McKenna-Macdonald Acres has seen a lot of comings and goings recently. After Geoff’s return from Rome for a few days, we then played host to Frank, who rolled in on the train from Germany, where he had been attending a mutual friend’s wedding. It was fun to hang out with him for a few days, as we hadn’t seen him in more than a year. Surprisingly, we ended up spending most of our time trawling the antique shops in the Spiegelkwartier.
The gap left by Frank has now been filled by Jules and Linda (and, not to forget, Bloem), who are staying with us this weekend. Once they return to Nijmegen, we’ll have no more visitors until next month. As much fun as our visitors are, it will be nice to have our space to ourselves for a while again.
This evening, we all enjoyed our first Sint Maarten in the Vondelpark. [Sint Maarten](http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Maarten_(feest)) is a little like Halloween, in that children go from door to door, singing songs in the hope of receiving confectionery and fruit. They carry a lantern to light their way.
In the Vondelpark, it’s an annual tradition for hundreds of children to march through the park with their parents, accompanied by a brass band. It’s a nice sight, with all of the illuminated lanterns strung out along the length of the park.