June 28: Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to me — it’s also the anniversary of the beginning of our one year travel adventure. I was thinking about making my first Instagram reel that quickly reviewed our first 365 days of retirement.  

As for my birthday, it was an awesome! First, we went to the market by the train station— one of Ashley’s favorite pastimes.  It wasn’t quite as huge as the one in Brussels that we went to on Sunday but that didn’t stop us from buying a ton of food for the next couple of days — we got peaches, Brie cheese, chicken legs & breasts, smoked salmon & mackerel along with some veggies.

Next, we rented two bikes for a journey to the Netherlands.  The ride along the beach was beautiful as we passed tons for brand new beautiful apartments.  We then snaked our way around a wetland area before ending up at the De Zeemeeuw restaurant, which was overlooking the ocean.  Although the view was only a 7, the food was a 9.5.  We ate steak with pepper sauce & fries, white fish on a bed of couscous and mussels over spaghetti.  Each dish was better than the other — my only complaint was that I wished there were more sauce on the white fish.  I also had two beers to celebrate the special day.