Okay, this is a very old video on YouTube and more than four million people have seen this already, but this is incredible; the fainting goat is a breed of domestic goat whose muscles freeze for about 10 seconds when it is startled. Younger goats usually collapse on their side, but older ones learn to spread their legs or lean against something when startled. Why have I never heard of this? It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen:

This is my favorite picture of the week. Woody from Toy Story watches Space Shuttle Discovery lifting off on May 31st with Buzz Lightyear onboard, finally fulfilling the toy’s dream of going into space. The 12-inch action figure is visiting the International Space Station this week along on mission STS-124 as part of a new educational partnership between NASA and the Walt Disney Company and to commemorate the opening of Toy Story Mania! at Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

More »

Yesterday we went to Baarle Nassau to see my cousin Agnes at a pottery demonstration (see below). Baarle is a town in the south of the Netherlands with complicated borders that zig-zag through town. The border situation is the result of a number of complex medieval treaties, agreements, land-swaps and land sales.

Amy on one of the borders

More »

Last night Stephen Colbert had astronaut Garret Reisman on the show, live from the International Space Station, after being seen wearing a WristStrong bracelet.

More »

On 24 August, the day before we visited the Vogelfestival this year, we went to the city of Giethoorn, which is known in the Netherlands as the “Venice of the North”. We got an electric boat from the many rental companies and made a two-hour tour around the city and adjacent nature area and lake. There were many boats out on this beautiful summer day, and on the lake we found a boat selling packaged ice creams! There was a girl on a small barge and an Ola freezer selling ice creams to passing boats:

More »

We took many taxis on our holiday in Egypt last week, most of them flagged down on the streets of Sharm El Sheikh. It’s always a big hassle to agree a price with the driver before you get in. You know from seeing official price lists and reading travel books and trip reports what constitutes a fair price, but still they laugh in your face if you mention anything near these prices and make you pay something many times more. More »

At Ras Mohamed National Park we saw this extremely cute “Do not feed the fish” sign. It’s the way the fish looks at the (mysterious object in the) hand that makes it a really funny sign, I think:

More »

On our visit of the beautiful town of Marken in Noord Holland today we sat down outside at café ‘De Visscher’ and we each ordered a hot chocolate and a piece of apple pie. The weather was beautiful and we had a great view of the harbor. Here is Amy in her FBI shirt, still unaware of the invasion that would soon follow.

More »

The legendary musician Peter Gabriel was stranded on the A27 highway in the Netherlands on Saturday when his bus broke down in flames. More »