Scouting the Hashgiving Trail...

On November 12, Jimmy and I went to The Hague to scout Hague H3’s Hashgiving trail since Hannah and Austin, the usual hares, were a bit preoccupied with little Otto who was born on September 29. We started near Kompaan Brewery, where the beer break would be, and headed towards their house, where they’d be hosting another Thanksgiving dinner.  

This was our first time planning a photo hash. Jimmy really took his job very seriously, which left me free to take photos of things I spotted along the way. 

We saw some very cool murals along our route. It’s hard to tell, but this mural was huge...

…and had live chickens roaming around underneath. 

Check out the creepy human eyes on this small chicken mural across the street.

This huge mural was my favorite!

I’d seen this pretty girl before, but all the others were new to me. 

We also passed this colorful mosaic bench...

…and this crazy tall picnic bench. 

 

A Vegan Working at a Dairy Farm...

For several weeks, Veronica volunteered two days per week at the Floating Farm in Rotterdam. 

As much as she would have liked to have spent lots of time with the cows, most of her time was spent downstairs helping to bottle milk and put yogurt into containers. Unfortunately she had to stop within a few weeks since she suffered from a repetitive motion injury in her wrist after placing hundreds of caps onto the bottles each shift. 

She never mentioned to anyone that she was vegan.  

Each shift she visited the calves...

…and photographed cow tongues.

 

Fall at the Farm...

We visited the piglets several times a week.

They were especially entertaining when they walked in their food trough...

…or dug in the mud puddles. 

Less than one week after I took a photo of these free-range chickens...

…they were confined within chicken wire placed directly beneath the coop due to another outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands. These poor chickens would never get to run around again.

In a rare moment, Kati posed for a photo with some goats...

…and a heron cooperated as well. 

There were some fall colors nearby.
 

The Long Dunes...

After our urban walk, it was time to head out into the countryside for the official 14-mile (22.5K) route called The Long Dunes. Only 20% of the route was on paved roads.

Considering how far from the coast we were, it was surprising to cross so much sand. 

Since we would be walking so far, I didn’t bring Kati along, so here’s a photo of a random pretty dog.

This sign made me laugh. Presumably it wasn’t a gender thing, but rather meant that the route was for people rather than horses.

It was a nice walk to Hollandsche Rading, a small village west of Amersfoort. We missed the train by seconds, so were thrilled to see that there was a station café where we could hang out and have some delicious pie. 

 

Reflecting on Amersfoort...

In early November, Terri and I caught a train to Amersfoort to do a long walk between stations. While the official trail headed straight out of town, we did a detour so Terri could see the city. 

It was a gray day, but with no wind, so there were lots of reflections and fall colors along the canals.