Ready for my first half marathon?

In Calgary I started doing slow long runs in January and February with Sarah. We did 10, 11 and 13 km runs, each two or three weeks apart. I had never run more than 12 kilometers ever in my life, so it felt great to accomplish this. But I had to admit that the combination of the long runs with the last Calgary Road Runners XC runs of 8 km hilly, slippery or snowy terrain was a bit too much. My muscles started to ache too much.
However, Sander and I took up the long runs after the end of XC season. We managed to do a couple of 10-1 runs varying from 10 to 14 kilometers. Our last run in Calgary was on June 13th, a very hot day, it was about 13 km along the Bow river from city centre to the weir and back. In the Netherlands we started with a 10 km race, picked up interval training again and used some dunes and tiny tiny short hills for our "hill training". During these past three months I did runs of 13, 14, 16, 10, 18, 15, 12 and 21 km's, Sander joined me on most of them. One and a half week ago we ran 21 km in 10/1's, so I know I can handle the half marathon distance. My Polar footpod may be a little bit off, the distance took 2 h and 26 min, better than I expected. Of course some muscle aches afterwards, but no ankle or achilles pains like I would have had a year ago.
Overall, I think I am ready for the race, it's in 3 weeks time, October 3th. It is nice to know I have already run the distance once, but on the other hand I think I am starting to underestimate the distance a little bit now. I still have to decide on a race strategy, should I stick with 10/1's, try 15/1's, just start running and only walk where the water stations are? Before the test run I had imagined it would take me 2h and 45 min to do the half marathon distance in my slow training pace and just finishing a half marathon was my goal. With 2h26min clocked I suddenly start thinking about the time I want to do now, very very bold, I admit. So, here it is: my goal is 2h and 20 min, and with 2h 15 min I would be extatic!! Ayy, now I'll have to live up to it ....
Well, two more training runs this week and then I can start to taper. I love tapering!!

House pics

We finally signed for our house yesterday, it has taken more than two weeks to finalize the contract. Last week we hired a guy to check the entire building from cellar to roof top (the "bouwtechnische keuring" for our Dutch friends). The only distressing finding was a (small) leak in the roof but the owners will have to repair that before we get the keys. Apart from that all other repairs the man advised were regular maintenance and can be done over time. Of course a house 80 years old always has some maintenance to be taken care off!
Why buy such an old house? Because we love the atmosphere in houses like that. Of course for Dutch standards this house is not very very old, lots of inner city houses are built around 1900. There is a lot of knowledge and craftmanship around to take care of them. Only find the right people! We can probably do some paint jobs ourselves, repair some wooden floors etc. Just enough to be able to move in our furniture. Next year we want to do some more maintenance, knock down a wall and built a new kitchen.
We hope to get the keys by the end of next week, worst case scenario October 1st.
First bookings for our guest room(s) are accepted from now on!!

Here are some pictures of our house, the furniture is from the current owners and is gone now, of course. Lovely eh!


And this is the link for Google, activate street view to take a peek: Google street view

Amusement park Duinrell

Because they missed out on birthday gifts we took our nephews Stijn and Jochem to Duinrell, an amusement park plus waterslide centre near The Hague. We had a blast!

I was in the (sickening) Ship Ahoy and Falcon, I let Sander do the climbing stuff, Jochem was not tall enough for the Katapult, we did the mono rail and reuzenrad (the wheel), we all had fun on the slides and see-saw (for NL people: wip) in the play garden, the kids did the bumper boats (bots bootjes) and we swam for 3 hours in the pool. Well, a little bit of swimming in the tidal pool and lots of gliding, gliding and gliding on the water slides. Luckily the kids were too young for the most dearing slides, because some looked pretty scary to me! And since the boys are 10 and 8 years old and we wanted to bring them home in one piece we accompanied them on most attractions and slides. And I discovered a new Sander: he is OK with scary and fast water slides, although he is a weeney when it comes to thrill rides in roller coasters! Chapeau darling! Luckily I enjoy roller coasters and other sickening fast moving rides. By the way, we handed the boys over to their parents safe and sound!

