Hash Trails...

We were really pleased by the interesting terrain that we hashed over all weekend. Saturday's run was in the dunes shown above (ironically, we took a yellow New Jersey school bus to the run start); we never made it down to the beach, but had a couple of view spots of the North Sea. Sunday's run was entirely on the grounds of the park which included running around the vacation rental trailers, through the amusement park, onto some of the rides and through the nearby dunes. Our final run on Monday was through the streets and green spaces of Wassenaar including through a moss reserve.

Wild Rides at Duinrell...

Not all the rides at Duinrell were as mellow as the monorail. The Tikibad is Europe's largest indoor water slide park. We'd last been there three years ago. Ashlynn had a much better time now that she's becoming a more confident swimmer, but she still wasn't ready for the pitch dark slide. Jim and Jimmy tried everything including the Typhoon, which we call the toilet bowl.

I have to admit, we wimped out and chose the closed log flume boat. Considering how wet we still got from the force of the water that sloshed in over the sides when we came down the hill, we made the right decision to turn down the open boat. After we got off, we got to stand behind a glass wall and watch the water go flying. We especially enjoyed seeing some hashers get completely soaked in the open one.

Hague Hash's 25th...

It's been a long time since Opee and I have had a chance to do a Hash weekend together. We were very excited when we found out that the Hague's 25th would be held at Duinrell, an amusement park in nearby Wassenaar. We stayed at the hostel right on the park's grounds, sharing a room with Jim and Carolyn from Friday evening through Monday afternoon. We were especially impressed how kid-friendly this event was; there was even babysitting during Friday night's pub crawl at no extra charge.

Before we hopped on the bus for Saturday's run, we squeezed in a few rides at the park. We felt like we were stepping back in time. Here's the monorail which featured frog cars that we had to pedal around the track.

A Hit in Den Haag...

It’s no surprise that we created quite a stir running through the center of Den Haag in red dresses. From the start, we immediately ran through a carnival. While we couldn't understand the comments, we suspect many people thought we were part of a gay pride parade. Above you see Carolyn and I running in front of the Buitenhof, which is the Parliament building. The Prime Minister had probably already left for the night, otherwise he would have had a great view from his window. Next we ran through the Noordeinde which is a classy shopping and dining area next to the working palace of the Queen. It was here that I stopped to talk to some folks at a restaurant and ran into two ladies Jimmy works with. I knew one of them worked in human resources, but was shocked to find out that the other was the head of HR. I was bummed that my stop might have just blown his chances for a promotion until I found out that she’s also a hasher.

Red Dress Hashing...

When Raleigh Hash buddies Jim and Carolyn were trying to decide when to come visit this spring, we suggested they come out for the Hague Hash's 25th Anniversary Weekend. As an added extra bonus, there was a Red Dress Hash the night they arrived. We were lucky enough that Sally was willing to let the girls sleep over on a school night so we could stay out late in Den Haag. I was thrilled that Jimmy and I could wear matching outfits for the first time since we usually wore dresses from Goodwill in the US, but figured they wouldn't know the difference here. We were impressed with the turnout for this group's first effort haring a Red Dress, but some of the outfits could use some improvement.

Only in Holland...

Of course, no parade is complete without marching bands and the flower parade was no exception. There were several bands with members of various ages as well as a baton throwing group. Our favorite by far was this Marching and Cycling Band. We were surprised when we saw the drummers cycling towards us, but were truly shocked when we saw the rest of the band which was complete with trumpets, trombones and a tuba. Most of the musicians had special contraptions so they could pedal and steer while playing, although you can see the tuba player was resting here.

Quick, Don't Get Hit by that Beer!

Since we live in the land of the flowers, it's not surprising that there's several flower parades each year. We finally made it to our first recently with Sally, John, David and Andrew, who live in Heemstede between Leiden and Amsterdam. While it's not as grand as the Tournament of Roses, we appreciated how laid back it was. We arrived just 5 minutes before it started and claimed a great front row curb.

This year's theme was parties, which explains why a beer is bearing down on the kids. Overall, there were 18 professional floats and many sponsor cars covered in flowers. Our favorites were the beach party and the kid's party featuring Pippi Longstocking.

Unusual Mother's Day Gifts...

I must confess, it was the photo that first caught my eye, but it was the headline in last week’s newspaper about a “Moedersdagdildo” that really intrigued me. Turns out over 1 million households received a flyer from a chain (a Service Merchandise-type store where we bought our toaster oven and iron) suggesting rather unusual Mother’s Day gifts. We have a sign on our mailbox blocking the delivery of junk mail, so we didn’t receive it, but thought I’d share the story:

Consumers are complaining about the Mother’s Day gift brochure from Kijkshop, which contains a selection of sex toys, including perfumed condoms, silicone “love balls” and a new-style silent vibrator. People are offended at the suggestion that these would be suitable presents for children to give their mothers. Kijkshop, which says it is taking all complaints seriously, maintains that the brochure was never intended for children - the sex toys were meant for partners to give their wives. A Kijkshop spokesman said that they would consider carefully whether it was appropriate to do this again next year.

