A Puzzle of Puzzles...

Veronica surprised me with an amazing early Mother’s Day present: a personalized puzzle of the drone shot of us laying on 16 of the puzzles that we completed during lockdown. We started with what was undoubtedly the easiest section of the puzzle: us.

It was pretty funny to put together pieces featuring my own face.

This was definitely a challenging puzzle as it was difficult to distinguish which pieces were part of which puzzle, but it was nearly impossible to figure out the gray sections. We eventually just sorted the pieces by shape and tried them one-by-one...

…and miraculously managed to finish on Mother’s Day.

We then set up for a nice photo of us with the finished puzzle...

…wearing the same clothes and including the red hat.

Also on Mother’s Day, Veronica and I both entered a contest on Facebook sponsored by the Dutch puzzle artist...

…and I won! Sadly the prize was a puzzle so tricky that I paused working on it when Veronica left for England.
 

More Windmills...

I just can’t seem to stop taking photos of Leiden’s windmills. 

Oddly enough, even after all those boat rides in Leiden, I just spotted that man sitting on a pole for the first time.

Here he is from another angle...

…and here is that same windmill from the backside.

There were still many wreaths laid below the Vrijheidsmonument (Freedom Monument) next to the windmill in honor of Remembrance Day on May 4. The monument was sculpted in 1958 out of bronze by Pieter Starreveld. The woman is looking over her shoulder, mediating on the past war years, while taking a step forward, towards the present and future. 
 

Spotted in Leiden...

It was crazy how delayed spring was this year,  evidenced by this tree which was still bare on May 9.

Restaurant terraces were allowed to reopen on April 28. It was so strange to finally see people eating out again after restaurants were closed for six months. 

By far the most surprising thing we saw was this unique boat steered by a wireless game controller...

…and powered by solar panels. 

Other things we spotted that day included a golden bust...

…a real seagull next to a fake goose...

…and dramatic rays of sunshine through the clouds.

On the walk back to the station, I spotted these pretty flowers...

…and this old-fashioned bicycle cart. 
 

Mother’s Day...

The girls outdid themselves once again with an impressive spread for Mother’s Day brunch...

…including savory tarts and sweet muffins. 

While Jimmy and the girls cycled to Bootjuh, Kati and I took the train...

…and met them along one of the canals. 

The girls were very happy to cozy up with Kati onboard...

…and Kati was clearly happy as well.

The girls were thrilled that it had finally warmed up.

Rather than sitting on the Skipper’s Bench, Jimmy had started sitting on a cushion on the floor. 

 

Our Village in Early May...

In early May, we spotted this colorful duck...

…looked after Pippen for a few hours (clearly we weren’t great dogsitters since we let her play with plastic pots)…

…realized that a Stop Lockdown sign had been transformed into a Stop the Monarchy protest...

…and saw the wreaths and flags at half-mast at the war memorial in honor of Remembrance Day on May 4.

Further in the park, it was very obvious that spring was awfully late arriving this year as there were still many bare trees...

…and the cherry blossoms were in bloom on May 4. In comparison, last year they were in bloom by March 21 and would have been long gone by early April.

 

Tulip Bike Hash...

I was thrilled when I learned that the Dutch were offering free “test to release” COVID tests after our 5th day of quarantine to enable us to cut short what is normally 10 days of isolation. Ashlynn and I went to the Leiden testing site and were really impressed with how efficient everything was. We were really lucky as we got our results fast enough that we could join the AH3 Tulip Bash the following day. 

Jimmy and Veronica opted to cycle to Sassenheim, while Ashlynn and I took our bikes on the train. The beginning of the trail was a bit messed up because it had rained and washed away most of the marks, but the hare finally started laying new marks so we could carry on to the incredible fields. 

What a great activity for the four of us to do together! It was extra special as it was Ashlynn’s first time to cycle the bulb fields outside of Wassenaar. We had beautiful blue skies, but it was a bit chilly.

We stopped for a brief moment across the street from this incredible show garden. 

 

The fields would normally be packed with crowds of tourists, so we were fortunate to have many of them to ourselves.

After ending with a beer in a park, Jimmy and Veronica split off to explore some more while Ashlynn and I started the journey home.