I awoke before my alarm at 8:25 with the muscle in my side very unhappy. I soon found that my nose was running as well. Today was looking like a down day.

I took a few drops of dōTERRA Melaleuca (tea tree), the only oil I’d brought with me, specifically for this purpose. I have found over the last year and a half since my sister-outlaw Mari shared dōTERRA oils with me (some of which can be taken internally) that on the rare occasion I feel I’m coming down with something, Melaleuca kicks it in the pants. My runny nose stops running before advancing into a full-on cold. AWESOME.

I logged credit and cash transactions, got dressed, took a couple more drops, and walked to a nearby brunch place I’d found last night that I wanted to try, Little Collins.

I sat in the window watching bicyclists pass by, none of whom wear helmets. The infrastructure here keeps bicycling away from cars, trams, and pedestrians in separate lanes, but it still seems so unsafe to me!

I ordered a latte and when it arrived it was very small. I miss bottomless brewed coffee. I feel silly saying that, but there it is. I had a lox/asparagus/poached egg thing that was presented very prettily and tasted fine but wasn’t much food for €16.

I looked up nearby geocaches and found one a block away. There was a spoiler photo as to where it was hidden, and I *still* couldn’t find it!

That was fine as the hunt led me to the Albert Cuypmarkt, a daily street market that is one of the main sights in the De Pijp neighborhood. I’m not much of a shopper, but I wandered the stands for the experience. I found a ramen joint I was pretty sure would be my dinner and bought a gift for Mari, who’d given me a relaxing oil treatment shortly before my trip began.

There was another cache in nearby Sarphatipark, but I skipped it for now, opting to go back home and lay down with my laptop.

I showered (yay for overhead water instead of handheld) and put in a second load of laundry as most of the first was dry.

I spent a few hours writing about my experiences in Bruxelles 3 days ago, getting up for walking and stretching breaks, and then took a full break with a walk in the park at 17:00 (I’d unfortunately missed a window of sun and it was now overcast again).

I made a loop around the park, enjoying ducks and fountains and stopping in the center for a while to stare at the geocache. I spotted it easily enough; retrieving it was a whole other matter.

It’s a 35mm film canister at the bottom of an open-ended tube, about a foot long, which is solidly attached to a wooden signpost, with said sign blocking the tube’s open top. So maybe there’s a magnet on the lid of the cache, but I can’t see it and I don’t carry a spare magnet on me. Looking up possible retrieval tools for this cache type, it seems that is exactly what some cachers do, carry around a bag of tools. I am not likely to find this cache.

Back at the listing, I spent another 2.5 hours writing about my birthday in Brugge 2 days ago.

I received an email from Apple informing me my 50GB of iCloud storage was almost used up. It was on my trip prep list to move my photos from last year’s travels out of iCloud and onto my desktop, but it seems like such a monumental task, I kept putting it off. So I knew this would happen while I was on this trip. I upgraded to 200GB, just until I get home (she said optimistically).

On my way to dinner back on the Albert Cuypmarkt street, I spotted the location of the first cache from this morning and found it – Netherlands is on the map!

I arrived at Ramen Dining Bar SORA at 20:30 and took a seat in the window. I just wanted ramen, and there were two sizes. I ordered Choya plum wine and a small ramen, and the server said, “That’s all?” I had brought leftover pizza on the train and hadn’t eaten it yet, but from her response, I thought perhaps that still wouldn’t be enough food and I should upgrade. As it was, I ended up with ramen leftovers 😂

Another gentleman had joined me in the window, and we began chatting. He’s a designer and lived and worked in S.F. for 14 years. He didn’t like how the City was changing and began looking for work that would bring him home to Europe. He got a job with Uber that did that. He’s from Spain, where his family still is because they didn’t like Amsterdam. He visits them frequently, so he’s had a rough go at making this place his home, but he’s starting to feel it as he just moved into this neighborhood with more walkability and eateries like this than his last place.

At home, I had some wine, showered and washed my hair, wrote a bit more, and slept at 12:30.