School Running Club...

At the beginning of the school year, Jimmy suggested that we spearhead the effort to start a running club. We quickly recruited David and Max to be the student coaches. Unfortunately, Jimmy’s work schedule kept him out of town too often to help, so I ended up the parent chaperone when the club started in mid-March. I’m a very slow runner, so I cycled along instead and timed the kids .

I was really impressed with David and Max. They did a wonderful job mixing up the distances and encouraging the kids. Here are Andrew and Ashlynn running on the longest route, which was almost 7K.

Ashlynn never missed a meeting and was usually the fastest (and sometimes only) girl along. It was good preparation for the cross country race during Sports Day. Ashlynn was the first Year 7 (6th grade) girl and won a pair of sunglasses.

Last Race of the Season...

Ashlynn’s last race of the season was the Molenloop in Voorburg in mid-June. Jimmy ran along with Ashlynn and Andrew. While he could have passed them throughout much of the race, he confessed that once they began to sprint to the end, he couldn’t keep up with them.

Ashlynn came in 5th woman with a time of 22:35 (7:16/mile). We stuck around afterwards to watch David on the podium for 3rd place. Then we cycled to Nootdorp to Tracy and Martijn’s for his birthday BBQ.

Our Outstanding Achiever...

The Year 7 (6th grade) year-end celebration was really well done. Each class did some kind of performance. Ashlynn helped direct the first portion of her class’ unique interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood.

After the performances, it was time for an award ceremony. How exciting it was to see Ashlynn receive the outstanding achievement award for her class. What a great way to end the first year of middle school. We’re so proud of her!

Unique Way to Raise Money...

Each year, the Year 10 (9th grade) kids are in charge of doing a fundraiser at the boot (yard) sale. Jimmy helped Veronica and some of her friends set up a photography booth where kids could pay to have goofy photos taken and then folks could pay to vote for their favorite photo. Their booth raised around €60 for the bursary fund which helps students who have financial troubles during exam years.

Veronica and her English teacher got into the act as well. Guess her parents forgot to teach her that juggling knives is a bad idea. At least his parents taught him that his nail polish should match his clothes.

Orange Fever...

Once again, the girls got very into watching Holland in Euro Cup. Unfortunately, the Dutch team was placed in the “Group of Death” and were crushed by the competition and eliminated before the quarter finals.

Max makes a cute M&M lion

One of the neighbors was clearly very
disappointed by the Dutch loss

No More Bottom Braces...

After just nine months, the orthodontist declared that Veronica’s bite had been corrected and it was time to remove the bottom brackets. It will still take some time to move the top teeth together to fill the gaps left from her lack of two incisors, but there’s already a major improvement.

To the Rescue...

Imagine my surprise when the girls came home from walking Max, the black lab that they were dogsitting, and said they needed a shoe box for an injured crow. Ashlynn insisted on calling the pet hospital that runs an ambulance service. I wasn’t convinced that they’d want to help a lowly crow, but Ashlynn’s persistence paid off as they sent an ambulance to pick it up. How’s that for dedication!

A Little More of the Silver Mine...

Jimmy took the girls on a side tunnel to walk a balance beam. Needless to say, I skipped this part.

Another view of the creepy ladders. 

Rather than hike back down, we caught a bus into town. Then we found a restaurant along the river and had a relaxing dinner. We caught a train home the next morning. Bill and Nina will be moving to Switzerland soon and we look forward to visiting them there, although I’m afraid of what kind of adventures he might come up with in the Alps.

Hitting Bottom...

Here’s a cross-section of the mountaintop showing a map of the mine; clearly we had barely brushed the surface. Further down, you can see a big line across which designated the midwive’s tunnel, the shortest distance of 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) between villages on either side of the mountain.

Our guide dropped a rock at this pit and it went an awfully long way.

Luckily we didn’t go down this extra long ladder as we’d already reached the bottom of our tour.

More Ladders...

After the first 1.5 hours, the tour guide escorted most of the group back up to the surface. She then took us five plus one other fellow even further into the depths of the mountain.

Jimmy is much better with photography in low light, so unfortunately there’s no photos of him. Of course, he completely loved the entire experience. Despite his claims of being claustrophobic, he never felt uncomfortable.

