The pigeon show

Across the street from our apartment is "Palace Promenade". It's a mini-mall with a few restaurants, a bowling alley, an indoor glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, some clothing, jewelry and shoe stores, a souvenir shop or 2, a toy store, a book/newsstand/"post office" (you can only pick up packages or buy stamps, you can't drop off mail)/office supply store and a couple general purpose stores where one can procure bicycle repair items (of course!), cleaning supplies and first aid. There is also a casino as part of the entire building. By the way, there are TWO casinos within a stone's throw of our apartment. Literally, a stone's throw. I guess the Dutch like to gamble.

As is the case here in NL, Palace Promenade is not very big by American standards. I believe all the retail shops inside can fit into 1 mall anchor store in the US. Also, as is the case here in NL, there are residences above the mall. But, it is very convenient to our apartment and I have frequented Kruidvat (pronounced crowd-vat) for shampoo, vitamins and such (think CVS/Walgreens/Rite-Aid without the pharmacist which is only located in the apotheek).

While most of the stores are only accessible from within the mall a few of the stores also have entrances outside the mall. One of those stores is a bakery which is visible from our apartment. The fun begins on bread delivery day. A red truck pulls up in front of the bakery, the driver opens the back door and lowers the ramp. As he wheels the racks of bread into the bakery he leaves the back door of the truck open to expedite the process. During the moving of the bread he must leave behind bits and pieces because that is when the pigeons arrive. Now, I'm trying to figure out HOW he leaves bits and pieces behind if all the bread is wrapped in plastic. But, since this is NL/EU, there's probably an utter abhorrence of "unnecessary" plastic and the bread is probably not wrapped. I've been in the bakery a few times and most of the bread is not wrapped there, so it probably isn't delivered wrapped.

As the driver completes the delivery he and the pigeons do their dance. When the driver is not physically on the ramp the pigeons slowly make their way up it, pecking at the bits and pieces. They do this even if the driver is still in the truck. If the driver is on the ramp the pigeons fly just far enough away to be out of the reach of his feet. The second the ramp is clear, they are back at it. And so this goes as the driver enters and exits the truck. Hubs and I watch the birds and make bets as to how far up the ramp the pigeons will get. Some are bold enough to actually get INTO the truck completely and for a few minutes at a time. BLEH!

(We've also seen the birds enter the store itself as the establishment seems to like to keep their door open regardless of the weather. And, no, I haven't gone back into the store after observing how much access to the bread the pigeons have.)

I guess in their own way the pigeons are doing the bread company a service. By eating the bits and pieces no one has to clean the truck... right? 😉

Bread time!