Christmas in The Netherlands

This year we decided to stay in The Netherlands for Christmas, the first time since Paula was born, and that is 16 years ago! We had family over both days for dinner and drinks, and because it was very mild weather we took our visitors for a walk in the dunes with Beau. Paula and Dorien also had to look after two ponies during Christmas, so they came along as well. Especially on Boxing Day it was very crowded in the dunes and on the beach with strollers, getting some fresh air in between meals. Too busy for the horses...

Now it is prep time for skiing, and more fresh mountain air!

Dorien (on the bike) and Mary are watching Paula ride Beau in the dunes

Dorien is walking Bo and Jack, Paula is following with Beau

The Boyz from the Hood, our nephews on the beach

Paula and Beau

Beau is allowed some grass on the way back to the stable

More Beau and a Dutch tradition

This weekend Beau was taken outside the stable again, but now with Dorien sitting on his back, and following a different route through the dunes. Mary and Paula were holding him on a leash, to keep him assured in this new environment. As Beau was acting very calm, the leash was unclipped, and he followed us like a obedient dog. At the end of the path we turned around, and Beau suddenly bolted away in a canter, scared of something we didn't see. Dorien didn't panic and brought him back under control; 500 m further they were both waiting on the rest like nothing happened. It is all about confidence, also for a horse, and strange noises or shapes need getting used to!

It was Sinterklaas at Madurodam handicapped stable and Paula and Dorien were asked to play as his helpers, Zwarte Piet (black Peter). They dressed up, got themselves face-painted and played along during the lessons. As many of you know Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent of Father Christmas, who brings presents to all children in early December. Due to the age of the girls (and the fact that they got a huge present with Beau!) we didn't do much ourselves; but this way they still participated in a typical Dutch tradition.

Beau, Dorien and Mary, when everything was looking fine

Dorien and Paula at Madurodam stables, playing Zwarte Piet

Beau

This is the first of, no doubt, many posts. Beau has been with us for a week now, and slowly getting used to his new life at the stable. Every day he has done a bit of exercise, ranging from short walks in the park to longing and even a regular lesson with Paula. All three have ridden him now, and he is very pleasant, and obviously well-trained. Today we took him for his first walk outside, into the dunes and a short stretch on the beach, to get him used to his new environment and take away his fear for the unknown, in preparation for rides in our surroundings. He was a bit nervous at first, especially for a large orange surf-kite, but helped by the calm attitude of the girls he was fine in the end. And definitely a bit more interesting than looking at the same stable horses all day!

Dorien is taking Beau for a walk

Beau is posing with Dorien and Piet

Rio

Piet recently started working on a project in Tanzania, where he and a large team of people are evaluating the potential for new offshore oil and gas fields. Because drilling wells in this setting is extremely expensive Shell teamed up with Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company, to share costs and risks. In order to align the work of both companies a meeting was convened in Rio de Janeiro, and Piet was invited along. So he flew over to Rio de Janeiro with his boss and spend 2 days in meetings, in a windowless room. On the last day the meeting finished early and they had to wait several hours before returning to the airport, so they took the opportunity for a blitz visit to the most famous site: Christo Redentor, the statue of Jesus on top of Corcovado mountain. Corcovado is a granite hill, located in the middle of the city, with a height of some 700 m. The statue was constructed in 1922-1931, and adds another 40 meters. It was a very nice day and the views over the city were stunning: a good ending of a short trip, and an appetiser for more!

Ipanema Beach in the early morning

Christo Redentor is the most popular tourist site in Rio

View over Rio, with Sugarloaf Mountain in the distance

Finally!

Finally it has happened: Mary bought a horse!. After a serious search of some 6 months, starting with Real in France this summer, and many horses on internet and several inspections she ended up in Dordrecht and found Beau, a brown gelding of 10 years old. As she learned from bad experiences of some of her friends Mary insisted on a thorough veterinary examination before a final decision. Two weeks ago this examination was stopped by the vet as Beau probably made a misstep getting in or out of the trailer, and was limping. After 2 weeks of rest Beau passed the vet test with flying colours on Friday and today his owner brought him to The Hague. In "our" stable De Wildhoef there was a free box, and he is now living 300 m from our house. The girls are very happy, and homework is looking less important at the moment!

