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Old questions to the Dutch community (before 11-11-2011)


Night Crawlers

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To any cachers in the Amsterdam area. There is a Cache on Geocaching.com that I need help solving my waypoint for this cache is:

 

N52 37.488 E5 09.613

 

The lattitude of the waypoint was made from my user name and the letter to number conversion provided by telephone keys (please look at the cache page for details):

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.asp?ID=12627

 

The Longitude I have chosen. I could have chosen one in the UK but that would have been boring.

 

The virtual cache instructions require another cacher to go to the location and take a photo of their GPS reading the Lat/Long I have provided and some photos of the area. The cacher who does this will also score this cache.

 

Please mail me the photos and details at chris@franklin.fsbusiness.co.uk

 

Please email the photos to me. The waypoint is near to Wijednes which is close to Hoorn which is quite near Amsterdam.

 

If a Dutch cacher can help with this we will both score a cache!!!

 

Thanks

 

Chris Franklin

 

LASSITUDE- (noun) Tiredness and apathy: a state of weariness accompanied by listlessness or apathy[15th century. Via French from Latin lassitudo , from lassus 'weary'.]

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I will be in Holland soon with my GF and a friend, we love to geocache here in the states and are looking forward to cache in Holland. We would like to meet up with anyone willing to cache a little and just meet some fellow cachers. Please post to this thread or email us! Looking forward to a response. Night Crawlers!

 

28291_300.jpg

 

FGA - Florida Geocaching Assoc.

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Hi Night Crawlers,

 

We may be able to meet you, if you let us know when (what dates) you will be in the Netherlands.

If you are able to bring along a few travelbug tags to re-sell, please do so, because they are not available in the Netherlands at all.

 

You may get mor response if you post in the Dutch forum, english posts are no problem there (try section "geodating"):

http://www.geocaching.nl/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi?

 

Louis.

 

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice!

(Scooter)

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Well it is official! The Night Crawlers / Amsterdam Cache event will be help on Sunday the 29th at 14:30. We will have New Travel Bugs, Old Travel Bugs and alot of stories! We hope to meet some new friends and try to do a few caches around AMS. We look forward to meeting you all and would like to know if there is anything we missed on the cache page (Description, Location, etc.)?

 

See you soon!

 

The cache is located @

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=36754 or here

 

28291_300.jpg

 

FGA - Florida Geocaching Assoc

 

[This message was edited by (Confuzn aka John & Saxy aka Antoinette) on September 18, 2002 at 11:31 AM.]

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you need to get an account to get to post in the dutch forum...

at least that is what my dutch tells me when I try to post somewhere....

 

After Kroog was destroyed while most of its defenders were at his side, Urza vowed that none of his allies would ever need to fear for their own defense again, even while laying siege to a city far from their homes.

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I'm looking for a geocacher in Holland who would be able to assist myself and my wife while we are there. We will be in Holland for 2 weeks and would like to cache, and retrieve our travel bugs in Holland.

 

Please email us if you can help @ confuzn@hotmail.com

 

Thanks!

 

Night Crawlers

 

28291_300.jpg

 

FGA - Florida Geocaching Assoc.

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Hi,

 

I'm going to be visiting Limburg (Maastricht and Heerlen to be specific) twice in the next month or so, plus spending a day in Amsterdam. Are there any recommendations for caches I can do in those areas?

 

Bedankt

 

evilrooster

-the email of the species is deadlier than the mail-

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Be sure to check also the site

www.geocaching.nu about Dutch geocaching.

It it completely made by Dutch geocachers and for Dutch geocachers (therefore it is in Dutch only), but it has lots of nice features, like on the main page where you can type the name of a city ("woonplaats") to find caches nearby. In the left-side-menu under "algemeen"-"kaarten" you can also find nice maps.

 

LouiSearcher

 

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice! (Scooter)

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quote:
Originally posted by LouiSearcher:

Be sure to check also the site

http://www.geocaching.nu about Dutch geocaching.

It it completely made by Dutch geocachers and for Dutch geocachers (therefore it is in Dutch only)


 

Not a problem. I don't speak Dutch, but my husband does. (We're actually going back for his high school reunion in Heerlen.)

 

evilrooster

-the email of the species is deadlier than the mail-

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Hi, evilrooster. I was visiting Amsterdam a few weeks ago and managed to do a few caches while there:

 

Lang Parkeren?

was a great one, proabably a unique hiding place. After that, you can do the nearby Netherland's first cache Amsterdam Urban 1

Then there's a webcam cache Amsterdam - Overtoom if you want a picture grabbed, let me know and I could always get one for you, if you don't mind the cost of the call and it's an appropriate time.

