Today was a day to regroup after the heavy scheduling of the previous six days. Plus, the town was taken over by soccer fever. Two clubs from Rotterdam were playing each other in semi-finals and fans from other places flooded into the city. The bar across the street from our hotel followed the example of others and set up a big screen TV and chairs so that customers could view while they drank. And drink they did. Lots of singing and shouting.

Fans of one of the teams, Feyenoord, had started celebrating the day before by putting its flag around the statue of a gnome at the head of a popular pedestrian street that has several bars and restaurants.

We decided to stay clear of the stadium and downtown while the game was on, finding a coffee shop instead and staking out a window to watch the bikes go by. Old, young, families, talking on phones, texting, riding with one child in front and another in back, carrying groceries – the bike is a universal mode of transportation. No helmets or special gear, and the bikes are plain and simple.

We got back to the hotel before the game ended , and were happy that we weren’t out in the crowd. It was obvious from the helicopters overhead and the paddy wagons stationed in strategic locations that the city had been prepared for trouble. The policemen had clubs and shields, and there were also dogs and policemen on horseback. Some trouble even erupted right under our window, after the game when people were leaving the downtown. We saw the police using their clubs, and they weren’t fooling around.

On a lighter note, Holland’s liberalism never disappoints. Look carefully at the first photo below, of a busy intersection. Roughly in the middle of it, notice the man wearing a red and white jacket with his back to the camera. The second photo shows a close-up of the same intersection, with a special feature circled in yellow. Two men are using this amenity and others are standing around waiting their turn. It is not a phone booth. In France, the “pissoir” has a sign and is situated behind a wooden screen; but the liberal, matter-of-fact Dutch just let it all hang out, and no one bats an eye.

More news – we just heard the moment it happened, that Emmanuel Macron won the election in France! What a relief. We didn’t really think that Le Pen would win, but stranger things have happened recently.