CURRENT MISSION

Spending our Christmas break at home. Cosy and relaxed.

ABOUT ME

We're a family of 3 living in a family house in a village, close to the sea, called Castricum. Our son, Toon is 9 years old, very active and kind. He loves to play with other kids. Ben is originally from Germany, but speaks Dutch fluently. Toon is bilingual. He speeks German with Ben and Dutch with Marieke.

We both work part-time and both take care of Toon.
Marieke teaches Dutch, mainly to classes of refugees in our region. She spends most Thursdays in Utrecht and Amsterdam singing with her dad and a band.
Ben is working from home or out training teams and coaching people. In his free time he likes to do sports and play guitar.
Toon goes to a Waldorf school. He is a very active and intelligent boy. He likes freerunning, scouting, singing and playing with his friends whenever he can. Lately he's also reading quite a lot.

PHILOSOPHY
We don't really have one. Maybe you can help us come up with one?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

It's been a long time since we were active on this platform. We used to surf and host and would like to do that again. Hosting feels a bit like travelling without having to quit our jobs.. . Also, we have a decent house with some extra space. We'd like to share it once in a while.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have some experience, and enjoyed the couchsurfdays, both as a surfer and as a host. It has been good.

Interests

We like water, sailing lakes or oceans or anywhere. Making music and listening to music.. We have a piano, an accordeon, several guitars, a ukelele, quite a few percussion instruments like pandeiro and a tamborim. We like running, cycling, ice skating, reading, biology stuff, breakfast, drawing, apple pie, avocado, ice cream and evening drinks.. talking with old friends and new friends.

We met each other in navigation school in 2001.. long time ago.

• singing
• breakfast
• vegetarian
• running
• walking
• flying
• boating
• drawing
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• sailing
• biology
• teaching
• languages
• lakes

Music, Movies, and Books

Ben likes to listen to and play country, rock and funky music.
Marieke sings Brazilian music, jazz and likes quite a lot of other styles.
Toon is reading 'De Grijze Jager' (Ranger's apprentice) and loving it. Ben reads Harry potter to him in the evenings. Marieke is reading 'All Fours' like all her female 40+ friends at the moment :-) oh dear..
Ben reads a lot... let's ask him what he's reading at the moment.

Teach, Learn, Share

We used to know how to answer all these couchsurfing questions way better than we do now....
Can you teach us something about Ireland? Teach us a song?
Shall we tell you about our countries?

Marieke always wants to learn languages (at the moment busy with Spanish).

What I Can Share with Hosts

We can share our home and our bicycles with you. In 20 minutes you’re at the beach.

Castricum is a village near the woods, the dunes and the sea. There isn’t much to do in the village. We have a lot of schools, 2 nice cafés, one surviving cinema, nice people and good surroundings for bike rides and hikes. Our house is in walking distance of the train station, with regular trains to Amsterdam (30 minutes) and other beautiful places like the small town Alkmaar (10 minutes).

We can share our stories, our regular lives, our food and drinks and our advice about what to go see and do in our region.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Denmark, France, French Guiana, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mauritania, Monaco, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin (French part), Scotland, Serbia, Sint Maarten (Dutch part), Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom

•