 

Dogastus.

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We're back from the second trip, now. Not hugely successful, sadly.

 

Went after Vakantie Gevoel near Heerlen on bikes, but got soaked to the skin and had to abandon the hunt at the last stage (toddler and husband both lost the plot a bit...).

 

Then my Palm (half my GPS) ran out of batteries and we couldn't do the Amsterdam caches (both of the physicals were on our list).

 

Sigh...

 

evilrooster

http://www.bookweb.sunpig.com

-the email of the species is deadlier than the mail-

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I went to the Netherlands (from the USA) for a few days several years ago and I left part of my heart there. :rolleyes: Been wanting to get it back ever since. :unsure:

 

Anyway... one of these years I WILL make it back!! It will be even more fun now that I am a geocacher! :blink:

 

I don't read Dutch however... is there a way of automatically translating the Dutch language to English so I can read it? Last time I checked, Babelfish did not have that feature...

 

By the way, last time I was there, I was in Den Haag. I ended up in this very interesting park near the shore which had sand and trees. It was just beyond a neighborhood with expensive houses. I never did see the ocean at that place`. There was a very serious WW2 war memorial there, commemorating the death of people who resisted the invaders? What was this place? Is there a geocache there?

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First of all: there is a Dutch page for local yokels. And with a beautifull map with all 800+ caches on it! See:Official Cache map of the Kingdom of the Netherlands :rolleyes:

You need to zoom in.

 

The cache you are thinking about will be Klok 1 where nearby there is a bell used for memorial services.

Also some kind of WW2 monument cache is Hold your Horses :unsure:

This last cache has also a English page.

 

You can ask cache owners for a translation or when your are in Holland to have some locals translate for you. Or drop in at the dutch forum with questions.

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I tried it and with worldlingo.com I could indeed translate webpages of my caches to something resembling English.

With the afore mentioned cache 'Hold Your Horses' the translation starts with the new cache name 'Run your Horses'. :P

 

Then for me - not having English as my motherlanguage - the very mysterious text follows:

"The cache hang hid cat district in the dunes at south of the fisherman village. A pocket lamp can be skilful and just for wet feet.

 

Hidden in the dunes North or Wassenaarse battle. Bring a flashlight and try not to get your feet law."

 

I will translate:

"The cache hangs hidden in the dunes South of the fishing village of Katwijk. A small torchlight is a good thing to bring with you and take care not to get your feet wet.

 

Hidden in the dunes North of Wassenaarse Slag. Bring a flashlight and try not to get your feet wet."

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You can ask cache owners for a translation or when your are in Holland to have some locals translate for you. Or drop in at the dutch forum with questions.

It is not that convenient having to ask the cache owners if one is not sure in the preparation phase how many and which caches one will be able to do. I do not feel comfortable asking for the translation of say 30 caches and then ending up by perhaps doing 5 of them.

 

Since the Netherlands belong to those country in the world where the level of knowledge of English is the highest among countries where English is not an official language, I do not understand at all why it is so common in the Netherlands to offer the cache descriptions only in Dutch. Many of the cachers doing so, are quite well able to write in English and nobody asks for a perfect English version. (Grammar mistakes and a poor vocabulary do not matter that much - even a short English version containing mistakes can be very helpful for foreigners.)

 

There is another drawback of the solutions you suggest: In both cases (ask the cache owner for a translation or ask question in the Dutch forum), a much smaller group of geocachers profits than in the case that an English translation is offered on the cache page.

 

Geocaching is an international activity and everyone who is able to write in English, is kindly asked to do so.

 

Cezanne

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We have here a historically grown situation. The first caches were all in Dutch so not to make things difficult for newbies. And like a flock of cows we went on doing it in Dutch. Even though the first group of geocachers had good knowledge of English because of profession (techno-minded) and English could be written by them without undue problems. But the newbies of today are not that fluent in English; they do not belong so much to the educated upper classes.

F.i.: this summer someone made an all-English cache here. Also the hint in English. Visitors number 6 complained: did not understand hint and had no dictionary at hand, so not found.

I think that now 1 in 10 out of the Dutch geocachers have trouble with cache descriptions in English.

So there needs to be a balance between facilitating English speaking cachers and inconviniencing Dutch geocachers or: make 2-language cache descriptions.

But then: what about all those Germans having big problems with English (especially the ones from East Germany that learned Russian at school)?

This is important in the border region with Germany where number of German visitors can be more then 20 percent!

