Party Time in Leiden...

We were thrilled to be invited to Reinhardt and Inga’s 40th Birthday Party, which started with a pub crawl in Leiden on the Friday night. Inga was completely shocked that Jimmy and I had never been to De Bonte Koe (The Spotted Cow)…

…a charming café from 1880 decorated in Delft tiles of cows.

We always love an evening in Leiden!

We also went to Jeneverhuis, a jenever bar that we had also never been to.  

On Saturday, Inga laid a hash trail in Leiden. Sadly, I have somehow lost all of the photos with people in them, but have a few of the scenery. It was a great trail highlighting much of what the city has to offer: sculptures...

…windmills...

…charming alleys...

…and new street art.

Inga was especially happy to show this new artwork to us...

...as well as this almshouse that we had never seen despite the many hashes and walks we’ve done over the years.

The drink stop was at De Burcht, the highest point in the city with amazing views and later we ended on the top floor of a parking garage. That evening they hosted a lively party at Crooked Spider Brewery.
 

Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes...

Moving back in time to April 11, Terri and I did a great long walk in Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen (Amsterdam Water Supply Dunes) between Zandvoort and Noordwijk. This area is used to pre-treat 66% of Amsterdam’s tap water, which apparently is sourced from the Rhine River. 

It wasn’t too cold, but the dreary skies must have scared others away as we didn’t see a lot of people as we walked among the various lakes and canals. 

The color of the water varies greatly...

…with some bits looking tropical.

In approximately the same area as we had seen one on a previous hike, we were thrilled to see a fox again. 

This time, however, our timing wasn’t right to see the little ones poking out of the den. 

We also spotted deer...

…and found some of their antlers.

We enjoyed seeing some tulips on our drive home. 

 

Highs and Lows of 19th Year - Part 2

We are happy that once again our list of highs is much longer than our list of lows. Much of this list again focuses around traveling, our favorite thing to do:

• Jimmy/Melissa Travel: Belgium - Belgian Nash Hash in Ardennes, Higgin’s 60th Birthday Hash Weekend in Brussels; Canterbury - City H3 Hash Weekend, Opee hosting cocktail party and laying amazing hash trail; Cornwall - seeing Veronica graduate in Truro Cathedral, hearing her interviewed on BBC Cornwall Radio; Germany- crazy New Year’s Eve in Berlin, Opee haring Berlin H3 New Year’s Hash, craft beer bar tours, transforming into a sexy mermaid in Hamburg for Interscandi; Netherlands - finally getting our Dutch visa status sorted, fantastic museums, Reinhardt + Inga’s 40th Birthday Hash Weekend, staying with Terri; Portugal - long walks around Porto, DIVA Bubbly Hash Weekend in Coimbra, Opee haring in yet another country; Shetland - Simmer Dim Hash Weekend on summer solstice; US - great time catching up with family and friends in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, celebrating Buddy’s 85th birthday
• Jimmy Travel: Brussels - finding an affordable hotel with a spa near headquarters; Florida - first Thanksgiving with Buddy and Deb in over 30 years; Wales - Lovetrails, first music and running festival, 27K trail run was most intense run of his life (even harder than a marathon)
• Melissa Travel: England - visiting Veronica in Exeter and Carlin in Winchester, hiking holiday with Camilla in Shropshire; Scotland - visiting Ashlynn in Glasgow and Gillian in Edinburgh
• Family Travel: Croatia - fun hash cruise to lots of new destinations, waterfall and waterpark trails, good food, sea organ, photo ops, wild swimming
• Veronica Travel: Croatia - slow travel by train to family holiday included overnights in Munich and Vienna; England - cozy shepherd’s hut for New Year’s, five-star hotel in Newquay to celebrate Brett submitting his PhD thesis, Oxford, seeing old BSN friends Ellie and Fiona in Bolton, lambing at Dreda’s farm, E+S Retreat in Falmouth, visiting Peak District and Brighton with UEA friends, many trips to London, cycling to Penryn with Brett, graduation ceremony in Truro, exploring new parts of Devon on hikes and cycling trips, camping with Annabel in North Devon; Germany - visiting Brett in Hamburg, 100K cycle ride and bike camping using a Swapfiets (rental bike); Holland - summer school in Utrecht; Paris - visiting Brett, celebrating 5th anniversary, Disneyland Paris; Scotland - meeting up with Ashlynn in Glasgow during visit with David and Tamsin in Aberdeen, seeing the king 
• Ashlynn Travel: Berlin - visiting Soso and Nick; DJ on Tour - London, Perugia (Italy), Rome, Rotterdam, The Hague, Warsaw, Zurich; French Polynesian Islands - staying on same island as parent’s honeymoon, scuba diving with dolphins and sharks on 24th birthday, hiking, snorkeling, running, rooftop bar; London - Soso coming along, watching parents dancing at gig; Split - mini-romantic getaway with Felix
• Melissa/Veronica Travel: Bath - Christmas Market; Bristol - Clifton Suspension Bridge; Devon - South West Coast Path hike
• Veronica/Ashlynn Travel: Croatia - afternoon in Zagreb; London - swim at ladies’ pool at Hampstead Heath lake, dog café, cycle ride on Christmas; Slovenia - hiking around Lake Bled and Vintgar Gorge
• Family: seeing Wicked together both on West End and on the big screen; setting up our love tree and celebrating Christmas together in our own home in matching PJs
• Jimmy/Melissa: moving into our dream flat on the Thames, which is very entertaining; happy to see girls more now that we live on the same island; going to two of Ashlynn’s gigs; Sally and John moving just two hours away; London theater; hashing
• Jimmy: used to dream of living in Manhattan for two years, but now never wants to leave London; fun going off-piste when speaking at conferences; first London Gay Pride and going to gay bars with friends; doing a sub 8-minute per mile half marathon; listening to Ashlynn playing live on the radio while hashing; City H3 = spirited running, London H3 = tranquility; having the time to work on Harrier Central again 
• Melissa: finally feeling settled, meeting another American trailing spouse in our building, art exhibits, receiving an incredible photobook from Terri and getting to meet up with her several times in London including when she and Max joined for Opee’s Halloween hash trail, Ashlynn surprising me for my birthday; interesting plays and walking tours with AWC London
• Veronica: being surrounded by supportive people for my fieldwork trip (family, supervisors, research group, Brett); good friends at uni; nice house and not having to move this year; trying new creative endeavors; seeing lots of shows; passing my upgrade; seeing flaming tar barrels on Guy Fawkes Night; Lindsey Stirling concert; Sustrans and live radio interviews; Coves to Cliffs; nude photo shoots; organizing a collage session for department; successful funding bid to organize conference; aerial classes; watching Bake Off with friends
• Ashlynn: proud to raise funds for trip to Tahiti and be featured in diving magazine; lots of great music experiences, learning how to make music, playing back-to-back with numerous favorite producers, being asked to co-run favorite label and starting a new label, lovely people met on tour, fun weekends with touring artists in Glasgow; Nick visiting; running fastest 5K since 13 years old; amazing flatmates, carving pumpkins, Christmas dinner; Tami, new best friend; first time living in Glasgow and not working in hospitality; Kelburn Festival; Halloween party
• Visitor count way up since moving to London: Ashlynn, Brett, Carolyn + Mike, Georgia, Gerlof + Floris, Holly + Drake, Jim, Johanna, Leah, Lisa + Mark, Matthew, Sally + John, Silke, Soso, Tim + Angel, Veronica  

 

Highs and Lows of 19th Year - Part 1

Hard to believe that we’ve lived in Europe for 19 years as of November 22, 2024. Once again, the four of us weren’t together then, but were reunited for our first Christmas in London. We reflected on our year on Boxing Day (December 26) at a restaurant with quite a silly name: Mr. Lasagna. As usual, here are our lows first:

• Ashlynn generally not feeling like her old self
• Buddy’s “ball gladder” scare
• Global election results moving far-right
• Climate change
• Ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine
• Continued issues with visas and passports
• Being stuck in the lift for two hours
• Jimmy: less than positive experiences at the start of the year at work; feeling more sluggish than one year ago; Jim leaving Europe; Harrier Central concurrency issue hard to solve; cracked ribs from fall on trail in Croatia
• Melissa: suspected hairline fracture of arm from fall on trail in Croatia; lack of discipline to update this blog; dealing with a 14-year-old TV; Carlin and Kent moving out of England
• Jimmy + Melissa: cranky downstairs neighbor; not being allowed to light Hanukkah candles in our flat due to strict no flames rule; still too many boxes after unpacking
• Veronica: having to remove 10 ticks on a single day; Brett moving away again; struggle to find funding for PhD fieldwork; huge increase in cost for website hosting Coves to Cliffs blog; watching both the Netherlands and England lose in Euro 2024; downfall of Twitter; missing aerial convention
• Ashlynn: wake-up call to academic life; CRIOBE shitshow and lack of supervision in Moorea; toxic relationship; being sexually harassed by close friend in Moorea; sea snails dying which messed up data collection; not feeling well enough to work as a bartender; lack of help from doctors and therapists; social life going downhill; suffering from staph and strep at the same time

 

Off to The Hague...

We were so relieved when we arrived the morning of April 10 into the Netherlands without any visa problems. However, we had some minor transport problems and ended up on the Randstad Rail into The Hague; at least I finally got to see this cool new platform at Den Haag Central. We dropped our stuff off at Terri’s, where we were staying for two nights. 

Terri was just getting back into town herself, so I left to meet up with Carlin, who happened to be in town on a house-hunting trip, and Jimmy went to the office. Most of the trams in The Hague have been replaced with modern cars, but it brought back good memories to ride on one of the old versions that we first started using regularly for the school commute back in November 2005. 

Carlin forgot to bring along walking shoes, so we kept our plans pretty nearby. We saw the beautiful tulips in front of City Hall... 

…which had Escher murals on the side.

After trying to find an artsy movie, we settled on a film that we had never heard of: Arthur the King. We were both amazed how much we enjoyed this exciting movie based on a true story about a stray dog that becomes part of an endurance race team. Couldn’t resist taking this photo of a dog in the loo after the show.

Terri threw an extra special book club that evening by inviting a few of the ladies from the AWC Book Club as well. and surprising me with an incredible photo book entitled The Life and Times of Melissa in the Netherlands. It featured photos of many of the parties, balls, AWC activities and hikes Terri and I have experienced together, but also had sections with other close friends with their personal notes. No surprise that it brought tears to my eyes that she dedicated so much time to make me such a beautiful and loving gift.

The love, wine and tears continued to flow after everyone left. I am so thankful to have this amazing woman in my life!
 

Shadwell Basin...

When I walk to the grocery store, I often take the long way to walk along Shadwell Basin, which was once part of the London Docklands. While it looked particularly inviting for a swim on this calm day in mid-March, the water is deeper (up to 30 feet) and colder than it appears. Apparently several people have died in the recent past, so there are lots of no swimming signs.

Further along on my route are two old ships permanently on display at Tobacco Dock, a cool old warehouse from 1812 that hosts occasional food festivals. 

One of the creepier things I spotted on my walk in early April. 

While these photos weren’t taken from the same angle, they show the transition of spring arriving in our neighborhood.

More April 7th...

As you can see, we still needed to wear coats, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying our first drinks in 2024 on the terrace of The Salt Quay, a pub which we can see from our flat.

To get there is just one stop on the Overground, although it is actually entirely underground at that point as it crosses under the Thames. 

We were greeted by a lovely sunset as we walked to the Prospect of Whitby...

…for dinner and a few rounds of Rummikub.