We were very lucky that Jochem was about 1.23 m, since lots of attractions in the park and slides are not allowed for kids under 1.20m. I guess we'll have to visit again since we haven't done all the rides yet. You have to be at least 1.50m to be allowed in all rides and slides (pfff..., I qualify being 1.56m), also a great place for teenagers. So there is plenty of time to take the nephews and niece there while they grow up.
These kids were very daring, they enter rides and slides many grown ups would never have thought of. My compliments boys!

Yes!!!!!

In the end everything works out fine, of course!
Yesterday we agreed on a house, depending on financing we will buy the house September 15 or October 1st. I am in such a good mood!!!
Now I can work hard again on making arrangements, I am WAY better at working hard than at being patient and waiting.

To top it all off we also ordered a new car last Friday evening. It is a Skoda Fabia Combi Greenline, unknown for our Canadian friends I guess. Skoda is an old Tjech car brand which now has Volkswagen motor and parts in it. Very solid, very fuel efficient. The only bad thing is we'll have to wait for the car until November. It's a new model which has proved to be pretty popular, so it will be produced in 10 weeks time, we are on the wait list.

We'll keep you posted!!

We're getting there, I think .....

I realize I did not write regularly on my blog or on Facebook lately. First of all because I have the misunderstanding this is very time consuming (not true, I can limit myself to a few lines only) and there is noting to write about (not true, of course days go by and although maybe not very exciting stuf happens, every day is filled with something). Not writing does not help to keep in touch with all our Canadian/blog/Facebook friends. So I will write about regular day stuf, sometimes pretty insignificant but it helps to keep you all posted on our (new?) life.

Sander is accustomed to working in Rijswijk already. He still knows part of the people working there form before his Calgary time so he already has a nice social cirle. Startup was not always easy but now work seems to progress and he has frequent and great contacts with the Calgary colleagues.
Every weekend we meet either family or old friends now, of course that is one of the best parts of being home again. Together we run frequently, we did a bike tour and last Sunday we hiked 17 or 18 kms to Hoek van Holland, a little town on the sea south of The Hague. We want to stay just as fit as we were in Calgary!

What have I been up to these past weeks? We viewed a lot of houses in different neighbourhoods in and around Rotterdam. We want to live close to Rotterdam because we feel at home in that city and travel time to work and family (especially parents) is acceptable. I, Liesbeth, travel to my parents by train once or twice a week. It takes approximately 90 minutes. A week ago I received my Dutch drivers license so renting or buying a car is again an option now. Since a major part of the route is through heavy traffic areas the train is a very relaxing way of travelling right now. When I need it I rent a bike or a small car at the train station after arriving there. For a car we joined the green wheels network, a car share system becoming more and more popular in the major cities over here. While visiting my parents I also take my mom grocery shopping, a good mother-daughter bonding experience and my dad and I think this guidance is quite useful for my mom with her dementia. In some cabinets I found stashes of 8 packages of the same grocery item (note to self: do not buy this item for an additional 2 months, at least!). Both my mom and dad do not really grasp the idea of quickly renting bikes or cars via internet or the automatic transit system pass (one pass for train, bus, tram and subway, directly deducted form your bank account via the pass), so every week they are quite amazed how I get that car, bike or bus pass. It clearly shows how older people have a hard time following all new IT-based possibilities.

The house-buying task is going into the right direction. It has taken us a couple of weeks to find houses we are enthousiastic about. The area were we wanted to live turned out to be too expensive for us, we could only afford apartments in that area. Since we do not want neighboors underneath or above us we had to put aside our dreams on heigh-ceiling 60 m2 living rooms in 100 year old houses. It took a while to adjust our views, lower our standards and focus on other possibilities.
Now we have three houses lined up we would like to live in. Two weeks ago we put in our first bid but the owner was a bit too greedy and I do not think we will ever be able to make a deal with him. So this Wednesday we will go to the second house with our real estate broker to estimate the right value of the house in order to start bidding on that house. In other words, things are starting to move in the "housing-area" and I do not feel so paniced any more about not having a nice place to live in.

