Exploring Urbex in Our Neighborhood...

Since Veronica had missed the hash Jimmy laid in 2018 through the amazing woods behind the historic vacant building Beresteijn, dating from 1833, we decided to pay the grounds a visit (since our visit, we have noticed that the gate appeared to be permanently padlocked). When we last visited, there were anti-squatters living in several of the scattered buildings, but this time there was no sign of life...

…other than some remnants such as this lady...

…some broken glass...

…and some actual remnants of fabric.

We brought Veronica and Brett down to the tunnel, but they couldn’t guess its purpose as an icebox. 

We were extremely baffled to discover this beautiful new bridge, but no other signs of any construction. Still hoping that the public will be allowed to visit the grounds once the property is redeveloped.

 

Zero Wind Makes for Cool Shots...

It was a rare day with zero wind so I was able to capture some cool reflection shots on the other side of town. 

I especially like this apparent one-legged Egyptian goose with her very young goslings.

 

Back in Voorschoten...

It became official on March 16 that our lives had transformed into a reality show which I called The White House Commune. Just one short week ago, I was living alone with my family scattered around the globe. As you already saw, Jimmy arrived back early from the US on March 14 and Brett flew in from Marseille on March 15. Luckily, Veronica arrived smoothly by ferry early on the morning of March 16, as it would have been very weird if Brett was with us, but Veronica was somehow stuck in England. 

It was also weird to think that they not been together long enough to even approach the subject of living together, and here they were thrown together living with us in Holland for an indefinite amount of time. 

The weather was beautiful that day and Veronica was excited about showing Brett around our village. We were thrilled that the Dutch government hadn’t put any restrictions on a household going out together for a walk, bike ride or run, activities that were already banned in parts of Italy. France and Scotland. 

The daffodils were in full bloom. 

As you can see, Veronica and Brett were in playful moods.

 

First Social-Distanced Amsterdam H3 Hash...

It was just a few days after our amazing weekend in Paris that coronavirus started rapidly spreading across the Netherlands and the US. By that Thursday, Jimmy realized that trying to go to Jacksonville was futile and he started scrambling to find flights back home instead. I was so relieved that he managed to make it back from the US on the 14th as all flights back to Europe are cancelled by the following day. He debated about attending the hash on the 15th as he was tired, but was very glad that he did. It was nice to have a distraction while we were waiting to see if Veronica could make it safely across southern England by train and then the North Sea by ferry, her boyfriend tried to fly here from southern France and Ashlynn tried flying home from Vietnam. Not sure if we were living in a dystopian love story or a new form of The Amazing Race.

The St. Patty’s Day hash started in the Amsterdamse Bos. 

What a great surprise to see that the cherry blossoms were in bloom! I had never been to this part of the park, so was very excited and took lots of photos that are now lost due to my phone crashing. Luckily a few other hashers caught a few of our group amongst the beautiful trees. 

The 400 cherry trees were donated by the Japan’s Women’s Club in 2000 to celebrate 400 years of cultural ties between the nations. Each tree has a women’s name, split equally between Japanese and Dutch names.

The Dutch government had begun advising that we maintain 1.5 meters (5 feet) distance away from each other, so we tried our best. 

It was a great trail with lots of off-road deviations from the well-groomed paths. 

We had both a Guinness beer break and lime green shot stop.  

Clearly we were breaking the rules when posing for this photo of our variety of colorful running shoes.

Slippery Edge, the hare, provided some nice Irish whisky and a large bottle of hand sanitizer...

…plus coffee filters to pour chips into instead of dipping our hands in the bags. 

Not only were we glad not to have missed this great trail with a fun circle, but it turned out to be our last in-person AH3 Hash for 2.5 months due to the rapidly changing coronavirus restrictions. The Dutch government had just announced that restaurants, bars, nightclubs, museums, gyms, salons and schools were all ordered shut by 6 p.m. that night.

We stopped at Schiphol on our way home to meet Brett’s flight. He had debated about flying back to Exeter, but Veronica convinced him that he would be better off with us than stuck in his crappy student house on his own. Little did he know what he would be getting himself into. It was shocking to arrive at the airport to see that Starbucks was already closed and Burger King, supposedly the busiest BK in the world, was shuttering up. 

