DutchBoy took a day off work and his dad came up and we all went to the Railway Museum. I have to admit, all the boys really, really liked it and I, well, I thought it was OK (pictures with a date stamp taken by DutchBoy’s dad). This amused me. Sorta. In an eye-rolling kinda way. Roughly translated, “There’s work in the Railway stores. There it’s responsible and interesting work… MENS WORK. A friendly and welcoming work environment and above…
Again taking advantage of our museum memberships and a lovely late September afternoon, we headed off to the Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuisen. It’s another outdoor museum, a collection of old buildings and other heritage stuff. You take a boat from the parking lot to the museum and then get to wander around in buildings and such. I can see going back there when the kids are older as there was a lot of cool stuff for them, including dress up clothes…
The Openluchtmuseum (literally “Open Air Museum”) is a collection of restored historic buildings, staffed by people in traditional costumes. They do traditional crafts (and naturally, sell the products) and have activities for the kids. But mostly, it’s just a very pleasant place to walk around in, with lots of interesting things to see. We’d been meaning to get there for a while – we bought these museum year cards (free entrance to many museums for only €35 for the year…
A very traditional Mothers Day. We went with DutchBoy’s parents to the Keukenhof. We’d won tickets in the bank lottery he plays and a lovely sunny Mothers Day seemed the perfect day to go. It was beautiful, and though busy, not so busy that it was overcrowded. And by around five, everyone had gone home for dinner so it felt almost deserted and we got to wander through the flowers at leisure. I took quite a lot of pictures and…
Today we went with a visiting Canadian friend to another World Heritage Site, Kinderdijk. Again, while nice enough, it was hardly on the scale of an Angkor Wat or some of the other sites I’ve seen. But it was pretty enough, and quintessentially Dutch, with windmills and dykes and polders (the areas of land inside canals), as you see here. Sprocket quite enjoyed his time in the back carrier, as he usually does. Me and my friend. A swan in…
Off to the medieval castle of Muider, the Muiderslot (slot = castle) today. The occasion was a visit from our friend A, who’s staying with us a few days – she’s American but since she’s a flight attendant it’s easy for her to come visit. She arrived early in the morning and made her way down to Utrecht. After a quick nap for her, we headed off. Signage to Muiderslot was a bit confusing (as always, you can click on…
Today we took a short jaunt to Schokland, the Netherlands’ first UNESCO World Heritage Site (there are now several others). It was pretty sad compared to some of the other UNESCO sites I’ve been to, and I got to wondering just how many that was and whether I was just remembering the spectacular ones so I compiled a list. Turns out I wasn’t – pretty much all the other ones I’ve been to are better than Schokland. Schokland is a…
I wake up at 7 or so to get ready for school – this is looking out my back window first thing in the morning. This is the parking lot/storage shed area for the complex we’re living in. And peaking up around the corner is an 1896 water tower that is now also the Water System Museum. I leave the house between 7:45 and 7:55 and walk or ride my bicycle to the train station. This morning I walked (the…
The last ride for me of the season was my very first Toy Run. I was excited to see what this major day of bikes was all about. The day dawned and it was cloudy but not raining, so we decided it was a go. I was taking one of my sisters on the back – she can’t ride (or drive) because of a vision thing, but is an experienced passenger and loves bikes. The day turned out well despite…
With the death of Julia Sit, the riding community lost one of its most involved members. It seemed an especially unnecessary tragedy since she herself had lost her partner in a riding accident almost exactly a year previously, and now her loss was being felt by her new fiance and almost everyone in the riding community. It seemed like even people who’d never met her felt like they knew her. She’d run a coffee shop for her parents, the Flying…
This ride, the Merritt loop via Princeton, started wet, continued grey, turned brilliant, but involved some loss and searching, and ended with good proof that my luck hasn’t run out yet.In preparation for this ride, 6EChick came over and spent the night with me – including gamely going out to a bar with strangers. In the morning, she got to accompany me on my cookie deliveries to my team in Kits (in the rain) and then out to Burnaby Kawasaki…
Duffy Lake road is one of the long loops available from Vancouver. It’s got some great scenery – going from coast to mountains to the desert on the other side – and is very twisty. But it’s also well known for the quality, or rather lack thereof, of the pavement. I’d been wanting to do it for a long time, but unfortunately, at the beginning of the day at least, my head wasn’t quite in it (hangover and hormones –…