In the mean time I am getting to know the town of The Hague pretty well. My moms bike is here now so I can get around very easily. It's a blast to buy fruits and veggies at the outdoor The Hague market, open four days a week. Like all the etnic people on the market I invested in a wheeled shopping cart so I can buy kilo's, kilo's and kilo's of stuff over there. You could nearly imagine yourself shopping somewhere in Marocco when you're there, but only the fact there is no hassle and negotiating about the price tells you you're in the Netherlands. By the way, I still think of every supermarket over here as very very tiny. Nothing compared to grocery shopping in Canada! And although tiny I do admit that it really is not very useful to pick from 10 or 15 brands of peanut butter, 2 or 3 brands will do. That saves space!

Next time I hope to blog about the house we've bought and that I can tell you which day the container with our household stuf will be unpacked. Not for you of course, but because I do start to miss my own belongings and look forward to having our own place very much.

See you!!

What will this week bring us?

July 12
My week started out good. Yesterday (Monday) I joined Irene, my sister-in-law, and her children David (8 yr), Lucas and Elisabeth (twins, 3 yr) on a visit to Madurodam. This is a miniature city close to our place in The Hague. For kids it is just one big big doll house with moving cars, planes and trains. For growns ups it is a way to visit every tourist-place in the Netherlands in one morning since they have rebuilt about every popular Dutch site you can think of. The palace of the queen, airport, train stations, wind mills, tullip fields, lots of middle age buildings, the Delta waterworks etc etc. In this way it also shows and teaches stuff about Dutch everyday life. Visiting it with the kids was fun because they look at everything with so much enthousiasm. Therefore I automatically watched way more closely than I would normally do on my own.
Irene, thanks for inviting me!

What will the rest of the week bring? We have been pretty bummed about the houses we have viewed so far. In the middle of summer there are hardly any new listings and we feel that the best ones of the older listings are already sold. We haven't yet fallen in love with the houses viewed so far. That makes us a bit anxious though, we want it NOW. You know, patient as we are! Ah well, we'll practice patience, if nothing good comes around there will be many more new houses listed after the July/August vacation period!

Soccer finals world championships

July 11
The whole country was orange these last weeks. We always hope for a very good result but it had been a long time ago that the Netherlands was in a world championship final: In '74 and '78 I watched them loose the final games as a teenager. Of course I still have a vivid memory of the Dutch team becoming the European champions in '88. So everybody was very excited last Sunday, "we" would finally win a world championship.
I went out for a run about two hours before the start of the game. On the roads at least half of the people walking, biking or driving their car was wearing orange clothes. This really shows the impact this tournament has, it was BIG.
We watched the game at home and to prevent myself from being overly excited and anxious I decided to play around at the computer at the same time. It helped, it distracts and Sander could watch the game without my annoying shouting and (too) loud encouragements. Maybe I should have watched closely and shouted more, since we lost. Or was it the orange-white-red-blue decoration of "AH beesies" on our front door, or was my orange shirt not OK?
Surely we had a great four weeks which has been very good for sentimental national feelings. It works a bit like July 1th in Canada or similarly when Team Canada plays a big hockey game.

Liesbeths' drivers license

Yes, whatever you fear will happen .....
Last week I discovered that my old Dutch drivers license, handed in to the authorities in Calgary to be able to get my Alberta license, was never received at the license agency over here. We had heared stories about taking a new test but luckily I only had to hand in extra paper work and wait for some extra time for the handling of it. I was able to go back to city hall to apply again last Monday. With a little bit of luck I can pick up my license in two or three weeks and drive a car again. So only biking, walking and public transit for me these coming weeks!

