Another Urban Art Walk...

On January 15, Jimmy and I headed back down to Rotterdam to do another urban art trail, this time in the northern part of the city. Along the way to the official artworks, we saw this cute small mural... 

…and this dramatic tree.

This colorful mural leads to Brewery Noordt, which unfortunately was closed.

Mother Nature helped transform this shopping cart in a canal into modern art thanks to the trees’ reflections.

These two murals were also not official parts of the tour, but thought they were cute.

Not the usual painting on a building, Volt, located in a small park, was laser-cut into weathered steel and illuminated by LED lights. 

Madre Tierra (Spanish for Mother Earth) was designed to tell us that the many borders dividing us are nothing but human constructs. The placement of this artwork was ironic since it’s behind a big gate that’s normally locked thus creating its own border.
 

Meanwhile in Brighton...

Ashlynn’s New Year’s Eve didn’t feature as many fireworks, but much more partying when she headed with Sophie down to Brighton to stay with Hannah, their old elementary school buddy.

 

New Year’s Eve...

Unlikely to be a surprise that Ashlynn left Holland before New Year’s Eve so she could spend the holiday with Sophie in England instead. Veronica stayed home to join us for a nice dinner...

…and to watch the illegal fireworks, banned once again due to coronavirus. As these photos show, lots of folks didn’t care about the ban as there were lots of big fireworks shot off from midnight until after 1 a.m.

 

Christmas in V-town...

We had a big feast for Christmas Eve...

…followed by a low-key morning opening presents.

Veronica proudly wearing her new cow apron...

…while she and Ashlynn made their traditional cinnamon rolls. 

We took a long walk, another Christmas tradition.

Once again, there were some kooky decorations in the village.

That evening we had fondue... 

…and played games.

 

Our Love Tree...

Veronica and Brett took on the task of putting together our tree on December 9...

…but only put on the lights...

...as we were waiting until Ashlynn arrived on the 21st so we could decorate it as a family. 

Our family decoration for 2021 was very apropos, complete with toilet paper, masks, the coronavirus and Brett. 

This was the first time since 2018 that we were all together to reminisce about the wonderful trips that led us to buy the decorations. 

 

Thirty Years of Hashing...

Although officially the 30th anniversary of my first hash was on December 27, I celebrated this milestone by haring the December FILTH on the 18th. Opee helped me pre-lay the trail from Voorschoten Station. While he threw a tennis ball to make his flour dollops, I used a squeeze bottle so I didn’t have to chase a ball. In my other hand was a water bottle.  

Comes Too Soon ran ahead of me during the hash, so could help Opee man the beer break with special craft beers bought at the local gourmet grocery store.

We had a nice group willing to brave the cold temps to join in the celebration. 

We did another stop at the bar in the village...

….and a gluhwijn stop in the woods at the park downtown. 

Then we hosted everyone back at our house for a chili dinner. It was our biggest crowd in the house since before the pandemic started. Glad we managed to pull it off.
 

Random City Lights...

There were lots of other lights to be seen around Amsterdam, including the giant Christmas tree at Dam Square...

…and lots of interesting buildings.

We passed by the Dutch Holocuast Memorial of Names, that opened in September 2021, bearing the names of the 102,000 victims from the Netherlands who weren’t properly buried.