The girls are very, very happy with Beau

The advertisement picture: Beau in competition mode

Rabo Beach Challenge 2011

Piet signed up for the Rabo Beach Challenge 2011 again, despite his "freezing" experience of last year (post of 30th November 2010). His cycling mate Renaat passed for this one, in order to spare his bike (sea water and sand!) for further degeneration. It should be clear: bikes are really suffering and you can hear them creaking badly during the race.

Anyway, Piet lined up with some 1000 other cyclists for a 38 km ride from Scheveningen to Noordwijk and back. Unfortunately it was high tide, the sand was very soft, and there was only a very narrow strip fit for cycling, just along the waterline. It was a very tough ride towards Noordwijk, with many crossings through water, some even knee deep! After the turning point there was a short stretch along a cycle path in the dunes, and back on the beach. Luckily the sea had withdrawn a bit, and the cycling was a lot better. Soon the silhouette of Scheveningen Pier was visible, and Piet finished after 1 hr 52 minutes, somewhere in the middle of the pack. The weather was quite pleasant, some 8 degrees and little wind, and even though Piet was soaking wet, his fingers and toes were doing fine......and back home a very thorough bike cleaning job was waiting!

An impression of the 2011 Rabo Beach Challenge, 19th November 2011

Voluntary work

Every Saturday morning our alarm goes off at 7 o'clock, and Mary, Paula and Dorien get up to go to the Madurodam Stable. This stable offers lessons and rides for handicapped children and adults, and only manages to run with help of numerous volunteers. For us this all started by the requirement from school to put in a few hours of community service each term, and driven by their passion for horses, and the closeness of this stable, the girls ended up there soon after we arrived in The Netherlands. The day starts at 8, when the stables are cleaned out and the horses are groomed. Then a few of the experienced riders among the volunteers (and the 3 Lambregts ladies are definitely qualified!) take the horses for a ride in the dunes and, when allowed, on the beach. This way the horses can loose some of their excess energy before their lessons start. At 10 the first riders arrive, which have a widely varying degree of mental and/or physical handicaps. Dependent on their ability the volunteers help them with the horse, guide the horse, or even hold the rider while doing their lesson or ride. Mary, Paula and Dorien have build up good relationships with a number of riders, and for most of them it is clearly the highlight of the week. The work is normally done at 1 pm, when we have lunch at home together.

Piet usually goes for his weekly bike ride during this time, but today that was postponed to the afternoon. He took the opportunity to follow them on their ride and to take some pictures.

Crossing the main road between the stable and the dunes

Riding on the beach, along the waterline

Returning back to the dunes

Leaving the beach

Dorien riding Billy in the dunes

Autumn break in Belgium and France

For the autumn break we planned to go to our house in France again, to get everything ready for winter and to take a break after the hectic weeks with the funeral and the seemingly never ending renovation upstairs. A few months earlier Piet proposed a change to the regular schedule: a long weekend stopover in the Ardennes on the way down. He found a very nice 4-person room in a renovated 17th century farmhouse, in the beautiful village of Furfooz, a few minutes’ drive east of Dinant. The weather was great, and we did some of the classics…

The first day we went to Dinant and climbed the citadel, located some 100 m above the town, and with a great view over the Meuse river. We enjoyed the guided tour by an old, tri-lingual Belgian man, especially his English translations. In the afternoon we did a walk from Furfooz, past Chateau de Vêves, another Ardennes classic, and ending up at the Lesse river. The next day we drove to Han, to visit the caves, which is one of the oldest tourist destinations in Europe. Despite going in with a lot of people the 2 km underground walk was very impressive and enjoyable. In the afternoon we did a hike around Han. The 3rd day we walked to Parc de Furfooz, a small archeological area next to the village, with some Roman remain and pre-historic caves. After lunch we did a trip along Mary’s memory lane: the climbing rocks of Freyr, at the Meuse river, just south of Dinant. During her university days she used to come here a few times a month to go rock climbing with fellow daredevils, and it was impressive for us to see these near-vertical, 100 m high walls she used to tackle. We descended to the river and walked along it to the Lesse, and back up again. Unfortunately their old hangout “Chamonix”, where they used to eat chips after a hard day of climbing, was closed for the day.