 

Last Day in Paris....

Early that Monday morning, Jimmy caught a flight to the US for four days of business meetings followed by a weekend with his dad and sister in Florida. Veronica and Brett set off for a bit more sightseeing...

...and photography before heading their separate ways as Veronica had a train to catch back to Exeter while Brett was continuing his holiday by heading to Bordeaux. 

So I was alone when I headed to the Hangover Hash which started along the canal at 46bis Quai de la Loire. It was a much smaller group and luckily I managed to keep up with them and never got lost. Unfortunately, however, I did lose all of my photos since my phone died and wasn’t backed up. However, I managed to borrow some photos from Wiki Commons of the incredible park that we ran through: Parc des Buttes Chaumont. A former quarry and dump, it was turned into a park in 1867 by Napoleon III (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and first president of France). Apparently the original hills were dynamited to leave behind these jagged peaks.

Although we didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, we crossed the 205-foot (63-meter) long suspension bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel. 

Of course, we had to head up to the top of the hill to visit the park’s most famous feature: Temple de la Sibylle, a miniature version of the famous Roman Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy. 

Most surprising was to see a waterfall in Paris. Even though it was artificial, it was still pretty. We stopped for a beer break just outside the park and then had a second stop at a bakery for fresh croissants and coffee (or hot chocolate, in my case). Eventually we made it back to the start where we had a circle and a nice lunch with the leftovers from the day before. Afterwards a bunch of us went to a local microbrewery for a beer and then it was time for me to round up my luggage (which I had already moved close to Gare du Nord) and catch my train home. What a fantastic weekend!

Considering we had briefly debated about not going because of COVID-19, we were all happy to have had a great time while staying safe from the virus. When we said goodbye that Monday morning, we had no idea who quickly we’d all be together again. 
 

Hashing Across Paris...

It was so fun to run through the streets of Paris, except for when Opee and I managed to lose the pack in the Jardin des Plantes (Garden of Plants), which led to us missing the gladiator fight at the Arenes de Lutece (Arenas of Lutece). 

Luckily we managed to stay on trail the rest of the time. Here is the voluptuous Paris H3 RA checking out a group of folks doing cosplay in another park. 

I have no idea which building this is, but it was great that someone managed to capture some group shots on trail. Humorously, this is where many hashers, including Opee, went up to strangers and asked them: “Where is Brian?” If the person happened to be a local instead of a tourist, they often laughed and answered: “In the kitchen.” It turned out that was a line from a primary school textbook for learning English and was later used in a popular French comedian’s act.

The beer break was on the bank of the Seine.

We all chugged our beers and got ready to flee when we were visited by the police as we likely needed a permit to gather there. Luckily they just wanted to remind us not to swim in the quickly moving swollen river.

We covered a lot of ground as we ran across the city. By the time we got to the Louvre, it had begun to rain.

Luckily it stopped so we could pose for another group shot. 

The hash ended at a park near the Eiffel Tower with a fun circle followed by an incredible lunch buffet. Then we were surprised to learn that we were going on a bus tour of the city. We couldn’t see much since the windows were mostly steamed up, but it was fun partying with hashers anyways. That night we attempted to eat dinner near our hotel, but it was nearly impossible to find any vegan food. We finally found a pizza place, but before we could place our order, a foul chemical smell scared us away. So we settled on ordering pizza to be delivered to our hotel room. 
 

Red Dress Hash...

It was cute that Brett was so excited about shopping for his first Red Dress Hash that he didn’t mind Veronica sending me photos from the dressing room. 

Our first stop was the market across the street from our hotel.

After some confusion why a man was looking for a dress, Jimmy and I found matching velvet princess dresses which we hope to wear to a future hash weekend. 

We definitely looked out of place at the market.

The hash started along the Seine River just down the street from the Austerlitz train station. 

It was great to see Moist Incest confidently wearing his new used dress (just ignore his tacky black leggings). 

We were very proud hash parents knowing that our hash horror and her boyfriend would be running around the streets of Paris in red dresses with us. 

Here’s the entire fashionable group at the start. 

Opee was sad to have to give up his lovely Eiffel Tower dildo, but it was someone else’s turn to run with it.