This year I had my first experience of active sailing. Weather conditions were pretty challenging, but with sailing expert Kees onboard, we had little to worry about "...thunderstorm is good, we can go faster..." Out on the Sneekermeer, everyone had their turn steering with/against the storm. We stopped in Terhorne for a warm-up "kopje koffie", only to get soaked to the bones minutes later. In retrospect I think sailing can be good fun. Definitely something to try again!

After the sailing adventure we crossed the Afsluitdijk for a brief visit to Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum had just reopened after a lengthy period of renovation, and we were able to see some of the Netherlands's most renowned paintings for ourselves. And the many flee markets, I just can't get enough of them :-) In 2012 they sell their plunder at extra special recession prices, of course... 
Jan and Coen, thanks so much for your hospitality. We'll be back!

This year we spent our Europe holiday in Friesland - together with my sister Rebekka and her fiancé Matthias. None of us had been to Terschelling before, so we took bicycle tours all across the island (by the way: the Netherlands are NOT flat!), got caught up in the middle of nowhere by high tide, ate Hollandse Nieuwe + Kippeling every day, hunted down a million mosquitos, and froze on the beach! The island is exactly how I imagined Friesland to be, in a good sense though. 
Also, we've probably been to all "Hoorn's" of the world by now: the original Dutch city of Hoorn, freezing Cape Hoorn in Patagonia, and now even Cape Hoorn Pavillon on Terschelling!

The island hosts a cool shipwreck museum. Apparently it happens quite regularly, that big container ships run aground in the Wadden Sea and loose all their cargo! Whole container loads of jogging shoes or bananas have been washed ashore here already. A local woman, who was part of our wad excursion later that night, said, everyone collected the stuff, although the bananas were unripe and all the shoes didn't match. Seems, island life is not so boring, after all...

Here we are on a guided wad tour. Learnings: Wad worms will eat up each other's heads, when put together. Crabs produce foamy bubbles, when angry. And while wad-walking, the danger is not so much stepping on sharp Japanese oysters, but on a drowning bee. Matze can tell you all about it!

In 2012 we still had an activity voucher left from our wedding, that we could never redeem since moving to Chile. But on this Europe trip we seized the opportunity - and learned the Segway! The tour took place in Viersen, just a short drive across the border from Florian's parents in Venlo. Under the professional guidance of our instructor Karl-Heinz we mastered the 2wheeler in less than 5min. After 30min. we no longer worried about steering or balance, we just relaxed, enjoyed the sightseeing through Viersen and the Segway took us wherever we wanted to go. Absolutely effortless.
I doubt though, that Segways will ever become a serious option for private use. It's a nice gadget, but at the cost of a small car it just doesn't have enough advantages. Still perfect for tourists. Thank you Lothar & Monica, for a memorable birthday/wedding present!

First on our Europe trip 2012 we visited Florian's parents. Ludwig and Inge live near Venlo, which so happened to host the "Floriade" that year. As it's name might suggest, that it was a feast of worship to Florian by the commoners, it is not. It is actually a flower and landscape expo which Holland organizes once every 10 years. Together with Florian's parents we visited the exhibitions and are now up to date on the latest trends in landscaping, very useful for our balcony in Santiago! 
The next day we went to Roermond to see Florian's brother Robert, his wife Annique and their two little rascals Julie and Fleur. Somehow Sinterklaas (Dutch Santa Claus) mixed things up and delivered the presents for Julie and Fleur to Chile. Luckily we were just on our way to the Netherlands and could drop the present off to their rightful owners. In the evening we played some twister with the girls, and Julie demonstrated what she learned during summer vacation: CHESS! She almost won against her uncle. Thanks for having us, we had a great time and hope to see you all again next year!