 

Further: to put things in perspective: my cache 'Uitzicht' is near tourist places (beach, sea, campings, hotels) full of Germans in the summer. There are 48 visits and there are 4 English logs of which 2 are made by Germans.

My cache 'Leiden Urban 1' has 113 visits of which are 7 in English of which there are 4 wriiten by Dutch locals. Only 3 English speaking visitors (from USA, South Africa and Norway).

 

For Belgium the problem is much bigger: there are 3 official languages 45/45/10 percent spoken Dutch, French and German.

With English they have to furnish 4 translations.

In practice there is such a big cultural gap (apartheid) that the two do not meet.

If you look at map http://www.geocaching.nl/maps/seek.php then you can see the language barrier across Belgium: south of it nearly no caches.

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We have here a historically grown situation.

 

Yes, I was aware of that.

 

The first caches were all in Dutch so not to make things difficult for newbies.

 

I cannot understand why bilingual descriptions offered by those who are able to do so make things more difficult to newbies. It just takes more time to write in two or even more languages.

 

F.i.: this summer someone made an all-English cache here. Also the hint in English. Visitors number 6 complained: did not understand hint and had no dictionary at hand, so not found.

 

I am not in favour of using English exclusively!

 

I think that now 1 in 10 out of the Dutch geocachers have trouble with cache descriptions in English.

 

That percentage is still low when compared to many other countries in which more cache descriptions are offered in English in addition to the national language.

 

So there needs to be a balance between facilitating English speaking cachers and inconviniencing Dutch geocachers or: make 2-language cache descriptions.

 

I had never in mind to propose that Dutch caches should not have a Dutch description. If there are Dutch cachers who are not able to offer an English version of their caches, this is fine with me. My suggestion was just that those who are able to write in English, should offer a English version along with the Dutch one.

 

But then: what about all those Germans having big problems with English (especially the ones from East Germany that learned Russian at school)?

This is important in the border region with Germany where number of German visitors can be more then 20 percent!

 

I do not understand why an additional English description can pose any sort of problem to a German geocacher. Moreover, I know quite a number of people who have been raised up in East Germany. Only some of them know no English at all - others had to learn English anyway (for example, for scientists it was quite natural to be able read English even before the fall of the iron curtain).

Moreover, if there are Dutch geocachers who wish to offer an additional service to the German visitors, nobody keeps them from offering also a German version.

There is a cache at the border of Austria and Slovenia (not too far from my home town) that is offered in German, English and Slovenian.

 

Further: to put things in perspective: my cache 'Uitzicht' is near tourist  places (beach, sea, campings, hotels) full of Germans in the summer. There are 48 visits and there are 4 English logs of which 2 are made by Germans.

 

That might well be true, but it has to be taken into account that the overall number of geocachers in the Netherlands is much larger than in many other countries where geocaching is not yet that well-known. In my local area a cache with 10 visitors is already a quite well-visited cache. There are not that many cachers in Austria.

So it comes as no surprise to me that the majority of visitors to Dutch caches comes from the Netherlands. But the Dutch cachers are certainly not having any disadvantage if an additional English version is offered.

 

Personally, I do not like at all typical tourist places. So when I go for caches abroad, it happens most of the time when I am attending a conference, visiting a university etc. I prefer to go for caches that are in areas full of tourists. When I visited Copenhagen this summer, I was very happy that only a single cache I came across in the greater Copenhagen area was not available in English. At some of the caches I found there, I was also the first foreign visitor. As a cache owner one can never know in advance who wishes to do a cache somewhen in the future.

 

Let me add that I have come across complaints about the many Dutch-only caches in the Netherlands. I would not like to go caching in the Netherlands. It is much too tiresome for me to guess the meaning of the descriptions.

 

For Belgium the problem is much bigger: there are 3 official languages 45/45/10 percent spoken Dutch, French and German.

 

I am aware of this problem, but this problem exists also outside of geocaching. I addressed specifically the situation in the Netherlands.

 

With English they have to furnish 4 translations.

 

Not necessarily. This is more a psychological and politic issue than a really an issue of languages.

 

In practice there is such a big cultural gap (apartheid) that the two do not meet.

 

But that is the case also outside of the world of geocaching. If you get on a train from the centre of Brussels to the airport, then the French announcements will immediately stop after having crossed the region where Dutch and French have to be used by law. Similarly, it is often more meaningful to use English in a shop in the Flemish are (say in Antwerp) than French. The same is true for using Dutch in the French-speaking part. I observed that very often the people have no problem at all with understanding the other language, but they just do not want to use it (for several reasons - I do not want to enter this discussion now).