Proloog Tour de France

July 3
Saturday the Tour de France started in Rotterdam. We had planned to go there half a year ago already, we both love to watch and follow the Tour daily on television.
The race starts with a short time trial, the prologue. The course was 8.9 km, situated in the middle of city center. The whole week the weather had been more than beautiful, but today it rained. Not so nice for spectators but also really dangerous for the athletes. The good thing about a time trial is that the starts are 1 minute apart and it takes about 3 hours for all bikers to pass. The better ones start later, so it is exciting until the last athlete finishes. They race at around 50 to 55 km/hour, spectacular!
There was a huge crowd and they cheered for every rider. The noise for the favorites and for the Dutch riders was even louder. The first time a Dutch participant passed I was very amazed by the enthusiasm of the crowd. These guys must have been flying with all these crazy encouragements. It was great being part of this!

Summer life

Thursday July 1st
We have been very lucky with the weather in the Netherlands lately. So we really took advantage of that by spending an evening at the beach. With public transit, the tram, or on a bike it takes about 10 minutes to get to the beach, it's only 3 or 4 km from our apartment. So after work on a hot day Sander and me took the tram, walked along the shore a couple of kilometers and paused for beers on the outdoor terrace of a beach club. for an hour or two and evening walk along the beach in Scheveningen

Thursday July 3st
Sanders sister, Dymphna, her husband Henk and their children Stijn and Jochem visited us today. We showed the kids the palace where the Dutch queen works and the old buildings of the Dutch senate. A pity that the government buildings are closed on Sundays, otherwise we could have done a tour inside. We ended the day with a BBQ in our garden. We got a nice BBQ as a gift from them, so we can fully enjoy our garden. Tried my Calgarian BBQ-ed salmon with lemon again, tastes good at sea level too!

On the family bikes

June 26


In Best, in the south east of the Netherlands, we met friends to ride the Toon Vertier family bikes. We had one long "bike" with six carts, and two two-seaters. In good spririts we did the wave everytime we passed other bikers. We learned that it was impossible to go backwards after a wrong turn (at least, with our level of cooperation), so we had to take apart the six carts, turn them each separately and attach them again. Made us look pretty silly!
We ended the day with a terrific BBQ in the garden of Yvonne and Emerentia. Carla and Miriam, thanks for organizing and inviting us for this nice day!

Inside our new apartment

June 21
Here are some pics of the inside of our place. It was renovated recently and redecorated. They used dark purple with grey, black and dark brown together with off-white on the walls and in the kitchen. It looks really cosy, we feel at home here.
On my birthday Sander surprised me with a very nice bouquet of roses. Flowers make a home look so nice! The Dutch are pretty spoiled when it comes to flowers, good to have them so abundantly available again!

Wedding aniversary and St. Bavo race on Liesbeth's birthday

June 18 and 19
Friday June 18th we went to the 50th wedding aniversary of my (Liesbeth's) aunt Ria and uncle Jan. We were pretty lucky to have returned from Calgary just in time for this party. It was a very good party in their own garden with excellent catering!

The following day, my birthday, was spent at my parents place. Just a quiet get together. In the evening Sander and I went to Rijsbergen, a small village close to Breda where my parents live. They organize a race together with the yearly midway in their village. The actual midway in a village like that is very small, the "beer tent" and pubs are the most important attraction. Along the 2 to 2.5 km course of the race various small brass bands were playing music, that really helps to keep up the spirit and attracts spectators too. So there was plenty encouragement for us during the run. We both did pretty good in the 10k, 42min25sec for Sander and 56min53sec for me. We both were about 1min50sec faster compared to Calgary. Sea level, lots of spectators and the music along the course, lets say all factors helped.

Images from the St. Bavoloop website:

A new start ......

Yesterday, June 15th, we returned to the Netherlands after having lived in Calgary for 3 years and one and a half month. The flight back was very pleasant, we landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule and were in our hotel in Rijswijk at 12.30 pm already. Although rested well we decided to take the train to Breda to visit my (Liesbeth's) parents in the afternoon. Since the hotel is next to the train station this was all very convenient. Of course we were all happy to see each other again!
This morning at 10 am we had a viewing of a temporary apartment. It is in the middle of The Hague in the ambassy district and we liked it. It has only one bedroom but living room, bedroom, bathroom kitchen and dining area are all pretty spacious so it does not feel cramped. It is on the ground floor of an older house which is divided into two apartments and even has a little garden, a luxurious thing in the middle of a city. So we agreed on it immediately, we already have the keys and parking permit. Tomorrow morning we will move in. We look forward to exploring The Hague, we can easily reach the beach on foot (great for running!), bike or by tram (public transit), I guess that's about 7 or 8 km West.