The next morning we drove to Bassey (Paula turned 16 this day!), and we arrived late in the afternoon. We had a few presents and dinner in the local pizzeria to celebrate. The next day it rained, so we did some shopping, and pottered around the house. This was followed by 3 glorious days of sunshine, and work in the garden. Mary finally managed to convince the rest to dig up the drainpipe, which has been blocked for some time, and was overflowing during rain showers. It looked like a daunting task, but with the 4 of us we managed fine. We replaced the pipe along the house and in the garden, dug a drain hole at the end, and filled it with gravel from our local river Sarenne, and then buried the whole thing again. Now we have to wait for a heavy rain storm to see if it all works.

We also had some time for our favorite pastimes: Piet did two bike rides, freezing his body parts on the descends, Paula and Dorien went twice to Cecile to do some horse riding, and Mary used the chainsaw to prune the old apple trees in the garden. The girls also picked a lot of apples to make apple crumble and compote, and there were plenty left to take home for some more batches. It was all finished off with a record drive back to The Hague, ready for the winter.

The next morning we found out that the contractor doing the renovation had gone belly up...

Dinant and the river Meuse

Walking near Furfooz

In the caves of Han sur Lesse

The climbing walls at Freyr are rising straight up from the river Meuse

Digging up the drainpipe in our garden

Family matters

We have had an emotional week, as Piet's mother has suddenly, but not unexpectedly, passed away peacefully in her own house. Her health had been deteriorating the past few years, and her body had just given up. Piet, Mary, his two sisters, his brother and their partners have spent the whole week at the parental house planning the funeral, starting organising some of the household and paperwork, and mainly being together to support each other and share memories. Piet's mother was a very warm and caring person, who has supported us through our years abroad, and she also had a very close bond with Paula and Dorien. Her passing is a great loss for us.

The week ended with a funeral service in the church nearby, and afterwards she was placed in the graveyard, next to Piet's father. This was followed by a reception in a nearby restaurant, where we met a lot of family and friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. Everyone had the same positive stories and memories, and it was a very satisfying ending of a hectic week.

Piet's mother with Paula and Dorien in the desert near Cairo, December 2007

Paula's Personal Project

As part of her IB MYP (middle years program) Paula has to do a personal project. This is something completely undefined, with a subject you can determine yourself; the only requirement is that a product is delivered and a final report is written. Choosing the subject was not difficult, it had to be something with horses. But what..?

Before the summer Paula and Mary stumbled across someone on Internet with a veterinary background who was painting on horses to indicate organs and bones. Thus the idea was born to give a lesson at the local stable on the internal organs of a horse, using a painted, real horse for demonstration. Then the search for the right paint started, and, after a few trials, Paula got in contact with a horse chiropractor (yes, they exist), who pointed her to the best paint to use. After a few trial sessions and practicing her lesson with us, Paula was ready. She delivered her lesson with confidence, using horse Vera as prop, in front of some 20 people at the stable. And everybody learned something!

Paula has kept her own blog as a journal of the project, so if you want to know more: http://horseanatomypp.blogspot.com/

Working in Italy

Piet went on a nice business trip last week: a geological excursion in the south Italian Apennines. These trips are offered occasionally for people in the office to "reconnect with the rocks". The aim is to study oil or gas producing reservoirs in the field, and not behind a computer, and to get an appreciation for the variability, scale and detailed properties. This trip started in Naples, then towards the south, back north along the Adriatic coast, and returning through the mountains to Rome, 6 days in total. The weather was beautiful, the food was excellent, the company enjoyable, and Piet even learned a few things! What more can you wish for?

In the end Piet had half a day before returning home, and he took the opportunity to visit Ostia Antica. This is the ancient port of Rome, now some 4 km from the beach, and a huge site with remains of a large city. There are hundreds of houses, temples, baths and a well-preserved theatre. You can wander around for hours, and easily image the buzz during the Roman time. An appropriate ending of an excellent trip!

Looking at carbonate rocks near Salerno

Walking back after visiting some more rocks...

