Hup Holland Hup!

Despite following American football when I was in high school and college, I’ve spent the last several decades completely oblivious to spectator sports. When the World Cup was last played in 2006, I didn’t pay any attention to it. But when our entire neighborhood was decorated in orange in honor of Holland playing in Euro Cup in 2008, we tuned in. Gotta admit, football (aka soccer) is so much more fun to watch as the action never stops. Now we even have some orange banners in the yard (this house in just down the street) and have bought the infamous Heineken beer hats. Tonight the girls will stay up late to watch Holland play Uruguay in the semi-finals. Here’s hoping that Holland makes it to the finals Sunday night! Hup Holland Hup!

Outstanding Achievement Award...

For the second night in a row, we were back at the middle school to see Veronica on stage. This time it was at the annual prize giving. What a thrill to see her receive one of the four Outstanding Achievement Awards given to 7th graders. Apparently, in previous years, prizes were awarded for each individual subject. This year, all of the teachers submitted a list of their top students. What an honor that Veronica was chosen. She received a dictionary (British, of course) as her prize.

Shakespeare’s Shorts...

Gotta admit that I still have a tough time understanding much of Shakespeare, so when Veronica said she was going to be part of the school’s Shakespeare Festival called Shakespeare’s Shorts, I hardly jumped up and down. However, the whole event was very impressive. While some of the older students were using their scenes for part of their performing arts grades, the younger students such as Veronica and her three friends volunteered to participate. They put together a 5-minute scene from Twelfth Night with Veronica playing Sir Toby Belch as a hippie, the same part my father had such a great time performing in their backyard version in 2007. The ending of the evening was especially entertaining when four teens and their instructor came out in matching boxer shorts in keeping with theme of the evening.

Cycling the Bulb Fields...

I was glad to get out for one last cycle ride with Marianne before she moved back to Scotland. Our timing was perfect to see the fields in full bloom and the weather was pretty decent. We cycled from school, through the dunes up to Keukenhof (the famous gardens), then back down to Noordwijk where we caught a train back to The Hague. Not the usual long-distance ride that we tend to do, but still a great time.

10,000 Clicks...

It was with great excitement and disappointment as I watched my odometer on my city bike click from 9,999.9 kilometers. While I was planning on removing it so I could photograph it showing 10,000.0 (6,200 miles), instead it clicked back to 0.0 which was sadly anti-climatic. Regardless, I’ve really managed to crank up the kilometers in the past year or so (unfortunately, without getting any faster). I got my city bike in February 2006. In the first two years, I went 2,000 clicks. In the following year, I went 3,000 clicks. Now in just 14 months I’ve gone another 5,000 clicks. And this doesn’t include the distance on my touring bike, which is shown here as I cycled to the bulb fields in April. All this is good training for the crazy adventure Jimmy and I are setting off to in August--we’re going to attempt to cycle to Berlin (approx 400 miles).

Flower Parade 2010...

We met up with Marianne’s family to head to Noordwijk to see the start of the Bloemencorso, the Flower Parade, that travels 25 miles from Noordwijk to Haarlem. This year’s theme was Journey Through Europe, which has led to the best floats we’ve seen over the years. The parade started with kids on decorated bikes; our favorite was the Iceland volcano.

Final Moments in the Costa del Sol...

As usual, I dragged the kids into a few of the churches in Marbella. This one especially stood out as it’s the first we’ve seen with TV screens behind the columns. Somehow it seems hypocritical to demand silence when there’s TVs involved.
While it wasn’t exactly beach weather, the kids didn’t let that stop them from playing in the sand. Nor did it stop Ashlynn from getting completely soaked. We were all sad to see the great week come to an end and were even sadder that we all managed to come home ill.