From 20100616 Temporary apartment

Here is a picture of the exterior, I really like this type of older traditional town houses!

Tonight we went out for a run in the parks in Rijswijk. We both felt awful after only a half night of sleep, The bio-rythme is so strong that after a couple of hours of rest our body tells is its daytime in Calgary and that we are not supposed to sleep at such a time. Warming up felt pretty bad, but once we started doing intervals we immediately noticed that we could do a pretty high pace without too much heavy breathing. Must be the effect of being at sea level again. Too bad this effect wears off pretty fast! Sander kind of hopes it'll last untill Saturday afternoon, he is still determined to race a 10k that day. We'll keep you posted!

Goodbye and birth day party

Wearing Kristina's silver and bronze Olympic medals

Moving ....

No, no bear ....

Wij hebben momenteel meer Engelstalige dan Nederlandse lezers op ons weblog, daarom gaan we over op het onderhouden van ons blog in alleen maar Engels. Voor de meeste Nederlanders immers totaal geen probleem, en het scheelt ons toch wel veel werk als we het niet meer tweetalig opschrijven. Hieronder het eerste stukje dat alleen maar in het Engels zal verschijnen .....

Sunday we hiked Cascade Amphitheatre on Norquay mountain near Banff. On our drive up the mountain to the trail head we already saw a lot of animals: a black bear, bighorn sheep and elk. About one hundred meters after leaving the skiing area there was a sudden loud noise in the tight shrubs, about 2 meters or so next to us. Then the true nature of people comes out: I led out a yell so loud they must have heard it in Banff, and before Sander even thought about acting on the sound I had turned around, nearly trampled him and was running away. I stopped after a couple of meters in a safe distance. Also safe because no animal had jumped out of the bushes to attack us. Sander was still standing in the same place, quietly, just observing what was happening. And it turned out there was only one very nosy deer that had been resting in these shrubs, no dangerous animals at all! Ah well, these Dutchies will never get used to Canadian wildlife, such weenies! So much for all the advice they give you in the national parks: observe, back away quietly, stay calm. I know now that we'd better never run into an aggressive bear, because I will just freeze, scream on the top of my lungs and do all the wrong stuff. Our whole hike we were loud and made lots of noises, just to be on the safe side, no encounters on our very last Canadian hike! Although it was just deer, we were startled and our mind was set on "wildlife".
The hike was beautiful, the last half was pretty steep, a good work out! My muscles were still pretty sore from my 10k run on Saturday, so the quads burnt on the way down too! Our reward was a beautiful meadow, surrounded by high mountains, the amphitheatre of course. Part of the meadow was still covered in snow but we found a great dry spot in the grass. It was so hot in the sun that we started applying sun screen. Oh, life is good!!

Hardloop weekend. A weekend dedicated to running.

