October 30—

Loseweg, Apeldoorn, Nederland

BREAKFAST AT THE HOTEL was in the familiar Italian tradition: a pitcher of strong dark coffee (but not expresso), another of hot milk, croissants with a sugar glaze, cold toasted bread, cellophane-wrapped industrial pastries (one, with apricot jam filling, was pretty good), a small plastic bin of corn flakes and another of muesli; and various sliced ham and cheese that I ignored.
Lunch: a tuna sandwich from the convenience kiosk in the Eindhoven train station.
Dinner, though, was very nice: Hans had made a pumpkin soup; after that Anneke supplied brown peas cooked with bacon, onion, leeks, and red bell peppers — a very Dutch kind of thing, and savory — and we finished with lemon sorbet topped with yoghurt, also tasty.

Merlot: "Reserve du Président", Corsica, 2007