As Christmas was approaching, we realised no one had invited us for a Christmas meal. Last year, we had family over for dinner; that was nice, but we didn't really feel like doing that again this time. So we decided to spend a few days away from home this time.
I found a nice short trip arrangement on the Stayokay, which is the former youth hostel organisation, website; as we are former youth ourselves, that seemed very appropriate.
I inquired whether or not there was room for us in the inn, and (also very fitting) it was almost full, but they had a room for four which we could have at a small extra fee for the empty beds, which they would not be renting to anyone else. So we had a room for four to ourselves. The downside of that was, of course: bunk beds. But I was sure we'd find some way around that.

We were going to Terschelling, which is one of the islands that form a string to the north of the Netherlands. It's 30 kilometres long. It's possible to take a car on the ferry, but that's fairly expensive, and besides, what for? There's nowhere to drive to.
We decided to take our bicycles instead, and get some exercise.


Of course, we also took our laptops and a small stack of books to release.
And since we knew about a BookCrosser who lives there and sometimes feels a bit left out (because it's much harder for her to attend meetings or hunt for books) we also took a banana box full of unregistered books, so she'd be able to release them all over the island, and possibly net a few new BookCrossers that way.

Aaltsje (that's her name) was waiting for us when we got off the ferry, and her eyes lit up when she say the full box!

It was already dark, but we found the inn quite easily. We had a nice dinner, a short walk around the village and headed for bed. Don't tell the staff, but we put the matresses on the floor. We're not used to sleeping in separate beds.

The next day was Christmas day. We spent it exploring the island by bicycle, which is nice, but a bit windy. We found a very nice old windmill, the one on the picture above, that is now a great place to stop for coffee and tea (although the tea tasted a bit salty!), and later on we stumbled upon the Wreckage Museum, which was full of things found on the beach or while diving. Very interesting and well worth a visit.
I took a few pictures that day, and you can find them here if you're interested, or click on the pic.