Afgelopen weekend stond helemaal in het teken van hardlopen. En het was maar goed ook dat we geen activiteiten in de bergen gepland hadden, het was Holland grijs, nat en om het compleet te maken ... het sneeuwde. De dinsdag ervoor was onze auto verkocht, we deden het dit weekend dus met benenwagen, fiets en bus, pas maandag na het weekend hebben we een huurauto.
Vrijdagmiddag en avond hebben we allebei als vrijwilliger in een sporthal gestaan. Sander in de stand om onze hardloopclub te promoten en ik, Liesbeth, bij het uitreiken van de wedstrijdpakketen en t-shirts aan de hardlopers. Het was voor de wedstrijden van zondag, ongeveer 8600 deelnemers, verdeeld over marathon, halve marathon, 10 km, 5 km en de kinder timbits marathon. Die kinder marathon is echt heel leuk. Het idee is om in 20 weken 2x per week met je kinderen, familie, de buurt, school of een andere groep 1 km te rennen. Ze krijgen een lijst om de geleopen afstanden bij te houden. De resterende 1.2 km wordt dan op race dag gelopen en iedere deelnemer krijgt dan een marathon medaille, t-shirt en allerlei lekkermijen aan de finish. Leuk idee om sporten onder kinderen te promoten.
Voor het zondag was moesten wij zelf nog even heel vroeg op om al om half 8 's ochtends te vertrekken naar onze eigen hardloopwedstrijd. Sander en ik hadden ingeschreven voor een leuke race van een school die op deze manier extra geld ophaalt, hij liep 10 km, ik 5 km. Ik heb in het verleden de Singelloop regelmatig gelopen (7.5 of 8 km) en de 10 km radio Rijnmond loop maar 5 km had ik nooit als wedtrijd gelopen. Ik was nu wel benieuwd of ik een beetje een fatsoenlijke tijd zou kunnen lopen, we trainen hier immers best hard. Ik heb 25 min en 20 sec gelopen, was uitermate tevreden. Vantevoren had ik als doel dat ik graag inde 28 minuten wou lopen, dat doel is dus dik behaald. Sander liep in de 43 minuten, een tijd die hij nog graag zou verbeteren maar ik vind het heel hard en knap van hem! En oh ja, toen we zaterdagochtend opstonden lag er weer een witte deken over Calgary heen en was het net boven het vriespunt. De wegen waren niet glad, alleen de winteruitrusting met dunne wanten en mutsjes moesten weer tevoorschijn komen. Calgary verrast altijd!
Zondag alweer vroeg op, om 8 uur stonden we al in dikke winterjas met thermo ondergoed langs het marathon parcours als verkeersregelaars en natuurlijk om de deelnemers aan te moedigen. We hebben zo'n 4 uur doorgebracht in de koude wind, we konden die dikke kleding goed gebruiken. Natuurlijk nog wat Calgary Road Runners clubleden kunnen aanmoedigen, altijd leuk om course marshall te zijn!



This past weekend was fully dedicated to running. And that turned out really good since any outdoor activities in the mountains would have been really miserable with the cold, rain and snow that we have had in Calgary this weekend. Since we sold our car last Tuesday we relied on our own legs, bicycle and public transit (rental car will be there on Monday after the weekend).
Firday afternoon and evening we were both volunteering in the Calgary marathon expo hall. Sander was promoting the Calgary Road Runners in their both and I, Liesbeth was handing out race packages and t-shirts to the racers. The race was for about 8600 runners, divided over marathon, half marathon, 10k, 5k and the kids timbits marathon. The kids marathon is a real cool event I think. The idea is that kids run 1k twice a week for 20 weeks with family, friends, neighbours, school or any other organization. They get a fun list to keep track of their run distances and on marathon Sunday they run the last 1.2 km of their marathon. They get a t-shirt, a real marathon medal and some munchies. I think it is a nice event to promote sports and running for kids.
But before marathon day Sander and I had to get out of bed early, see all the snow on the ground and get oursleves ready for our Foothills Academy race. The school raises extra money for their programs this way. Sander would run 10k, I signed up for 5k. I have never ran a 5k race, only the Breda Singelloop (7.5 or 8 k) and the Rotterdam Rijnmond loop (10k). I wanted to know whether I could do a good time in a 5k after all our training. My goal was to finish somewhere in the 28 minutes, but I surprised myself with a time of 25 minutes and 20 seconds. Yahoo!! Sander's time was somewhere in the 43 minutes, he would like to improve this even more but I think it is very fast and I'm really proud of him! The hardest part of the race was the dressing right for it and taking enbough clothes to keep warm afterwards. A noce event, I can encourage everybody to take part in this race!
Sunday we got up early again and were course marshalling on the marathon course at 8 am already. We were layered in our winter coats, thermo underwear, gloves and hats to withstand the cold wind just above zero degrees for about four hours. We cheered on the runners, of course we got to encourage some of our Calgary Road Runners memebers, it was fun!

