutch) smooth.