Hash Trails...

We were really pleased by the interesting terrain that we hashed over all weekend. Saturday's run was in the dunes shown above (ironically, we took a yellow New Jersey school bus to the run start); we never made it down to the beach, but had a couple of view spots of the North Sea. Sunday's run was entirely on the grounds of the park which included running around the vacation rental trailers, through the amusement park, onto some of the rides and through the nearby dunes. Our final run on Monday was through the streets and green spaces of Wassenaar including through a moss reserve.

Wild Rides at Duinrell...

Not all the rides at Duinrell were as mellow as the monorail. The Tikibad is Europe's largest indoor water slide park. We'd last been there three years ago. Ashlynn had a much better time now that she's becoming a more confident swimmer, but she still wasn't ready for the pitch dark slide. Jim and Jimmy tried everything including the Typhoon, which we call the toilet bowl.

I have to admit, we wimped out and chose the closed log flume boat. Considering how wet we still got from the force of the water that sloshed in over the sides when we came down the hill, we made the right decision to turn down the open boat. After we got off, we got to stand behind a glass wall and watch the water go flying. We especially enjoyed seeing some hashers get completely soaked in the open one.

Hague Hash's 25th...

It's been a long time since Opee and I have had a chance to do a Hash weekend together. We were very excited when we found out that the Hague's 25th would be held at Duinrell, an amusement park in nearby Wassenaar. We stayed at the hostel right on the park's grounds, sharing a room with Jim and Carolyn from Friday evening through Monday afternoon. We were especially impressed how kid-friendly this event was; there was even babysitting during Friday night's pub crawl at no extra charge.

Before we hopped on the bus for Saturday's run, we squeezed in a few rides at the park. We felt like we were stepping back in time. Here's the monorail which featured frog cars that we had to pedal around the track.

A Hit in Den Haag...

It’s no surprise that we created quite a stir running through the center of Den Haag in red dresses. From the start, we immediately ran through a carnival. While we couldn't understand the comments, we suspect many people thought we were part of a gay pride parade. Above you see Carolyn and I running in front of the Buitenhof, which is the Parliament building. The Prime Minister had probably already left for the night, otherwise he would have had a great view from his window. Next we ran through the Noordeinde which is a classy shopping and dining area next to the working palace of the Queen. It was here that I stopped to talk to some folks at a restaurant and ran into two ladies Jimmy works with. I knew one of them worked in human resources, but was shocked to find out that the other was the head of HR. I was bummed that my stop might have just blown his chances for a promotion until I found out that she’s also a hasher.

Red Dress Hashing...

When Raleigh Hash buddies Jim and Carolyn were trying to decide when to come visit this spring, we suggested they come out for the Hague Hash's 25th Anniversary Weekend. As an added extra bonus, there was a Red Dress Hash the night they arrived. We were lucky enough that Sally was willing to let the girls sleep over on a school night so we could stay out late in Den Haag. I was thrilled that Jimmy and I could wear matching outfits for the first time since we usually wore dresses from Goodwill in the US, but figured they wouldn't know the difference here. We were impressed with the turnout for this group's first effort haring a Red Dress, but some of the outfits could use some improvement.

Only in Holland...

Of course, no parade is complete without marching bands and the flower parade was no exception. There were several bands with members of various ages as well as a baton throwing group. Our favorite by far was this Marching and Cycling Band. We were surprised when we saw the drummers cycling towards us, but were truly shocked when we saw the rest of the band which was complete with trumpets, trombones and a tuba. Most of the musicians had special contraptions so they could pedal and steer while playing, although you can see the tuba player was resting here.

Quick, Don't Get Hit by that Beer!

Since we live in the land of the flowers, it's not surprising that there's several flower parades each year. We finally made it to our first recently with Sally, John, David and Andrew, who live in Heemstede between Leiden and Amsterdam. While it's not as grand as the Tournament of Roses, we appreciated how laid back it was. We arrived just 5 minutes before it started and claimed a great front row curb.

This year's theme was parties, which explains why a beer is bearing down on the kids. Overall, there were 18 professional floats and many sponsor cars covered in flowers. Our favorites were the beach party and the kid's party featuring Pippi Longstocking.