Victoria day weekend

Jullie hadden lang weekend vanwege Pinksteren, wij hier vanwege Victoria day (dezelfde maandag vrij) ter ere van de oude engelse koningin. Het weer varieert hier van af en toe een dag 20 of 25 graden tot vandaag ongeveer 5 graden met een sneeuwbuitje. Alhoewel dit weekend de laatste mogelijkheid was om hier te skieen kozen we voor wandelingen, verandering van spijs doet eten immers. Daarom zijn we er dit weekend twee keer op uit getrokken voor een wandeling, zaterdag samen naar de Castle Mountain Lookout, in 3.8 km 500 meter omhoog. Het pad terug voelden we flink in de bovenbenen, zondag ook inderdaad spierpijn. Toch wat meer oefeningen doen voor de bovenbeen spieren! Maandag zijn we samen met Sarah en Todd naar West Bragg Creek geweest, een wandeling van 9 of 10 km, over glooiend terrein. Gezellig kletsend, lunch onderweg, de dag vliegt dan voorbij. Heerlijk, na de winter nu weer zomerdingen doen!




In Europe you had a long weekend because of Pentecost, here we have the same monday off because of Victoria day. Jullie hadden lang weekend vanwege Pinksteren, wij hier vanwege Victoria day (dezelfde maandag vrij). The weather over here varies from days at 5 degrees with some flurries (today!) up to occasional days with 20 or 25 degrees. Last weekend was the last opportunity to ski, but we chose to hike (for variation). We did two hikes over the weekend. Saturday Sander and I hiked Castle Mountain Lookout together. 500 meter up in 3.8 km. On the way down the quads were burning, sore muscles on Sunday.! Maybe we'd better step up our quad exercises!
The Monday was spent together with Sarah and Todd in West Bragg Creek hiking Iron Springs trail. It was a nice hike over rolling hills, about 9 or 10 km. Chatting together, a nice lunch break on the trail, the day was very pleasant and flew by.
It was wonderful to do summer stuff in the sun after the (not even so bad) winter!

Surprise!

Afgelopen zaterdag ons eerste afscheidsfeestje al gehad. Het was een surprise party en Sander en ik waren er met twee voeten tegelijk ingetuind. Bij aankomst dacht ik nog 'Goh, veel stemmen,zal wel door het open raam van de buren komen. Maar nee, de hele kamer zat vol met onze hardloopvrienden. Het was echt zo leuk dat ze het georganiseerd hadden, Sander en ik waren er helemaal ondersteboven van. Zo dankbaar voor al die vrienden, dat geeft zo'n warm gevoel. Naar huis rijdend hadden we beiden ook het trieste gevoel van dat allemaal achter te moeten laten, alles heeft z'n schaduwzijden!

Last Saturday we had our first goodbye party. It was a surprise party, and indeed, it worked, we had had no clue! Arriving there, I thought, "Lots of voices, the neighbours must have a lot of people over". But no,the whole room was filled with our running friend! We really loved that they had organised all of this for us, soooo nice. We are so thankful for all these friendships, such a warm feeling to have that around us. Driving home we both felt excited and sad at the same time, sad because we will have to leave all this behind. Well, everything has its down sides too.

Preparing our move. De verhuis voorbereidingen zijn begonnen.

Het proces van onze terugkomst naar Nederland is nu echt van start gegaan. De officiele ingangsdatum is 15 juni, en volgende week spreken we de inpakdagen af met de verhuizers. Op basis van die data gaan we dan de terugvlucht boeken, dus eind volgende week zal onze planning en terugkomst wel definitief worden. Het is wel met pijn in het hart, want het is ons reuze goed bevallen hier. We gaan vooral terug omdat ik, Liesbeth, wat dichter bij mijn ouders wil wonen nu.
De terugkeer lijkt reuzegoed geregeld te gaan worden. Shell regelt een tijdelijke woning, en zelfs een auto voor de eerste paar weken. Benieuwd waar we terecht gaan komen!

