Thursday, March 03, 2005

Youssouf Went Twente

I'm back since last Friday.
I staid in a nice cottage in Boekelo. Boekelo is famous for its salt mines. In the landscape you can still see at several locations the dark brown wooden salt mine towers. Nice view! Of course I made photo's of it. Me included.
Surprisingly it was snowing over there. Usually you don't encounter much snow in The Netherlands. But if it starts snowing somewhere, the first place is likely to be Twente. And so it was. I made some rare pictures of me in the snow. I thought it would be a very rare occasion. Snowy white fields. Encountering a snow man. Licking up snow flakes from the air.
But alas - or fortunately - it was not rare. Now in Utrecht - and the rest of the Netherlands - it has been snowing for a couple of days. Melted away a bit during the day. But now there is really some snow. Even in areas where it does not snow that much a bunch has fallen. 10 to 20 cm in Utrecht and even 60 cm in Groningen! When did this all start? About last Tuesday (which was not so last Tuesday). The day exactly when the meteorological Spring started. Heavy snowfall (according to Dutch standards) in Spring. Right. Some greenhouse effect (not!).

But I am drifting off. Boekelo and surroundings is a nice place to be. I love the Twentish accent of the people. Farmland is alternated by chunks of forrest and 'hout wallen' (wooden walls). Really nice to walk over there in the snow. I also did quite some relaxing. Played some new boardgames. I really had fun! Pictures will follow!