Spring Days with Ashlynn...

The weather was incredible on June 2, so Ashlynn asked me to go with her to Vlietland. Clearly lots of others had the same idea...

...so we walked past the beach to find a quiet place for Ashlynn to go for a swim.

She was inspired by Veronica’s efforts to go wild swimming, but waited until the water was warmer to dive in.

That evening we went boating with Mish and Georgia.

Jimmy has done a great job of replacing the old moldy beanbag chairs with newer ones, which he covers in plastic to keep them dry.  

 

First Camping Trip of 2021...

Veronica and Brett’s first camping trip in 2021 began with a stop at Tunnel Beaches in Ilfracombe for some swimming in a natural tidal pool that has been a tourist attraction since the tunnels were carved into the cliffs in the 1820s.

I can’t stand cold water, but what an amazing location to go swimming. 

After swimming, they set off along on the South West Coast Path on a North Devon leg to find somewhere to camp. 

As much as Veronica loves cows, that night the cows truly scared her. These ones obviously came in peace, but later that night a group of around 40 cows stampeded. You can read more about the terrifying experience on their blog: Coves to Cliffs.

Sunset, before the cow incident... 

…and sunrise with the cows.

Veronica couldn’t resist swimming again the next day. 

Meanwhile in Devon...

Veronica and Brett were happy to finally get to go on their first long hike in 2021 on the South West Coast Path. It clearly was a beautiful day!

This was Veronica’s first wild swim in the beautiful blue waters of Devon after preparing herself for the cold water by swimming 19 times at Vlietland in Voorschoten. 

 

Back to Hashing...

At the end of May, Opee hared the first in-person trails in 2021 for both FILTH H3 and Amsterdam H3. We managed to talk Carlin and Kent into joining us for the FILTH in Leiden.

If you look closely, you can see that Opee actually took the time and effort to mark each stair up the steepest of Leiden’s new bridges. We had a small group that were willing to risk the weather, which held out for most of the trail. 

It was great that Strap Me Down was around to be able to join us for a great trail in Amsterdam Noord. 

There was quite a crowd of Hash Horrors, with Strap Me Down being the oldest and Just Dylan being the youngest. 

Along the trail, I spotted some interesting things, including anti-science messages on a minivan...

…a pro-broccoli poster (can you figure out the message without Google Translate?)...

…a random whale tail...

…a sweet mural...

…and some kids playing.

 

More Binnendieze...

I am finally home and all of our guests have left, so I hope to recommit my efforts in catching up on my blog...

…and so here are the final photos from our trip to Den Bosch in late May. This first set shows the Binnendieze (the inner Dieze River), consisting of the canals within the old city walls with some crazy low bridges.

While the train station looked modernish from the front...

...it was old and charming on the inside.

 

Art and Religion...

I once again need to apologize for being a total slacker this summer. And I won’t be catching up for some time yet as we have several visitors arriving soon. In the meantime, I last left off in Den Bosch....

We saw lots of cool sculptures, including these interesting broken lions that rests on car tires...

…this lovely mosaic...

…and this sweet couple.

While these statutes date from 1994, the legend of this little peeing boy dates back to the 16th century. Dieske apparently had a weak bladder and usually peed in the canals since there were no public toilets. One day he was illegally standing on top of the city walls and attempting to pee into the city moat far below, when he spotted some men creeping through the reeds. He sounded the alarm, the city gates were closed and Dieske became a hero.

At the Anne Frankplein is this peace pole, one of 250,000 such poles around the world including one in front of the Peace Palace in The Hague. On the pole is the text May Peace Prevail on Earth in four languages.

Unveiled in 2020, this bird represents freedom in honor of the 75th anniversary of liberation after World War II. 

Across the street was the former synagogue, built in 1823, and now used as a concert stage for chamber music.

Den Bosch is predominantly Catholic and has several Catholic parish churches (this is St Catherine’s) as well as a major cathedral, which was covered in scaffolding. 

We spotted Mother Mary and Baby Jesus in several spots.