Eliot's Travels

Today we ventured out in the morning to show Grandma and Grandpa our favorite places to shop and walk around Delft some more. We took them to the cheese shop and to our produce market. They enjoyed the sample of Eliot's favorite cheese, and Grandpa decided he should also buy some aged Gouda. We also went by the bakery to get our weekly staples: waldkorn and brown sesame bread.

On our way home, we saw the swan family again, 2 weeks after we first saw them. The cygnets have grown quite a bit. We watched them swim in the canal and eat plants. The babies were so cute dunking their heads for food. Poppa swan ruffled his feathers, puffed out his wings, and started snarling at a couple of dogs who got a little too close to the family. He would pull himself out of the water and flap his wings while barking/honking at the offending creature. Two of the babies rested their legs out of the water. Their legs looked grotesquely contorted, even deformed, but they appeared to swim just fine. Before we left, some hoodlum boys came by and were harassing the swans (throwing small rocks at the poppa and running at the canal) - basically being jerks. Anyway, 3 different onlookers gave them a piece of their mind. Two women yelled at the young men to stop. One man said "does it make you feel like a big man, to be able to scare these defenseless birds." The boys did move on - albeit slowly.

posted by Whitney @ 1:21 PM