 

From my point of view, it would suffice to use one's native language and English, but if someone wishes to offer additional language versions, this is certainly fine. If someone chooses to use only Dutch and French, this is still an advantage over a Dutch-only version since much more people are able to read French than Dutch. I can hardly imagine any Belgian geocacher who only understand German and no other language. Keep in mind that I am not talking about political issues. I like the fact that we have many different languages around the world. I am not in favour of forcing everyone to use English. But it is clear that no one can learn the languages of all the countries he/she might visit during his/her life-time for possibly a few days. For such situations English is the most suitable means of communication.

 

As the distribution of caches in Belgium is regarded, I also think that geocaching has not yet become sufficiently known in the French-speaking world. Have a look at the small number of caches in France, many of which have been places by tourists. It just would require a number of enthusiastic cachers in Southern Belgium to increase the number of caches there. About one year ago the number of caches in Austria was very small (although there exists only one official language in the country), now we have more than 250.

 

Cezanne

Edited by cezanne
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From my point of view, it would suffice to use one's native language and English, but if someone wishes to offer additional language versions, this is certainly fine.

I fully agree with Cezanne here. Using English in addition to the native language in cache report doesn't hurt anyone. Every single of my 15 caches here in Finland has an English description, and I'm happy to report that at least 4 of them are visited by someone from abroad.

 

I would love a geocaching trip to Netherlands, but with my very limited knowledge of Dutch (eet smakelijk and some obscenities :P ) I probably wouldn't understand the cache pages there, and I'm afraid I'd have to go caching somewhere else.

 

Of course, I could ask for translations beforehand, but it's quite embarrassing to have people translate me, say, 50 cache descriptions, and then I end up searching 10 of them.

 

For me, one of the best aspects of geocaching is the globality of the hobby. You really can go anywhere in the world, and find a cache or two there. Too bad it can be prevented so easily by not using a simple English translation. :)

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For Belgium the problem is much bigger: there are 3 official languages 45/45/10 percent spoken Dutch, French and German.

With English they have to furnish 4 translations.

In practice there is such a big cultural gap (apartheid) that the two do not meet.

Professor, I don't agree with this quote! :P

But I think we better not start a discussion about belgian politics on this forum... I don't think this has anything to do with geocaching.

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Hey, I'm the manager of a translation business, and also a translator myself. Moreover, Dutch is one of my languages. If anyone wants his cache page translated, drop me a line :-)

 

To the point about the language of cache pages: I don't think there should be ANY rules about this, and the matter should be left to the discretion of the hider. Obviously, the more people read the page, the more visits a hider can expect.

 

My two eurocents (that's more than $-cents :-)

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I tried it and with worldlingo.com I could indeed translate webpages of my caches to something resembling English.

With the afore mentioned cache 'Hold Your Horses' the translation starts with the new cache name 'Run your Horses'. :(

 

Then for me - not having English as my motherlanguage - the very mysterious text follows:

"The cache hang hid cat district in the dunes at south of the fisherman village. A pocket lamp can be skilful and just for wet feet.

 

Hidden in the dunes North or Wassenaarse battle. Bring a flashlight and try not to get your feet law."

 

I will translate:

"The cache hangs hidden in the dunes South of the fishing village of Katwijk. A small torchlight is a good thing to bring with you and take care not to get your feet wet.

 

Hidden in the dunes North of Wassenaarse Slag. Bring a flashlight and try not to get your feet wet."

My favorite part of the worldlingo translations in the ability to track a travel nose :o:o:o

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A travel bug of mine had made it almost all the way to its specified goal in Vermont, USA, when a cacher intentionally decided to derail it and take it to the Netherlands instead -- he decided this would be more "interesting".

 

The bug is currently in the Den Deijl cache, cache GCF2BA (visit the cache here). I would be grateful if anyone reading this would be so kind as to go retrieve it and mail it to me in the USA; I'll happily reimburse you for the postage and send you a thank-you gift as well.

 

The bug in question is "Lemurcoin 2004", TBFEDC.

 

-- My thanks to anyone who might be able to be of help.

 

-- Lemur (Jay Furr), 1/2 of the "Furrs" geocaching team

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To take a TB and not check its stated aims before replacing it, is bad enough, but I suppose it's just about possible to do it inadvertently: you're on the trail, on vacation, no Web to hand, maybe the sheet you printed out a week ago didn't mention the TB, etc.

 

But to then write it up with "I've arbitrarily decided that it should travel around a bit" is just incredibly rude.