Matera, a UNESCO world heritage site in southernmost Italy

A mosaic in Ostia Antica, in a small shop along the ancient trading square

Summer holidays (part 3)

The last part of the holidays started in three different directions: Paula and Dorien went on a week long horse back camping trip, Piet had to go back to The Hague to return to the office and Mary’s brother Tony, with family, arrived for a week of holiday in France. Paula and Dorien started their trip at the stable in Mizoen, with Cecile and two other girls, and on the first day rode to Col d’Ornon to camp under the stars. The second day they descended to Valbonnais where they stayed for 2 days at a small lake. This allowed the blacksmith to come and fix some horseshoes for the remainder of the trip. Via the Taillefer and Bourg d’Oisans they ended up in Mizoen again, exhausted after a week of horse riding and fun in beautiful weather.

A few days later Paula’s friend Laura arrived to stay for the last 10 days of the holidays. They were allowed to ride small village pony using a cart (which they also used as rickshaw). For the rest they played lots of cards, and went to Cecile a few times to ride and help her with little kids.

When Piet returned it was finally time for some outdoor activities. The backpacks were filled up and we hiked to Refuge de la Selle, one of the mountain huts we hadn’t visited before. It is a spectacular place, with the dining area suspended in the air. When we arrived we left the backpacks and continued to the nearby glacier. We didn’t reach it, but got a good idea for next time. Every year we are planning some real mountaineering, and we are getting closer each time…. After a healthy meal we slept in the dormitory, and the next morning we descended back to St. Christophe. On the way down we lost Paula and Laura, and after a long wait we were getting worried. We split up to look for them, and Mary found them nearby, covered in red spots.. they had been picking raspberries and filled two drinking bottles. So we ate raspberry pie that evening! Two days later we went back to the same area to do the Via Ferrata, a secured rock climb.

The last days were spent in the garden and on the bike, and we had the neighbours over for farewell drinks. Then it was time to clear everything away, close the house, hook up an empty horse trailer, and we drove home to our regular life of office, school and …..horses! More about that later.

Riding in the mountains during the horse - camping trip

Sleeping under the stars: Cecile, Elsa and Dorien

Cecile riding towards Taillefer

Dorien passing Lac Fourchu, near Taillefer

Paula and Laura are making a tour with Image

Spectacular: Refuge de la Selle

Paula is climbing the Via Ferrata of St. Christophe

Mary, Laura and Paula are crossing a suspension bridge on the Via Ferrata

Dorien's shadow is also doing the Via Ferrata

Summer holidays (part 2)

Like in The Netherlands the weather in France was not great this summer, it rained quite a lot and it was much cooler than usual. The higher slopes were even regularly covered with snow, but this didn't stop us being outside most of the time. This poor weather spell coincided with the Tour de France and the visit by Mary’s parents. As usual we enjoy the few days of hectic activity surrounding the Tour and on the day walked up a few kilometers towards Alpe d’Huez to see the “caravane publicitaire” (advertisement or publicity caravan) and of course the cyclists. The great thing is to see the cyclists battling up the slope, so close that you can almost touch them. Piet saw all his heroes, but unfortunately the Dutch guys played second fiddle. At the end of the day we descended, loaded with goodies from the caravan, and to watch the taped recording of the whole stage: were we on television? A very brief shot in passing.......

Mary’s parents had a quiet time, sitting on the terrace, doing short walks and enjoying the horse show in the garden. Our neighbours, owners of the village mare Swallow, wanted to make use of Real’s presence to get her pregnant. Jacques came over to supervise the first “meeting”, a pretty violent affair where Real tried to jump Swallow for a few hours, and got kicked everywhere.... but no success. In the end they were separated to allow Swallow to get “on heat” before a second attempt. They were both left in our garden to stimulate this process and to allow them to get to know each other better; a thin electric wire effectively keeping them apart.

We spent a lot of time working in our patch of forest, cleaning out dead wood, and cutting firewood with all our noisy tools. We also took the girls on a bike ride to their first col: Col d’Ornon, 650 m above the valley. They managed without any problems and are already asking about Alpe d’Huez! However, they are looking forward even more to their horseback camping trip next week....

The whole family is ready for Col d'Ornon

Halfway at the climb at Pont d'Ornon

Proud to have reached the top!

