My happy Easter family weekend
It's been a long weekend; not just because of Easter and an extra day off, but also because it was filled with adventures!
On Friday I had to present my final assignment for the Cartography in GIS course in front of teachers and fellow students. I'm not a person who minds being in front of the class and when we were asked who wanted to go first, I happily volunteered. However; I wasn't sure if I had managed to finish my assignment the way I was supposed to, so I was a little worried about the response to my presentation. Afterwards everyone was asked to mention something they liked and something they thought could be improved. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone was enthused about exactly the parts I had doubts about! All the concrit was about things I already knew I could have made more of if I'd had time;)
When all the other students were done as well, we had a little ceremony with drinks and snacks; everyone received their certificate, yay! I then got a ride to Delft from the head teacher and on the way we had a good talk about future plans. I definitely want to explore more cartography options.
In Delft I got on a train to The Hague where I caught the bus to Wassenaar to meet up with my family for a weekend of fun in Duinrell, an amusement park that also has a tropical swimming pool with massive waterslides. Here's a photo report of the rest of the weekend!
Friday, March 30
Early morning: one last look at the Geldermalsen trainstation and the bikeboxes that I made such good use of in the past three months. Will not miss the early mornings and all the traveling I had to do to get to this course, pfff.
Late afternoon: from The Hague there is a direct bus to the Duinrell Holiday Park (it takes about half an hour).
Wish I could have taken a better picture of these awesome meerkats from the bus.
I waited in front of the gate from my brother J., my sister in law G. and darling nephew R. to come and pick me up. They had taken a bus earlier to register and get settled in the bungalow:)
We did groceries and had dinner in one of the Duinrell restaurants; I had a giant bacon burger. We spent the evening relaxing in the cozy bungalow. R. (7) got to pick a bedroom and he wanted me to share it with him: I was relieved that he didn't go for the tiny cupboard with the wobbly bunkbed; instead we had a room with two comfy single beds AND a window:)
Saturday, March 31
Considering the circumstances I slept pretty well *grins* I was woken up by a tiny finger poking me around 7 a.m. Here's the view from the window (minus a little boy jumping on his bed in front of it:)
During breakfast we saw a koolmees, which Google Translate assures me is called a 'great tit' in English. REALLY, PEOPLE?
We coloured easter chicken/roosters until it was finally time to head out to the amusement park. On the way we saw more birds; lots of giant seagulls.
Also a rather unusual sight; a goose up in a tree!
From the holiday park there are several entrances into the amusement park; you don't have to stand in line, but can walk right in! We started in the Wonderland part; after we crossed the water in a hand-pulled wooden ferry, my nephew drove a few rounds on a skelter track before we climbed up for the frog-rail.
R. and his dad got in the first bicycle car, his mum and I raced after them:) After that we explored the rest of the park, deciding on a plan for later before returning to the bungalow for lunch and meeting up with my other brother H. who had arrived from Amsterdam.
G. made hotdogs while R. and I showed uncle H. our balloons (when G. bought one for R, she said I could have a unicorn if I wanted, wahey!)
After lunch we went back to the amusement park and R. wanted to go rowing with his dad. In the photo you can see him pondering his choice. As it turns out my brother was much too long to actually row, because his knees got in the way. It was very amusing for us to watch though, hehehehe. Luckily he was able to get back to shore... eventually. :'-D
Next stop was the colourful ferriswheel, it gave us a nice view of the camping area with Wassenaar in the distance.
There were only four people allowed which was just fine with G., who enjoyed the view of us frown down below:)
This shark is part of the decor for the waterride splash, which is pretty cool to be on, but even more fun to watch.
Time for rollercoasters: we all went on the Frog and the DragonFly before sitting down for a snack: candy floss for brotherdearest and me; popcorn for the rest. After that H. and I dared each other to go on the Falcon, which has a free fall, a looping and a double corkscrew; it turned out to be an AMAZING ride!
I did have to opt out on a second ride on the Frog though, hehehe. But that meant I could take pictures of the others :-p
Final two stops were the bumper boats for R. and J. and the bumper cars for everyone except me. (I don't really see the fun in those, but loved seeing the rest of the family have fun chasing each other:)
R. had some energy left for a bit of climbing and a couple of minutes on the trampolines before we walked back to the bungalow. After dinner we played Monopoly (a special The Hague edition:). What a great day.
Sunday, April 1
After breakfast and a bit of chilling, we all put on our bathing suits under our clothes and walked to the waterpart of Duinrell: the TikiPool; It has tons of slides and we tried them all.
...
Okay, I may have not tried them all, but R. did and I was so impressed. See that long blue one with the cones (funnels)? That's Triton, a 163 metre long slide that you do on a two person tube. I shared one with G. and it was wild!
Besides the slides we also had fun in the lazy river and the big pool in between and during the big waves:) Here we are after two and a half hours in the water.
We went back to the bungalow for lunch and to meet up with my mom and grandpa J. Of course we took them to the amusement park as well:)
R. and G. had fun in the playground and we went on another ride in the Frog rollercoaster, woohoo! (pic by brother J.:)
Final ride of the day was the DragonFly, where R. wanted to sit with me in the front car. Right behind us were uncle H. with my mom, who was a little bit nervous, so a real trooper for joining us:)
Another wonderful day that ended with a big dinner in the bungalow. I got a ride back home from my mom and J. I went straight to bed, exhausted but mostly very happy:)
The end.
