Scenic road trip

This morning, I woke up at 5am! Another early morning stroke around the neighbourhood before taking a tran to central Amsterdam.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Niels and I made our way to Rijssen via scenic routes.

Firstly we went to a medieval castle near Weeps. Although small, I always enjoyed all things medieval. The mist hanging low over the field, the winding waterway, a vast inner ocean in the background, the bitterly winter cold all made the scene very ... European. I was still gasping the fact that I was in Europe, with Niels, for a very short time.

We then made our way to a seaside town Volendam. I was pretty sure I visited to this town last time when gusty wind was blowing my head off. The weather had been kind to me; we could sit outside of a pub enjoying the balmy weather under the warmth of the sun.

We then crossed this very long bridge to the Eastern part of the Netherlands. We were on the bridge as the storm was closing in. It was a dreamy sight to see a dark cloud in a distant, hanging on top of the sea and apparently dumping rain into the vast water underneath. Although I knew it already, I also felt surreal to drive on a path that water was above on both sides.

We finally arrived at Rijssen at 6pm. Niels' parents, Will and Marianne were kind enough to cook me dinner. Again, Dutch food is simple: frozen fish fillet, fried potato and salad. People here choose to live a simple life, which most people in my life could not even contemplate.

This bought me back to the conversation I had with this Chinese founder at the AI luncheon at AFF. He was after making money, complicated food (seafood and meat that mixed with lots of saucers), cashless payment, logistics for ECommerce to help people buy more things they don't need online. His friend criticised how backwards is Europe where you can see conductors on the train and the billboard was those old mechanic board. The conversation followed by the MIT professor's presentation on how robot will transform our lives. I do not like any of this at all! This may be an age thing, but the older I get, the more I want to live a simple and caring life. We should enjoy life and love people we spend time with. Why do we want to live in a complicated society advancing yet being fear of being taken over by robots? All is vain.

Back to the dinner. We preyed before and after dinner. I could see how a tradition is being carried down generations in Europe and how important is Christian faith in European's life. I like the stories from the Old Testament. Most answers to my puzzles could be answered from within. However, I would never read the New Testament as I found it to be idolised by worshipping a man of priest at most.

I stayed at Niels' little granny flat not far from his parents' place. Good on him to move out and have a space of his own. We started watching House of Card and I could not last for 10min before passing out on the sofa. I had a good sleep of 7hr on a simple sofa :)Read more