Day two: Caps Nord-Pas and St. Omer

Reveille
“Reveille à 7:30h avec due fois snooze” Marcus insists I write. In bathrobes with our swimming trunks underneath we went to check-out “the facilities”.  Sauna and Hammam were not warmed up yet, the water in the pool was cold (Marcus called me “a watje” while laughing, I didn’t disagree) but the water in the Jacuzzi had a pleasant temperature. We spend almost one hour in the facilities, then we took a shower before going back to our room. We changed and went downstairs for “le petit dejeuner”. A wonderful breakfast but I found a minus point: I missed the scrambled (or better: fried) eggs.

Le Cap Griz Nez and the Cap Blanc Nez
We left the hotel at 10:30 for a trip along the coast (from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Calais). On our way we first visited the visit Cap Gris Nez (the lowest of the two Caps, ‘only’ 13 meters) high. While driving towards the Cap Gris Nez there was a famous German canon (the V3) to be seen, a radar tower and a lighthouse. The latter had an intriguing horizontal metal construction near the top but until today we don’t what it was. While we left the car at a parking we noticed how strong the wind was. There were many clouds so unfortunately we couldn’t see Dover.  

We drove on to the Cap Blanc Nez (30 metres high) with a column on the top of the Cap with plaque from WW I, saying “En memoire perpetuelle de nos camarades Francais de la Patroulle de Douvres 1914-1919. Ils sont morts afin que nous vivions puissons nous etre dignes de leur sacrifice”. Look below for some of the beautiful photos Marcus took. 

I wanted to make a movie (using the remaining power) from the Cap Blanc Nez but because of the relentless wind I couldn’t get a steady shot. I had to fight for balance, my blue helmet and my black Fernet hat. Unfortunately I lost my my black hat in that fight. The wind was too strong. It was a memory to the time that I worked in Prague (my Czech friends actually presented it to me). Sorry guys! The wind was simply too strong.

St. Omer
We had lunch (no lunch is no option for us) in St. Omer. Marcus had a pasta Forestiere (a pasta with fungi porchini and cream), I had a pasta with Camembert and walnuts. Marcus drank most of my Chimay Blanc (I had only two sips of beer) and then had a Chimay Blue. I settled for a mineral water. Warm weather, delicious food: what a spectacular holiday!

After lunch we visited one of the main attractions of St. Omer: the Cathedral. There was a hearse in front of the church and through the majestic huge open door we could see in the back a party of mourners (obviously there was a funeral on going). Because it was such a bright cathedral we went in. In the entrance hall stood a gigantic globe vase with flowers in it on a tripod in honour (or so we thought) of the deceased. When we had just passed the globe it fell behind us from the strong wind with a loud sound. All water had already ran out as Marcus tried to rescue it. I was impressed with him for trying to rescue the flowers.

Jardin Publique

We took a walk in the beautiful public park (le jardin publique) with muddy (rotten) pathways. On the way we bought some postcards. I planned to do that in a regular post-office but when I showed the cards I selected to my FRIEND Marcus my cards were ridiculed in public. We bought my postcards finally at a local Tabac store with the stamps we bought in the post-office. We went back to Boulogne-sur-Mer for a short nap and for our one star dinner.

One star dinner in restaurant de la Matelote

The dinner in restaurant de la Matelote was in one word perfect. It comprised (for each of us) 7 courses. First we were invited to an aperitif, then followed a spoon, the starter (an asparagus salad with truffles for both us), again a spoon, the main course (for Marcus tender beef on spinach, for me a mix of vegetables, rice and spinach), followed by a final spoon before ice cream (sorbet with fresh fruit). I don’t remember what we had to drink and whether we had a final cup(s) of coffee but it was simply a perfect dinner. Afterwards we walked outside on the beach to get some fresh air (wind) and at eleven we called it a day.

Exit RCA

Rosalien (my physiotherapist) asked me a few weeks ago what she could do to help me further along. You must know that at this moment I feel quite stable. I’ve the occasional epileptic seizure, headaches and my muscles and joints hurt almost continuously. To relieve those pains I’m assisted by a large team of therapists.

There is psychotherapy (René ter Horst and I can get along very well) and speech therapy. Speech therapy was discontinued (Laurien and dr. Koppe thought it no longer necessary) but last week (to my surprise)  it suddenly re-appeared in my schedule. This week Thursday there is an appointment with Laurien and on Friday there is a full hour appointment with René ter Horst and Laurien van Zeist. Strange! My guess is that Laurien is responsable for this appointment with the psychotherapist and me. What topic(s) we will discuss I don’t know.

In the RCA I also attend also sports therapy (table tennis), I attend hydrotherapy (which is quite exhaustive but I like it very much) and then there is physiotherapy and fitness. Rosalien is of the opinion that I must move on. In the end there are other patients that could benefit from the open place that I leave behind (I fully understand this). So she asked me if knew a sports-centre/swimming pool in Amsterdam-West that I wanted to go to. I mentioned the Sloterparkbad annex Fitness Center to her. We agreed that she would make a letter and ask around and (if suitable) then we (Monling and I) would make an appointment. This all happened two weeks ago.

Monling drove us to the fitness-center on the day and time of the appointment with Roy but when we inquired there was no appointment with Roy (or an alterative physiotherapist) to be found in the appointment book. Some calling around finally produced an appointment: we were in the ‘old’ place whereas we must be in the ‘new’ place. A new appointment had to be made.

Today we went to the new appointment. Roy was still busy with another ‘patient’. He appeared 45 minutes later(too late) and apologised for that fact. We were ushered into a room without windows but with an impressive (read: massive) treatment annex massage table. Roy read the report that Rosalien had prepared for him and decided that I must fill out many forms. Apparently the physiotherapists, the fitness-centre and the swimming pool were, although all in the same building, separate entities. 

I pointed out that our sole purpose of this visit was to find out whether I could get the treatments fitness, hydrotherapy (swimming one-on-one) and physiotherapy in the Sloterparkbad annex fitness center annex physiotherapy centre or not. We make another appointment for that to allow Roy to measure my performance and endurance and other key parameters. He will the next time also report back on the result of his discussion with his boss about the hydrotherapy (I really need somebody who keeps an eye on me because when I get a seizure in the water I will surely drown).  

This appointment is planned for the 17th of July with Roy. They decided that we had to fill out the forms anyway. He followed us upstairs to communicate to the receptionist which forms were required. That confused the receptionist so finally we left without filling and signing any forms. Ahrgg! To be continued.

Frits and Jo visited us

We had a very nice evening with them. We talked a lot about our mutual employer Acision. Its now common knowledge that at the end of this month Frits will have resigned (as he planned several times before). We worked together, both in the Development Dpt, and we spoke about those times (especially about two of our managers (Frans Bonekamp, Wim Rimmelzwaan). We are friends ever since. I was to write a story in a book that they will give to Frits because he’s leaving (the company) but it is in Dutch so it makes no sense to publish it.     

I gave Jo a bunch of English books by  Donna Leon (about the ‘molto sympatico’ Italian Commisario Brunetti from Venice) and the complete (Scottish) Inspector Rebus series by Ian Rankin which she appreciated very much (if there is anybody else who reads English books feel free to make an appointment for a visit – the books are free). We went to the Indian restaurant Neetu da Dhaba and according to Jo (Indian curry expert from England) it was a good restaurant. Afterwards we played pool but as usual Frits won all games (just like my friend Marcus wins all games of Snooker that we play together). But it was a fine evening and all of us did enjoy it! Jo, thanks for the hilarious card!