Friesland and Vlietland

At school Paula is participating in the “International Award”, a British program aimed at stimulating voluntary work, reaching creative and sportive goals, and independence. Paula got a bronze award last year, mainly based on a 2-day hiking trip near Utrecht, in the pouring rain. 

For this year the silver award was scheduled, and Paula and 3 of her friends planned something completely different: cycling the famous Friesian 11-cities tour, well known from ice skating (see also post of the 12th of February 2012), and the most famous sports event of The Netherlands. They planned to cover the 200 km in 3 days, and to camp for 2 nights. They presented their itinerary to the coordinator at school, and got approval. One of the teachers volunteered to accompany them, which is a requirement from the Award organisation. 

So very early on Saturday morning Paula and her friends loaded their packed bikes into a train, and got out in Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland, to start cycling. Unfortunately summer wasn’t there yet (like almost all weekends this year), and a very strong south-western wind was blowing. The first day took 65 km with a strong headwind, and was a real challenge for the girls. But doing a loop means that you will have tail winds as well! In any case they had a lot of fun, cycled past the eleven cities, camped and cooked for themselves and ended up back in The Hague after 3 days. The main lowlight was a cat shitting in one of the tents… 

The same weekend Dorien was asked to participate in a race for horse carts at Vlietland, near The Hague, with one of the coordinators of the stable. She had to sit on the back of the cart for balance and act as navigator, doing a number of exercises and races during 2 days. In the end the combination, with pony’s Bo and Jack, managed second place. Dorien did very well and can look forward to an invite for another race soon.

Paula at the entry of one of the 11 cities

Cycling through the Friesian countryside

Friesian wildlife on the road

Gina, Charlotte, Paula and Rachel at the end of the trip

Dorien (red jacket) balancing the horse cart during one of the exercises

Cats, horses and a visit to Harry Potter-land

The owner of Siamese cats Mochi and Maru (see post of Jan. 17th) moved abroad, and passed on our name, and apparent good cat-sitting skills, to a colleague of hers. So we got asked by someone we didn’t know at all if we could look after her cats, while she went to the Middle East for a 1 month work assignment. So about 3 weeks ago Rambo and Rocky arrived, and they clearly don’t live up to their names! They are very easily spooked, stealthily move around the house and slowly settled in to their lives with us. As they live in an apartment they are not used to being outside, and the first day Paula left her window open, and Piet had to rescue Rocky from the roof. As he was extremely dirty a shower followed the rescue, and cats really love water! Rocky stayed at least a meter away from Piet the following week. By now they are quite at ease, very playful and always hungry. 

Beau is doing well at the moment. Mary and the girls are extending his outings and he has been riding on the beach several times now, always with other horses. As it is getting closer to summer riding on the beach is now restricted to the evenings, when the weather is not great: each weekend it is getting busier with people. 

Piet had another trip abroad; he went on a course in Cambridge, just north of London. To get there he had to take the train in King’s Cross station, famous from the Harry Potter books, platform 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts Express. Piet had to find any indication of all this (the girls are big Harry Potter fans), and indeed there was a small sign where many foreigners were taking pictures of a trolley disappearing in the wall. 

Cambridge is a small student town, with traditional university colleges in medieval, Hogwarts-like buildings. The town is build around the river Cam, where you can make a tour on traditional punts (a bit like Venice, but different). Anyway, during the course there were several opportunities to walk around and enjoy the splendid scenery, and Piet also learned some things for his job!

Rocky and Rambo are not as impressive as their names suggest.....

Beau and Mary in the dunes, with Meinse and Sarah 

 Descending towards the beach

 Walking towards the sea

It is getting close to summer, and there are many people on the beach 

Piet at King's Cross station, at the entry to platform 9 3/4 

King's College in Cambridge 

 St. John's College: don't you want to study here?