Hope you had a Happy Mother’s Day!

Hard Hat Tour in Leiden

In additional to climbing around on the outside of the Pieterskerk, we went inside onto a temporary floor placed up near the ceiling. Not only was the ceiling repaired, but the upper stained glass was replaced with double-paned windows, new stained glass and all new stonework to improve the insulation in this former church that is now used as an events hall. Not surprisingly, several volunteers asked us how we got the kids inside and we explained that it was nice volunteers that ran the construction elevator that got us up there. Luckily, no one got hurt, so we're cool parents rather than irresponsible ones. These photos show the view looking both up and down from the scaffolding.

No One Under 12 Admitted...

One of the advantages of not speaking Dutch is that we can pretend we don't understand a sign even though it's plain as day that young kids aren't allowed. When we heard that the Pieterskerk, Leiden's church dating to 1121, was having a scaffolding tour, we grabbed the girls, our American neighbor's kids and went. We ignored the sign and went to talk to the volunteer staff. After saying no kids allowed, they agreed that the three oldest were tall enough. Ashlynn wasn't, so Jimmy was going to take her elsewhere, but they said if he promised to hold onto her they'd let her go. Another example of: It never hurts to ask. Here we are at the high point of the scaffolding next to the new roof.

Two Computer Nerds in Leiden...

Jimmy was very excited that his ex-business partner Peter (some of you might remember him as Barney Rubble from the crazy Halloween hash complete with a seance that we hared in Chapel Hill years ago) was able to swing through town for a night en route to a conference in England. Time was limited, but we managed to go to our favorite pannekoeken restaurant, on a short bike ride and on a walking tour through Leiden centrum. Jimmy's old college buddy Phil was also just in town and we spent a night of deep intellectual conversing before sending him back to Houston the next morning. I know some of you occasionally get business trips to Europe--don’t forget to extend your trip an extra couple of days since we’re just a short plane ride away.

Valuable Lessons Learned While Road Tripping with Friends...

• Remember that walkie-talkies have limited range.
• Don’t carry both cell phones in one car.
• Don’t go through separate toll booths unless you want to get separated.
• Don't rely too heavily on the NavSat in your friend's car. Not only can the Dum-Dum lead you astray, but you'll be especially messed up when separated.
  
• Bring a detailed map of Belgium when you decide to ignore your instructions and cut across the country unless you like speeding along at 30MPH in all the tiny cities that don’t appear on your overview map.
• Make sure the other driver has a key to your house for when they beat you back.
• Most importantly, don’t wait until the last minute to rent your car unless you like paying through the nose.

Monet’s Garden…

Rather than drive straight back home, we decided to join Tony & Vivynne for a night in Giverny, the quaint French town an hour from Paris that Claude Monet spent 43 years until his death in 1926. We lucked into finding an inn with just 3 rooms, 2 of which were vacant and could each sleep 4. It was originally a blacksmith’s shop 300 years ago. We had dinner at the Hotel Baudy; while no longer a hotel, it once was popular with aspiring American painters learning Monet’s impressionistic style. We toured Monet’s house, which we enjoyed although it only had poor quality reproductions of his famous works. Then we visited his gardens, which were quite beautiful despite visiting too early in the season for the infamous lily pads to turn green. It was hard to believe that we were really standing on the infamous bridge in so many of his masterpieces. Across the street was an American Art Museum featuring works by those who followed Monet to Giverny to learn his impressionistic style, many of which are featured in a fabulous children’s book on our shelf: “Charlotte in Paris” by Joan MacPhail Knight.

Dragging the Kids Away...

Although it was difficult to drag them away, we were able to get the kids off the Chateau grounds a few times. We wandered around Vendome and up to the ruins of the old chateau. We enjoyed a picnic lunch, a crafts festival and some wine tasting in the quaint medieval town of Amboise. And we went to an ostrich farm. The girls were disappointed because only the juvenile ostriches were in the field and they were very skittish; the poor adult ostriches were all squished into the main barn. Here you see the kids trying to demonstrate that ostriches have tiny brains. You be the judge if they've succeeded.

Should I Trust Him with That?

While the kids were playing with styrofoam swords, the dads were taking turns learning how to fight with real swords (albeit not sharp swords); at least we had a doctor with us just in case. Us moms stayed out of the way and played photographers. We didn’t do much other sightseeing in the Loire, but Vivynne, Tony, Jimmy and I managed to dump our kids and had a day of exploring Saumur, famous for its sparkling wines and mushrooms. While the tour of the wine caves did make me thirsty, the tour of the mushroom caves just helped remind me why I don’t eat them.

Knights of the Odd Table…

Instead of visiting public chateaux this year, we opted to go to Mini Chateaux, which is a miniatures park that has 44 of the Loire Valley’s chateaux in 1:25 scale. What made this park especially cool wasn’t the models, it was the sword fighting section. The kids were so excited when they got to put on squire’s tunics and were given styrofoam swords to fight with. Here they are posed with real weapons; there was little risk of them fighting with them since they could hardly lift them. Afterwards, they were each knighted and presented with a certificate.