Rob Ruigh and Robert Gesink are struggling up Alpe d'Huez

Dutch hero Johnny Hoogerland

Summer holidays (part 1)

During the last part of Mary’s recovery period from her back surgery her horsey itch started again. With Smook far away (see post of 10th of June) she investigated the possibility to get Mirinda, our horse in Egypt, over to The Netherlands. Unfortunately, in addition to the current unrest, there is at present a ban on exporting horses from Egypt, so the search quickly switched direction to France. Last year she met Jacques and his horse Real (pronounced Re-aal), a stallion that she really liked. So she hooked up with him again and drove over to Normandy to view this horse. It was agreed that we could have the horse on loan for a trial period, before we would make a final decision to buy. However, we had to get the horse ourselves… So now the search was re-directed to marktplaats.nl (a Dutch version of Ebay) to find a horse trailer, and Mary was successful within a few days.

Thus on our first day of the summer holidays we all drove over to Normandy, stayed overnight at Jacques’ farm and early in the morning loaded Real in the trailer. Then we drove all the way across France to our house in Bassey, a solid 12 hour drive as we had to keep our speed under control. On arrival we quickly had to make a small paddock with electric fence and let him out. The next days a much bigger space was set up in our garden and Real slowly calmed down. Then the trials started: he proved to be a handful, and although he picked up quickly on the exercises his fiery character kept playing up (not helped by a number of mares in the village!), and we had some entertaining rodeo scenes. After several days the opinion of Cecile, the local stable owner, was sought and she was very clear: this horse is not suitable for a stable in The Netherlands. After few more days Mary and the girls accepted the inevitable and the decision was made to decline.
Due to all this horse action our usual activities were at a lower level, but we had a few nice days with Hanneke (Smook’s owner) and her extended family, and Piet managed to get a number of bike rides under his belt.

Paula and Mary are training Real

Dorien riding in our paddock in the garden

Real is a very sweet horse, but not really suitable for us in The Netherlands

The crash

On the last weekend before the summer holidays Piet had his first ever real crash, after some 25 years on the bike. The weather was great and a long loop around the islands south of Rotterdam was nearly done. Piet was drafting behind his mate Renaat, speeding along a narrow cycling path with no one in sight, when suddenly some geese decided to cross. Renaat braked abruptly, bikes tangled and they were both on the ground. Piet had some bad roadrash (elbow, thigh, knee, lower leg) after sliding on the asphalt, Renaat tumbled in the grass and was fine. His bike however, was missing a 10 cm piece of carbon frame that had snapped off his rear fork. A total write-off for the frame, and stuck in the middle of nowhere… (east of Hellevoetsluis for the connaisseurs). So, Piet got back on his somewhat functioning bike, cycled 25 km back to the car, picked up Renaat, and together they drove back home, to the joy of cleaning wounds under the shower. We will spare you the photo’s of raw flesh! After a few unpleasant nights and 2 weeks of scabs he has a baby-pink skin again. There are a few upsides though: apparently you don’t become a real biker if you haven’t had a serious crash (and live to tell the tale!), and Renaat can start looking for a new bike…

Bikes and horses

During the last months we have been very active on two fronts: cycling and horse riding. Piet and his cycling mate Renaat have been putting in many kilometers since early spring. On Saturday mornings they have been making rides of 80-120 km, all over the western part of The Netherlands. This culminated in two organised events, "cyclosportives", in Limburg and the Belgian Ardennes. These are longer rides with thousands of participants, on scenic roads, with many small climbs. The first one was the Grensland Klassieker, 150 km from Geleen to Eupen, Aachen and back.Unfortunately this day had the worst weather in a long time, and they got soaking wet and very cold, but finished without problem. The next ride was the Steven Rooks Classic, 165 km from Maastricht, south into the Ardennes and back, over the classic roads of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race. The weather was fantastic, and both finished strongly after nearly 7 hours on the bike.

Also the girls have been busy: Paula is spending more time with the friendly giant Zidane; especially after Zidane stood on his owners foot (and she broke a bone). Mary has slowly started riding again after her back surgery, and except for some initial sour muscles she has been doing fine (and enjoying it tremendously after 4 months of abstinence!). The injury of our timeshare horse Smook has not been improving, and his owner decided to take him to a field for the summer. She found a place in Kootwijk (east-central Netherlands), where he is sharing a large patch of grass with other horses. We went to visit him, and Smook is obviously enjoying the freedom after months of confinement in his box at the stable.

Piet's race number for the Grensland Klassieker

and for the Steven Rooks Classic...

Paula and Dorien are trying to walk Zidane

Nearly under control, Zidane is very strong!

Paula and Dorien are entertaining Smook in Kootwijk