Hello!

Sorry for the lack of updates – I’ve been drowning in work! I had to work very hard but the good news is that I finally have results and that’s such a relief. I can finally start my PhD 😉

Two weeks ago I went for a surprise visit to the Netherlands! My brother is still doing very well with Motifive, the student company selling foldable lunch boxes that won the second price in Europe… They had to close the company down (as it was a school project), but he started it up again with one of the other members.

A while ago he was about to get a very good deal with a supermarket, and he told me: if I get it, I’ll get you a ticket to come celebrate. I didn’t take it very seriously, as he later said he would send me a rowing boat 😉 While driving back from Wales, I found out that he meant it… and I got a ticket to come to the Netherlands from Friday night till Sunday night. Nobody (except my brother of course) knew that I was coming!

Flying from Norwich to Amsterdam on the last Friday flight is quite interesting as most passengers are Dutch people working for Shell or other oil companies, going home for the weekend. It’s quite easy to recognise them, there’s lots of them and they all seem to know each other. I was seated between many of them, pretended to be English (I was reading an English book, that helps), and was eavesdropping on their conversations. Quite funny, especially since one of them was 35+, had sold his house in the Netherlands and permanently lived in Norwich, but was still flying back every weekend…… to visit HIS PARENTS!! Imagine…

Anyway… as most of you know, I really enjoy flying and love to take pictures. This time I was quite lucky, even though it was hazy. There were lots of interesting things to see! Over sea I saw these cloud streets crossing each other – I had never seen that before! I also saw an interesting wave phenomenon in the middle of the sea and perpendicular to the coast further on, Paul later explained that they are caused by Langmuir circulation in the ocean. Apparently it’s very rare to see this!

We flew over Noordwijk again, in the first photo you can see the flower fields in the distance!

Then we flew over the flower fields, there were not that many in bloom anymore however – a pity!

Now that second photo (above) is something really cool – I recognised a building I photographed 4 years ago… See these two photos below:

Isn’t that cool!!

My brother picked me up from Schiphol, and he told me to enter the house ‘like I just came back from buying some bread’. My parents were watching tv and were SO surprised when I suddenly walked into the room. They nearly fell from their chairs 😉

My dad never quite got over the surprise, he kept telling me I ruined his whole plan for the weekend hehe… of course he didn’t mean that. I had a great time at home! On Sunday it was my brothers 22nd birthday, and everyone was there.

The weekend flew by and on Sunday night I flew back to Norwich. The flight was pretty, it was at sunset and we flew over IJmuiden, I could recognize a lot! Unfortunately it was too dark to take photos, none of them turned out.

Here is a last photo of the Netherlands, these are some glass kind of eggs that my mum has in a bowl on the table – I really like them and had to take this photo 🙂

Back in Norwich, we decided to go to Hunstanton the following weekend. This was one place on the Norfolk coast we had both never been and it’s supposed to be pretty. The weather looked very nice, and I stubbornly decided that it was summer and wore sandals, shorts and a shirt.

Unfortunately the skies turned grey and it was quite cold, I was freezing whenever I stood still for too long. The cliffs of Hunstanton are spectacular indeed! I’d like to go back there one day with blue skies to get better photos 🙂

As you can see, the cliffs are very colourful, and have 3 distinctive layers: white chalk, (rare!) red chalk (with many fossils) and euhm something brown underneath, I don’t remember. Very pretty!

That was all, this weekend I haven’t done much even though the weather was nice… but we both had work to do :(. And… we’re flying to the Netherlands on Tuesday evening! Yes again, hehe… but this trip was planned months ago! We’re going for 6 days, and we’re going to bike from Gouda to Wageningen, camping along the way. It’s not very far, 150 km at most, but we’ll take about three days. We’re visiting Celia and Gert-Jan in Wageningen, and will celebrate

“Bevrijdingsdag” (Liberation Day) with them in Wageningen. For those who are not Dutch: in the Netherlands we have remembrance/memorial day on the evening of the 4th of May (for the victims of the second world war), and then the next day is to celebrate our freedom. Wageningen played a big role in the Second World War – one
of the biggest fights took place very nearby, the fight that caused the capitulation of the Netherlands, and at the end of the war the capitulation of Germany was signed in Hotel De Wereld in Wageningen. Because of this, the biggest Freedom Day celebrations take place in Wageningen, it’s a big music festival and there is also a veteran’s parade. It’s a great day, and many old-Wageningers come back to Wageningen on that day, it will be fun to see some of my old friends again!

So stay tuned for photos of our trip to the Netherlands 🙂