We had a great trip to the Netherlands thanks to everyone’s super nice company, the gorgeous weather and the variety of places available. Rain was not far behind and sometimes ahead, but never where we were. The weather gods were on our side. Also the food was from middling to very delicious; as well as the variety of accommodation from the same hostel organisation.

As for me, I just loved the boating on the first day; standing inside the painting (Panorama Mesdag) and the fun experiences in the Escher Museum with optical illusions.

Transport was expensive but very efficient. Mr van de Belt did a great job driving! The two 7-seaters were a bit more than the 3 originally planned cars.

We went way over budget on the lunches as I had planned. The castle on the coast and beside a forest had great atmosphere. I was very impressed with our students when they went for a swim in fairly chilly North Sea water.

The engineer at Hook of Holland give us a nice tour with some incomprehensible Dutch jokes. And we stood on the highest hill of that province (South Holland) there as well. All of 50 meters… We did get a good look at 19 windmills and had a memorable pizza experience outside one evening in ‘Batman’ village. The cycling trip was quite a novel experience for some, especially with the backpedal breaks. I saw poor Tara heading straight for a thorn-bush in front of my eyes. Luckily with Alicia’s long nails the thorns came out again. The next day Tara walked through Amsterdam as if nothing had happened. A prize for resilience!

I could bear most of the music in the car, but Ms Wyer was way more in her element there. Everyone was very tired at the flower auctions except Rosa: she wanted to get to the bottom of it and asked more questions than the rest of the year together. We’ll miss her and Paola when they return to their home countries!

I was impressed with the natural interest shown by students in the van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank Huis. Not staying overlong seems to be the secret.

Everyone, enjoy your summer!

See most of you again at the end of August!

God bless,

Mr Rutger Kortenhorst