I got to the airport early and got an aisle seat, which is important for tallish people like me. Mike was at the gate when I got there – Gary and Tad arrived a little later. I had to correct my little tour destination for Monday- I hoped to go to The Hague for Vermeers. On the flight I watched the movie ‘The Road to Perdition’ – Aviva liked it and so did I. – the title is indeed a pun of sorts. We checked into the NH Hotel Utrecht. I found out that the museum in The Hague was closed Monday, so I switched again, to Haarlem for Monday’s trip.

After a short time unpacking and cleaning up, a bunch of us met in the lobby of the hotel. Gary, Peter, Igor and I walked to the main cathedral; the tower is separated from the rest of the cathedral due to a fire over 200 years ago, and the intervening section was never rebuild. Then we walked on to the Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments.

The tower of the main cathedral in Utrecht	The Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments

It was lots of fun – the tour guide spoke in Dutch and English, and she included the audience in on some of the demonstations. The coolest parts were the player piano (which plays with nuance and pedal point) and the dance hall player playing rock around the clock.

We ate a light lunch – our waitress took Igor’s tea before he could eat his nugget and he complained – she brought him 5 on a plate with the check! Peter and I walked to the Catholic Museum – we arrived in time to see the gift shop but not the main museum. We gathered for dinner and ate at a cafe in the train station/shopping center a block from the hotel.