An 800-Year-Old Silver Mine...

We got to the top of the mountain just in time to walk back down a little ways to the entrance to the Schauinsland Silver Mine Museum. Nina was just getting over a cold, so she opted out of joining us in the cold mine. Bill booked us for the 3-hour adventure tour. Little did I know that would mean climbing ladders down 18 stories and then back up again in the dark!

Yes, this is my big butt coming through one of the small holes just to prove that I did actually make the climbs.

The first half of the tour was with a large group for the 1.5 hour family tour, which climbed just the first 9 stories. Most of the tour was in German, but Bill was a great interpreter.

Hiking in the Black Forest...

We left Europa Park just before it closed on Friday night to catch a bus and train down to Freiburg to spend the weekend with Bill (aka Webfoot from the San Diego Hash) and his wife Nina. On Saturday, they led us into the nearby Black Forest to go on a wonderful hike.

Despite an 800 meter (2,600 feet) ascent, it was a fairly easy hike with beautiful views. In fact, it was just a minor warm-up for the real adventure that Bill had in store for us.

Another Kind of Roller Coaster...

We were really impressed with the food offerings in the park, including that we could be served French sparkling wine while sitting beside the faux Seine River while the park closed around us. Most of all, we enjoyed going to the Food Loop Restaurant, where the food traveled over mini-coasters to the tables.

Jimmy sweet talked some employees into letting him tape his GoPro to one of delivery contraptions where it managed to survive going upside down. Unfortunately, he hasn't edited the footage yet, so I’ll have to post the video later.

Here you can see Ashlynn’s Sprite on the way to our table. Not only was this entertaining, but the food was surprisingly good.

Awesome Roller Coasters!

Europa-Park boasts 11 roller coasters. My favorite was the Alpenexpress Mine Train in Austria that goes inside a mine alongside a water log ride and a walking path. I also really liked the Wodan Timbur Coaster, the new wooden coaster that just opened in Iceland in March. I skipped this one, the Blue Fire in Iceland.

I must confess that my tolerance for roller coasters isn’t what it was when I was younger. I still don’t mind loops, but can’t handle corkscrews anymore. I also don’t like too many twists, so there were several coasters that Jimmy and the girls went on without me.

Somehow they did manage to convince me to try the hyper coaster Silver Star in France. I should have remembered that I don’t really like long drops either as the 219-foot drop at 79MPH followed by a 160-foot drop was intense. Luckily, Ashlynn was so proud of me for trying, that I was off the hook for a repeat ride.

Europa-Park...

We accompanied Debby and Tim to the Rotterdam train station where they caught a train to Paris. I booked us tickets for the same time to head to Bavaria. We spent three nights at an apartment in the village of Rust so that we could spend three days at Europa-Park, Germany’s largest amusement park.

Built in 1975, the park is owned by a family that has been in the roller coaster business since the 20’s. The park is split into different country sections complete with regional architecture and foods. Although there were several original rides, many of the rides seemed vaguely familiar just like their mascots. Regardless of some obvious copying, we loved it! It wasn’t too crowded, the weather was perfect and there was plenty to do to keep us occupied for three days.

Finally Seeing Kinderdijk...

Hard to believe that it took us over 6.5 years to finally get down to Kinderdijk. So glad that the weather was perfect for another nice cycle ride. Bummer that the girls weren’t along.

After exploring, we hopped on another ferry, then cycled into Rotterdam. As we crossed the Erasmus Bridge, we came across the ending of a relay race from Paris to Rotterdam with over 300 teams raising money for cancer support. After 65K (40 miles), we wimped out and took a tram home. Got to the grocery store just minutes before it closed; Debby must think we live in a 3rd world nation since there wasn’t any fresh meat, veggies or bread left in the whole store.

Arriving at Kinderdijk...

We took a ferry on the last leg of the ride to Kinderdijk. We were all impressed how many bikes could be squeezed on. We were even more impressed of the view of the 19 windmills built around 1740.

After lunch, we watched a movie about the history of Kinderdijk, then visited the windmill that is set aside as a museum; the remaining 18 windmills are still lived in.