Today is exactly one year ago that we started this blog. We already had the domain Wolfstad.com since 1999, and had used it as a personal website, featuring our travel photo album and Disney Comics Worldwide, but it wasn’t until October 2005 that we thought of making it into a blog, so I looked into WordPress and launched the site on Monday 17 October, with an entry about bad food at Disneyland Paris. More »

A hot air balloonist who disturbed hundreds of breeding birds when flying too low over the Nieuwkoopse Plassen, here in the Netherlands, has been fined € 300 by a judge in the Hague. The 36-year-old man had started his flight in Woerden in June last year, and had accidentally drifted toward Schiphol Airport. To evade the airport the man changed his heading and flew just 25 meter over the nature reserve, where hundreds of birds were startled by the loud burner of the hot air balloon and flew away. The judge decided that the balloonist had not properly prepared the flight. More »

I have just updated our photo album and created the 2006 yearbook with photos of what we’ve done so far this year. More »

In the last year I’ve had quite a few problems with Webmasters.com. Luckily I am not using their services anymore for quite a while, but I am still waiting to receive a refund, and they refuse to answer my emails. More »

The IKEA in Delft, here in the Netherlands, has recently expanded their store, doubling its size and destroying an important nesting habitat for bats. To provide shelter for the displaced bats, the city of Delft is funding the construction of a special bat-cave behind the IKEA store. More »

Following our record-breaking heat in July and the record rainfall of August we are now experiencing the warmest September in 300 years, according to the Dutch weather agency (KNMI). More »

I didn’t realize this, but many food products like Pop-Tarts, M&M’s, Cupcakes, Snicker bars, etc. have beef or pork gelatin in them. More »

Last Saturday was Open Monumentendag, or Open Monument Day, in the Netherlands. Leiden goes a step further and celebrates Openmonumentendagen, or Openmonumentenweekend, opening up over 30 monuments, museums and historical buildings for the entire weekend. Each year the tourist bureau in Leiden also publishes a guide for visitors, with suggested walking or cycling routes. More »

This Sunday, 17 September, the center of Leiden will be closed to all car traffic. The city is closing the streets for an autovrije dag, or car-free day. Each year across Europe and the rest of the world such car-free days are organized; this year marks the first time Leiden will be closed to car traffic since the 1970’s. More »

A new bird species has been discovered in a remote forest in northeastern India, conservationists announced today. The strikingly multi-colored bird has been named Bugun Liocichla and it is the first new bird species discovered in India in more than half a century. More »