Cheap Dates

Entertainment is rather a flexible concept with our family to begin with. I mean, my household is populated with people who can happily spend half an hour counting how many of the ducks in the canals we're walking past are sleeping, something I suspect may not hold the attention of other (less human-contact deprived?) individuals. Nonetheless, we're always on the lookout for cheap entertainment and are pretty undiscriminating about entertainment that's actually -- gasp -- free. Especially that which doesn't involve the neurotic behavior of passersby in the streets that requires subsequent explanation to the children.

So anyway, we decided today to go look for this map. Yep, a map. Some coworkers touted it as the best map in all of the Netherlands, so you knew that we just had to go check it out. I'll be durned if it wasn't actually pretty cool when we found it, a huge roomful of representational navigation encased two feet under a glass floor. When the kids hesitated to step on it because of the trompe l'oeil, the Dutch guide informed them that Queen Beatrix had been afraid to step on the floor when she visited, too. This (or the sight of their parents cavorting about on it) cured them. I'd recommend a visit, but they're closing in a few weeks so run, don't walk, to the big map of the polderlands at Mobilion.