The whole process for our move bacl to the Netherlands has really started now. The official date is June 15th and next week we will book the packing dates with the moving company. Based on these dates we will book our return flight, so by the end of next week all arrangements will be finalized. But I have to say it is with pain in our haerts, we look back on such a great time here in Calgary! But this it the right time to go back we think because I, Liesbeth, want to live closer to my parents now.
So fat, we are under the impression the whole process will be smooth and that Shell arranges everything really well. They take care of arranging temporary housing, and even a car for a couple of weeks. We are very curious where and how that's gonna be!

Who do you think you are?

Ik, Liesbeth, was rond de Paasdagen weer eens in Nederland, voor bijna 2 weken. Net als andere keren werd er door mijn ouders weer enorm uitgekeken naar mijn bezoekje. Naast de gebruikelijke administratie en klusjes rond het huis hebben we natuurlijk ook weer een paar uitstapjes gemaakt. Zo hebben we op Goede Vrijdag samen met mijn neef Ton en zijn moeder, tante Corrie, de molen bezocht die onze familienaam draagt. Deze molen uit de dertiende eeuw staat in Oost-Brabant, nu gemeente Heeswijk-Dinther, zelfs de straatnaam is vernoemd. Vandaar de titel van deze blog: "Who do you think you are?" is een Amerikaans programma waarin celebrities op zoek gaan naar de plaatsen waar hun voorouders vandaan komen. Mijn opa kwam oorspronkelijk inderdaad uit deze hoek van het land. De restauratie van de molen is in 2008 afgerond, de molen is nu in de staat van 1880. Erg fraai en leuk om te zien waar de familie oorspronkelijk vandaan is gekomen!



Tijdens de Paasdagen hebben we een gezellige dag doorgebracht bij Sander's ouders in Heemstede, en heerlijk gegeten! Tweede Paasdag familie uitgenodigd om samen te borrelen en te eten. En of het allemaal niet op kon, de dag daarna op bezoek bij tante Nellie, een zus van mijn moeder. En ook daar weer enorm verwend want na de gezellige middag hebben we daar aan de rijsttafel gezeten. En ik woog toch gewoon mijn (nieuwe) gewicht, niet aangekomen van al dat gefeest! Naar Nederland gaan is gezellig, maar terug naar huis, naar Sander, was ook weer een feest!



I, Liesbeth, spend nearly two weeks in the Netherlands around Easter time. Just like with every other trip my parents were looking forward to my visit very much. Apart from the usual administration and chores around the house we also plan a couple of visits and day trips together. This time we spend Good Friday visiting a restored oil and corn mill with my aunt Corrie and here son Ton, who had organized this trip. The mill bares our family name, and even the road has our name. Indeed, we did our own episode of "Who do you think you are?". with our family name. My grandfather originally lived in the village Heeswijk-Dinther, not far from this mill. The mill dates back from the 13th century. In 2008 the restoration was finished, representing how the mill looked in 1880. It was beautiful and it is so nice to know where our family roots are!

During Easter we visited Sanders parents in Heemstede, had a wonderful day with great! In the Netherlands both Christmas and Easter are long weekends, so second Eatser day (as we call it) is a holiday too, which we spent with family we had invited over for drinks and dinner. To finish it all of we vistited my moms sister, aunt Nellie, the day after. We ate the famous 'dutch' rijsttafel, a multi-multi-multi-dish meal, with all different kinds of Indonesian and Chinese dishes, MMMmmmmmmm.... En ik woog toch gewoon mijn (nieuwe) gewicht, niet aangekomen van al dat gefeest! Naar Nederland gaan is gezellig, maar terug naar huis, naar Sander, was ook weer een feest! With all that food I was proud that I did not gain weight, I checked that immediately Saturday morning the day after I returned. As always, going back to the Netherlands was fun but it is always even better to come back here, back to Sander!