Crossposted from https://beelikej.dreamwidth.org/528553.html [
comments] Lurk or comment wherever you like:)
On Friday I had to present my final assignment for the Cartography in GIS course in front of teachers and fellow students. I'm not a person who minds being in front of the class and when we were asked who wanted to go first, I happily volunteered. However; I wasn't sure if I had managed to finish my assignment the way I was supposed to, so I was a little worried about the response to my presentation. Afterwards everyone was asked to mention something they liked and something they thought could be improved. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone was enthused about exactly the parts I had doubts about! All the concrit was about things I already knew I could have made more of if I'd had time;)
When all the other students were done as well, we had a little ceremony with drinks and snacks; everyone received their certificate, yay! I then got a ride to Delft from the head teacher and on the way we had a good talk about future plans. I definitely want to explore more cartography options.
In Delft I got on a train to The Hague where I caught the bus to Wassenaar to meet up with my family for a weekend of fun in Duinrell, an amusement park that also has a tropical swimming pool with massive waterslides. Here's a photo report of the rest of the weekend!
Friday, March 30
Early morning: one last look at the Geldermalsen trainstation and the bikeboxes that I made such good use of in the past three months. Will not miss the early mornings and all the traveling I had to do to get to this course, pfff.
Late afternoon: from The Hague there is a direct bus to the Duinrell Holiday Park (it takes about half an hour).
Wish I could have taken a better picture of these awesome meerkats from the bus.
I waited in front of the gate from my brother J., my sister in law G. and darling nephew R. to come and pick me up. They had taken a bus earlier to register and get settled in the bungalow:)
We did groceries and had dinner in one of the Duinrell restaurants; I had a giant bacon burger. We spent the evening relaxing in the cozy bungalow. R. (7) got to pick a bedroom and he wanted me to share it with him: I was relieved that he didn't go for the tiny cupboard with the wobbly bunkbed; instead we had a room with two comfy single beds AND a window:)
Saturday, March 31
Considering the circumstances I slept pretty well *grins* I was woken up by a tiny finger poking me around 7 a.m. Here's the view from the window (minus a little boy jumping on his bed in front of it:)
During breakfast we saw a koolmees, which Google Translate assures me is called a 'great tit' in English. REALLY, PEOPLE?
We coloured easter chicken/roosters until it was finally time to head out to the amusement park. On the way we saw more birds; lots of giant seagulls.
Also a rather unusual sight; a goose up in a tree!
From the holiday park there are several entrances into the amusement park; you don't have to stand in line, but can walk right in! We started in the Wonderland part; after we crossed the water in a hand-pulled wooden ferry, my nephew drove a few rounds on a skelter track before we climbed up for the frog-rail.
R. and his dad got in the first bicycle car, his mum and I raced after them:) After that we explored the rest of the park, deciding on a plan for later before returning to the bungalow for lunch and meeting up with my other brother H. who had arrived from Amsterdam.
G. made hotdogs while R. and I showed uncle H. our balloons (when G. bought one for R, she said I could have a unicorn if I wanted, wahey!)
After lunch we went back to the amusement park and R. wanted to go rowing with his dad. In the photo you can see him pondering his choice. As it turns out my brother was much too long to actually row, because his knees got in the way. It was very amusing for us to watch though, hehehehe. Luckily he was able to get back to shore... eventually. :'-D
Next stop was the colourful ferriswheel, it gave us a nice view of the camping area with Wassenaar in the distance.
There were only four people allowed which was just fine with G., who enjoyed the view of us frown down below:)
This shark is part of the decor for the waterride splash, which is pretty cool to be on, but even more fun to watch.
Time for rollercoasters: we all went on the Frog and the DragonFly before sitting down for a snack: candy floss for brotherdearest and me; popcorn for the rest. After that H. and I dared each other to go on the Falcon, which has a free fall, a looping and a double corkscrew; it turned out to be an AMAZING ride!
I did have to opt out on a second ride on the Frog though, hehehe. But that meant I could take pictures of the others :-p
Final two stops were the bumper boats for R. and J. and the bumper cars for everyone except me. (I don't really see the fun in those, but loved seeing the rest of the family have fun chasing each other:)
R. had some energy left for a bit of climbing and a couple of minutes on the trampolines before we walked back to the bungalow. After dinner we played Monopoly (a special The Hague edition:). What a great day.
Sunday, April 1
After breakfast and a bit of chilling, we all put on our bathing suits under our clothes and walked to the waterpart of Duinrell: the TikiPool; It has tons of slides and we tried them all.
...
Okay, I may have not tried them all, but R. did and I was so impressed. See that long blue one with the cones (funnels)? That's Triton, a 163 metre long slide that you do on a two person tube. I shared one with G. and it was wild!
Besides the slides we also had fun in the lazy river and the big pool in between and during the big waves:) Here we are after two and a half hours in the water.
We went back to the bungalow for lunch and to meet up with my mom and grandpa J. Of course we took them to the amusement park as well:)
R. and G. had fun in the playground and we went on another ride in the Frog rollercoaster, woohoo! (pic by brother J.:)
Final ride of the day was the DragonFly, where R. wanted to sit with me in the front car. Right behind us were uncle H. with my mom, who was a little bit nervous, so a real trooper for joining us:)
Another wonderful day that ended with a big dinner in the bungalow. I got a ride back home from my mom and J. I went straight to bed, exhausted but mostly very happy:)
The end.
Crossposted from https://beelikej.dreamwidth.org/528553.html [
comments] Lurk or comment wherever you like:)