Weekend with friends in Riel

On the weekend Joel and I made the trip to a tiny village called Riel, which is just south of Tilburg. We stayed with my friends Johan and Toos, who are jaspers parents. Toos picked us up from the train station wearing a bright pink jacket that she had bought for her Scandinavia hiking trip -so she didn't get lost :). We went back to their place and met Johan, i enjoyed exploring their beautiful garden again and seeing their place because they renovated the ground floor of their house just after I visited them 2 years ago-and it looks amazing! We sat and caught up a bit then set out for a long walk in the Dutch wilderness. The nature in this part of the Netherlands is really beautiful. We walked past heaths and grass mounds that Johan used to ride his bike over, which are actually ancient graves, heaps of mushrooms (poisonus unfortunately) and through the forest and farm land.

After the walk we went to a local bar/restaurant in riel for a beer and snack. We were pretty lucky it was a beautiful sunny day!

Johan is one if the best cooks I know, and tonight was no exception. They had renovated their living areas since I was here last so now he has an awesome open plan kitchen. He made a salad with pumpkin, risotto in mushrooms, then Joel and Johan instructed toos and I how to make the desert, it was really fun, especially watching Johan try and restrain himself from helping!

After dinner a friendly game of settlers of catan was played, and Joel was the winner.

They put everything out for breakfast, so many good memories with the cheese on bread, the same muesli :) Johan works at the natural history museum making exhibits, so he gave us a really good tour-which was needed as everything is in Dutch. I really like the museum as they try and make it as interactive as possible.

It was a great weekend, and we are looking forward to visiting them again soon :)Read more