It is our first holiday weekend, and our first taste of "real" Dutch weather. Friday, 30th of April, it was Queen's Day, celebrating the birthday of our queen (in fact of the late queen-mother, as the our queen Beatrix has a birthday in January, not a very good date for our National Day). This is a day with street celebrations everywhere, with many bands playing on the streets and especially the "Vrijmarkt (free market)", where people and children can sell anything they dragged out of their attics and basements. Unfortunately it rained during the night and in the morning, but luckily the sun came out during lunch time, saving some of it. We had a long cycle through The Hague, to drop off Paula at a friend, followed by a long-way-round return trip, passing by the Queen's residence Huis Den Bosch. We encountered a few Vrijmarkt areas on the way, mainly filled with kids trying to sell their left over toys, games and DVD's. When Piet picked up Paula at the end of the day it was clear that the rubbish collectors were on strike; the centre of The Hague looked worse than Cairo on a bad day!
What else did we do:
- Dorien has been playing at in our pond a lot, there are thousands of tadpoles swimming around. She is catching them, putting them in a jar, releasing most of them, and putting a few unfortunate ones in a bird bath (these get quickly eaten).
- Paula made a friend at school who is as passionate as she is about horses. This girl, Laura, is looking after someone else's horse, and that is where Paula went on Queen's Day. They brushed and trained this horse, Grizzley, and had a lot of fun together. Laura is living on the other side of The Hague, but next time Paula will go alone, now she has had a taste of independence and freedom that a bike is offering.....
- Piet has done his first long cycle ride in the poring rain, coming home soaked to the bone, with lifeless feet and hands. Nothing a warm shower can't solve, and he better gets used to this!
- Mary has been fighting with the new IKEA wardrobe, which is nearly finished. Putting it up required a 4-person team, and putting the drawers is is hampered by some flaws in the design... But it looks like our bedroom will be ready next week.
Dorien is catching tadpoles in the pond in our garden
Paula is jumping with Grizzly
Piet and Mary in front of the house
No comments:
Post a Comment