Day of the Castle...

While writing the Announcements section of my final issue as Editor of Going Dutch, I came across another national open day: Day of the Castle. Not always a traditional castle, in this case it can also mean manor house. Jimmy and I were able to visit two in Voorschoten that we had cycled past many times. The first was called Berbice, which was built in 1785.

The house was lived in until fairly recently; when the 93-year-old owner died, she donated it to a foundation rather than allow her relatives to sell it off. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go inside as the building is in need of much renovation. The plan is to restore it to its former glory and use it as a cultural venue.

The English gardens were established in 1696, pre-dating the manor house. They are maintained by volunteers from the foundation. We bought some honey harvested from beehives on the property.

The woods between the house and the gardens were beautiful with well maintained paths, but off limits for hashing.

Springtime Hashing...

We went on some great FILTH (Full Moon) and Amsterdam hashes in the spring. It’s hard to tell what we're doing right here, but we’re on a boat in the canals of Leiden for the first Boaty McBoat Hash, an idea hatched by Jimmy. This fun hash featured a series of beer stops on Reinhardt’s boat which allowed hashers to switch between running and hitching a ride on the boat.

This year’s Easter Hash was hared by a US Marine dressed in bunny ears in East Amsterdam. Not only did he hide chocolate eggs throughout the trail, but he also hid the trail a bit too well as we wandered lost for about 30 minutes.

A guest hare for the FILTH hash did a great job taking us through the Japanese Garden in Clingendael Park while it was in full bloom.

I enjoyed running with Abbie in The Hague for a change.

I missed most of book club that evening, but lucked out that the end of the hash was just one block from Terri’s, where book club was being held, so got to enjoy both a fun hash and a wonderful late dinner.

Last Moments in Montenegro...

Despite these smiles, we were all sad when our time in Budva came to an end. We had a great time enjoying the beautiful scenery, fantastic weather and the delicious food.

Our journey back to the airport was another wild ride. Our route took us above Budva, where we saw this great view. The road was clearly newly paved with lots of construction trucks scattered about. Imagine our surprise when we got to the top and found a man standing with a string across the road. He was directing traffic onto a dirt path barely as wide as our car. Luckily Jimmy had downloaded maps onto his phone, so Ashlynn was able to navigate us successfully to the airport. 

Along the way we saw this small church and cemetery...

...and lots of hills. Luckily we left Budva early enough that even with a slow slog over the mountains, we weren’t late for our flight. And we had no surprise layovers in Belgrade either.

More Diving....

Since the dive boat was at a shallower dive site, Viktor took Jimmy and Ashlynn out on the Zodiac to get to a deeper site.

Ashlynn was thrilled that Viktor let her drive part of the time.

They did two dives with the deepest to 85 feet (26 meters). They went through a shaft and saw an underground boulder shaped like a pyramid.

They saw another nudibranch and some fireworms. While they were diving, I enjoyed talking to a guy who was doing an intensive divemaster course as extra training for his regular job in the Montenegrin police special forces.

Another Day, Another Boat Ride...

As much as Ashlynn felt guilty for not studying the entire day, it was too hard to pass up the opportunity to go diving again.

It was another beautiful day for a boat ride.

This time we went past St. Nikola Island.

There was a Russian couple on board that the captain took down for an introductory dive.

Sunset in Budva...

I never grew tired of the scenery in Budva.

I was happy that Ashlynn didn’t object to being photographed, because there were lots of great spots for photos.

More Kotor...

As always, I took lots of photos.

Located on the Bay of Kotor, some have called it the southern-most fjord in Europe, but it’s actually a ria, a submerged river canyon.

There was an accident clogging up the road back to Budva, so Jimmy decided to take the back roads instead. Honestly, I was shocked that our rental car made it up the crazy steep hills. Ashlynn enjoyed playing navigator while I spent much of the journey with my eyes closed so I wouldn’t have to see the scary road ahead.