Hash House Harrier Museum...

Back in mid-September we went to a Hague H4 trail that started at the Hash House Harrier Museum set up by Neptunus. For years he had hosted the museum in his own home, but had found an affordable anti-squatting location and was ready for a grand opening. I arrived at the hash early so I could explore the museum on my own. In this small room were lots of hash banners, magazines...

…and backpacks. 

The main room upstairs was very impressive! There were around 2,500 shirts organized by country. To put this into perspective, the Digital Hash Shirt Museum has photos of 1,700 shirts.

I felt very privileged to be surrounded by so much hash history in light of how important the hash has been in my life. 

To see with my own eyes all the love and effort that Neptunus put in to preserve all of these hash memories was quite astonishing. 

If we’d only had a crystal ball, we would have stored our old hash shirts rather than donating them (if they weren’t R-rated) or putting them in the textile recycling bins. 

While hash shirts made up the bulk of the collection, Neptunus has donated much of his own hash memorabilia plus has received donations of those who have passed onto the hash trails of the great beyond.

 

Thanksgiving Hash...

We couldn’t be with the girls or go to our traditional restaurant on our 15th anniversary in the Netherlands, but we could take Hannah and Austin up on their offer to see their new house and join them for dinner. Their invite also meant that we could run their naturally socially distanced Hashgiving picture trail around Rijswijk and Voorburg. Some of the things spotted on trail included: Sinterklaas in the window of a lingerie store...

…gnomes in the park...

…views across a canal to The Hague...

…obstacles in another park...

…and some very cool urban art. 

I especially loved this mural.

Despite declaring that we would keep distance due to coronavirus, Jimmy couldn’t resist playing with Emma and holding Sanne, who was born just a week before the first pandemic lockdown. 
 

Sunset in Leiden...

It was beautiful being on the canal as the colors of the sunset danced across the water.

It was also nice of the seagulls to put on a show.

There’s no doubt that Jimmy enjoys being a skipper...

…and that I enjoy being his passenger with a camera.

 

More Fall Boating...

The following day, Jimmy and I went back out on the boat. We did a quick trip down my favorite canal...

…where we saw this cool red and white door along with a color-coordinated red, white and blue boat.

Eventually we headed out of the city center to explore some outer parts of Leiden, where we spotted this blue heron hanging out...

…and in motion. 

What might look like an innocent smile on Jimmy’s face, was really a sh*t-eating grin as he prepared to...

…explore beyond this tunnel. 

Surprise, surprise, it led to a dead end. Luckily the canal was wide enough for him to turn around. 

In comparison, our floating bathtub is very classy. 

Frosty made an early appearance in Leiden. 

 

Back to the Dunes...

In mid-November, Terri took me and Kati back to Wassenaar Beach for another walk in the dunes...

…on a beautiful fall day. 

Glad that we managed to walk on the antitank wall on past visits as a gigantic construction project for the water company had begun that blocked the path to the wall. 

This time we continued onto the path to the Panbos (a private woods where we could easily enter, but couldn’t figure out how to pay the entrance fee), where Inga had taken us on our first physical FILTH hash way back in June. 

Unlike when we hashed through the park, Terri and I did the 2.9K loop around the woods that led us past some additional segments of the Atlantic Wall. 

It was much easier to photograph the wall than the dog. 

There were definitely more fall colors in the private woods than elsewhere in the dunes. 

Just outside the forest we spotted these two impressive Scottish Highland cows. 
 

Let’s Check Out This Canal...

Captain Jimmy is very skilled at judging distances, but sometimes he gets a bit over ambitious, including when he opted to go under this bridge onto the Kijfgracht.

It was a lovely little canal...

…with quaint houses, bikes...

…and boats, including this one painted like a tuxedo.

In addition, this particular canal was a dead end with too many boats to allow us to turn around. Luckily Jimmy has always been good at driving in reverse. 

Nice of this boatowner to set up this birdbath.