Long Holiday Weekend

Thursday was a holiday here in the Netherlands (Ascension Day) and Dennis also had Friday off. Naturally he didn't realize he had a four day weekend until Tuesday so we didn't have time to plan anything special. But I was able to take Friday off and the weather has been fantastic! Sorry, no pictures for this post. If you want to see how beautiful it is, you'll just have to visit!

On Thursday, we took a long bike ride (46 miles). We went on one of our regular routes around Flevoland - more of training ride than a site-seeing ride. On Friday, the weather was a bit cooler with a chance of rain. We headed to Arnhem to see the Hoge Veluwe National Park. I had been there with Mom and Dad and realized that this was a place that needed some more exploration. Dennis and I hiked from the park entrance to the art museum (which was closed the day I was there with Mom and Dad). It was about an hour walk through the forest. The birds were singing and the pine trees smelled amazing! The art museum was established by a wealthy family who collected paintings from French and Dutch artists and then donated everything, including the park land to the Dutch government. It was a really nice collection of Van Gogh and other art from that period. While we were walking through the museum, we noticed that it was suddenly very crowded. We heard some strange noise and finally realized that it was pouring rain outside! There was even thunder. After the thunderstorm, we went outside again to see the outdoor sculpture garden. The sculptures were placed at random through the forest which made for an interesting walk. Every time the wind blew, the water would fall from the trees. But the sun was out and everything had that fresh-rain feel to it. We hiked back to the car without encountering any more rain.

On Sautrday, we took the kayaks out on one of the nearby lakes. We had been kayaking in the area before, but hadn't explored the lake yet. We shared the water with everything from sailboats to yachts. There were some islands with campgrounds so people had parked their boats and had their tents set up on the shore. With the long weekend and the warm weather, it was pretty busy on the lake. Dennis and I were finished by about 2:00. As we pulled the boats out of the water, we noticed the clouds coming over. The rest of the day was cloudy, so I guess we were super-lucky!

This morning, we took another bike ride. Our goal was sight-seeing this time. We wanted to find a place to put the kayaks into the Vecht river. So, we planned our bike ride along the Vecht. This is a very scenic area to bike around. We saw hoardes of other bikers. We stopped in a historic town with a little manually operated drawbridge. The operator actually had to open and close the traffic gates himself. He said good morning to us both times that we stopped for his bridge. There were also a few castles along this route. The weather was sunny and mid-seventies and we were really enjoying just being outside. We rode for about 37 miles, but it took a long time. We had to stop and look at a lot of things along the way. Some of the bike paths were pretty narrow and hard to get a lot of speed. But I think we found a couple places to put the kayaks in and park the car, so it was a successful trip.

Now I'm trying to get packed for my trip to Asia. I am leaving on the 29th for Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore to give a training class on some new ingredients that my company is launching. I'll be gone for 2 weeks. I've been out shopping for clothes the last couple weekends to make sure I have summery clothes for the hot weather in Singapore. Australia should be similar to the temps we are having here, although it will be fall instead of spring. New Zealand will be difficult because it's already getting pretty cold. How do you pack for 3 different climates in one suitcase? So far, my answer is lots of layers. As long as it all fits in the bag!

My other dilemna is what to wear on the plane. My first travel leg is from here to Australia with a stopover in Singapore. It's like 27 hours of travel. I'm not sure any clothes are comfortable after 27 hours on a plane. I'm considering bringing some sweats to change into for night-time. I'm kind of dreading the flight, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Australia and New Zealand! I'll try to post while I'm traveling so we can keep up to date.