 

Still, it just goes to show that in the GC world, "all human life is here"...

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But to then write it up with "I've arbitrarily decided that it should travel around a bit" is just incredibly rude.

That's sort of what we thought. When a bug's in a TB race, and is one state away from its destination, you don't pick it up and say "I think I'll take it ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN."

 

Unless you're a jerk, of course. Obviously, the world's got its share of those.

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Is there anybody out there who could do a little detective work concerning our travel bug 'Brynney Bug' ( Details here )

 

She was definately placed in the cache on the 29th May 2005 ( you can see her in this picture HERE

).

 

Since then she hasn't been seen B) .

 

Could someone who speaks Dutch please have a look at the logs ( HERE ) and see if she can be tracked down ??

 

I suspect She's at the bottom of someones caching bag or in the boot of someones car !! (Poor Brynney :rolleyes: )

 

Thanks :anibad:

 

Mods - Couldn't find a specific Netherlands forum, feel free to move this post if I missed it !!

Edited by MoonHerb
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Perhaps you know already by now, but I took a quick look anyway. On 29 May, Boyscout visited 3 caches. The first one was "Op z'n kop" and you had just placed your travel bug. They took it out and since they thought it was cute, they took it home. So they did not place it in the other 2 caches they found that day. They intended to give it a new home soon, but since that day, they did not find any other cache. Bad luck for Brynney, but I am sure it is in a warm house.

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Have you contacted the owner?

 

Using http://babelfish.altavista.com from Dutch to English the result is:

 

Geo go on path. To Pausa, t centre of the ground. Lutherstrasse 4. n 50.34.915 E011.59.656

 

So, it probably wants to go to Pausa village and go to the address given.

 

N 50º 34.915 E 11º 59.656

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=50...010815&t=h&om=1

 

Here's the caches around that coordinate.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.asp...ong_mmss=59.656

 

Still, I'd contact the owner.

 

I don't really know why TB owners tend to write everything in their own language. If the goal was written in english, almost anyoned would have a doubt about it. Good Luck.

Edited by SUp3rFM & Cruella
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Thanks SUp3rFM & Cruella for the reply. Likely you are right, although even with with babelfish translation is still not clear. If the owner provided description on his language, unlikely he speaks English. Moreover, in the TB logs there are remarks that people don't understand what the goal is. No reaction from owner side means he is not concerned. Anyway I am not going to Germany soon and will put the TB somewhere close to my place.

 

Happy hunting!

Edited by Oleg
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Hi,

I am going to the Hague next month for a week and of course I would like to do some geocaching there. Could you advice me some good caches? Also there are lots of mystery and multi caches without english translation :) . Could anyone please help me with it? It would be really great to find some of them too.

Thanks very much

Monika

the Czech republic

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Hi,

I am going to the Hague next month for a week and of course I would like to do some geocaching there. Could you advice me some good caches? Also there are lots of mystery and multi caches without english translation :) . Could anyone please help me with it? It would be really great to find some of them too.

Thanks very much

Monika

the Czech republic

 

what about babelfish? besides that, the dutch would love to translate from their language to english for a nice slovakian woman.. :)

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Yes, I tried babelfish but I would say that it is not very good. Half of the text is always written in dutch again :).

I am going there to visit my sister (we are both czech) and do not have any dutch friends. Well, maybe I will have to make some friends first and then start to look for caches :)

Anyway, thank you for help.

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c'mon, the both of you go out one night for a HEINEKEN and you get hooked up with some guys that will be diiing to translate all they are able of.. :)

 

i have some czech and slovakian friends here, but none of them is able to speak dutch by my knowledge..

 

if i was, i'd be more than glad to help you out!!! dutch and german is pretty close, so why not drop me a line, might be able to help you out. as long as you dont want hundreds of caches.. i also have a friend that speaks dutch, so one more chance to try!

Edited by terrible2u
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Hai there,

 

I don't know you're arrived in The Hague yet, but there are a lot of caches in and around The Hague. You can do want you want, for exemple visit nice historic monuments or get caches in beautiful nature. It's up 2 your ! If you want some help or a site-seeing, let me know and mayby we can get a small one with a nice cup of coffee.

 

Greetings, Gnoric !

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We are going biking in the Netherlands this week. I would love to do some geocaching there and leave some travel bugs. The trouble is I do not speak Dutch and all the sites are in that language. We will be staying at the Hague, Bergambacht, and Kruiningen, plus staying several days in Amsterdam. If someone could help me find a listing in these locales I would appreciate it. Thank you, Bitingdoberman :laughing:

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