new on the blog (see below)

november 26
last bits of news (see immediately below)

november 17
"yes i will be there" says jenks a.k.a. the sussex chimney

november 16
a hopefully usable route description is added just below and we sent out an e-mail with this and other practical information to all those who have formally threatened to attend.

november 6
"yes we will be there" say joppe & marina

october 29
"yes we will be there" say tanja & jopie

october 29
"yes we will be there" say hilde & karla

october 29
ron's attendance in jeopardy after airline goes bust!!!

october 28
"yes i will be there" says nigel

october 27
"yes i will be there" says dutch bob

october 24
"yes i will be there" says dutch erik

october 23
"yes i will be there" says bernd

october 18
"yes we will be there" say ouzo uwe & renate

october 15
"yes i will be there" says ron

october 12
"yes i will be there" says denis the irish viking

october 9
"yes i will be there" says kaveman kris

october 8
"yes i will be there" say kalli and tiny tim
(independent of each other)
(we wouldn't wan't to start any unsubstantiated rumours)

october 7
"yes we will be there" say raymond & johanna

october 6
a message from jigsaw

the latest news is...

that there is no new news, really!

weather forecast: chilly but mainly dry with some frost on saturday night (cold beer!) and maybe snow on sunday.

there will be a meal on friday night around 8 o'clock, so if you feel peckish: be there!

if you have any remaining questions, you know how to contact us.

see you on friday or saturday.

bye for now - sworp!

how to get there...

by car...
... it is easy: just get on the Amsterdam Ringroad (A10) and follow this (either direction) until on the Ring Noord (north) you get to exit S116 (Volendam). Take the exit and follow the signs to Volendam on the N247 until you find an exit to Broek in Waterland Noord. Take this exit (that is: turn left) and just keep going on. If you see a sign "Zeilkamp Waterland", follow that. If you get lost here, you win an award. The full distance is less than 1 km.



by public transport...
... is something completely different. First you have to get to the Central Station of Amsterdam. Once you are there, you have to get out. Now, they are still doing a lot of rebuilding in and around the station, so it is easy to get lost. You need to get out to the left to get a bus (that is to the right if you are facing the front of the station). But ... before you go outside, you may want to find a machine to buy yourself a strippenkaart for the bus. A 15-strippenkaart will set you back €6.90 and may be of use in the next days. Now you will have to find where the busses 110-118 are docking: If you arrive in nighttime you will have to find the stop for the nightliner 217 on your own; SWORP has no idea where that is. Next, pick a bus. Ask the driver if he stops at "Broek in Waterland Noord". If he says he does, get in, let the driver stamp your newly acquired strippenkaart (it will be 4 strippen), and ask the driver to warn you at the stop. If you do not have a strippenkaart, you will have to fork over €3.20 to get a small one just for the ride. Once it starts moving you will be there in less than 5 minutes, so thank the driver, get out, cross the street and think you are a car.

by plane...
... you probably arrive at Schiphol airport, and all you have to do is get a train to Central Station. There are about 4 an hour, so it should be no problem. Do not take a taxi unless you want to pay over the top.

whatever you do...
... write down the address on a piece of paper. This is always helpful for people who don't know where they are!

LOGEMENT WATERLAND
DSR. J. VAN DISWEG 4
1151 DA BROEK IN WATERLAND

yes, we will be there!

name: dutch hans
nights: saturday night
stay: in the reunion house

name: gudrun
nights: friday
stay: somewhere else

name: andy
nights: saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: didi & sabine (bavaria)
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: cookie, rhino, des & phil
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: raymond & johanna
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: kalli
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: tiny tim
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: kris
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: denis (bangor)
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: ron
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: uwe & renate
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: bernd
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: dutch erik
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: dutch bob
nights: saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: nigel
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: hilde (stuttgart) & karla (berlin)
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: tanja & jopie & yvonne
nights: friday

name: joppe & marina
nights: friday and saturday
stay: in the reunion house

name: jenks
nights: friday & saturday night
stay: in the reunion house

credit crunch crashes copenhagen's coelemij

ron's coming to this year's reunion has become very uncertain since the airline from which he bought his ticket has filed for bankrupcy.

the airline in question is sterling from iceland.
(as you might have noticed, all is not well on this cold island somewhere up high.)

ron is trying to find a solution that doesn't involve him paying the full fare for the trip a second time...
(and sworp are keeping their fingers crossed)

a message from jigsaw

Dearest darling Sworp:

Puzzle weekend! Excellent idea says Jigsaw!!!

Since the kids came along I can't make it to Syros any more...but the small beach is my desktop picture.

So hope everybody has a great time and keeps the Fredy's spirit alive. I do read the website and follow the news and so was saddened to read some of the stories there from this year - but thank you very much for maintaining the website so ex-Syrosians can keep in touch...

Love Jigsaw and family xxxx

the full text of the e-mail-invitation

dearest syrosians:

as most of you probably already know, the unbroken tradition of the sworp syros reunion is still intact, because on november 28, 29 and 30 you are all invited to travel down to the low lands for the 2008 dutch reunion.

the party will take place at the same venue as the previous one in the netherlands (2004), which is the one in broek in waterland near amsterdam.

this mail is only to inform you on the basics, all other practical information can be found on our blogspot: http://syrosreunion2008.blogspot.com/

what are the basics?

the reunion place will be open from friday, 17:00 hours local time (that is kent & sussex time plus one, athens & galissas time minus one and more or less equal to copenhagen, antwerp, wuppertal, hamburg and bavarian times).

the cost for a full stay (bed, breakfast, meals on friday and saturday night, commerorative button plus unlimited use of toilet) is €55 (which is actually a fiver less than last time...).

if you decide to spend the night somewhere else, this will be cut to €30.

people who drop by announced or unannounced for saturday evening only, will be forced by our friendly staff to donate €10.

after last years’ bavarian all-included-concept we return tot the token system for drinks: €1,25 per token, which will buy you one beer, one glass of wine, one hot shot or one jägermeister; harder stuff will sell at 2 tokens (same prices as 2004).

smoking is still allowed in the living room of the house.

the house sleeps 32 to 36 people (in beds). the house itself can hold up to 70 people.

the theme of this year’s event is “THE PUZZLING REUNION?”, so things will revolve more or less around riddles, question marks, jigsaws with missing pieces, unbelievable stories, boggling minds, people or things getting lost, surprise arrivals or departures, inexplicable behaviour and rather strange games (so nothing new, really).

in the light of this, you are all urged to bring over at least one strange, unbelievable, inexplicable, surprizing, puzzling and/or riddling item to add to the general confusion.

and for the saturday night party, it would be nice if you wear something that makes others exclaim “i really don’t understand why she put thát on...”, “where on earth did he find thát...?”, “how did she possibly get into thát...?” or “i didn’t even know that qualified as clothing...”, so everything that makes up a questionable, riddling, confusing, bewildering ensemble.

the most important basic, though, is we need to know if you are planning to come over.

how can you let us know?
by going to the blogspot and posting a reaction to the “yes, we will be there”-announcement that is top of the blog.

just tell us who you are, if you want to book a bed in the house for one or two nights and anything else you feel obliged to mention.
we will include your reaction into the body text of the blog-announcement.

this way, everyone can see who has already sent in a reaction.

if this is for whatever reason impossible for you to do this, please feel free to send us an e-mail, postcard, text of voice mail and we will take it from there.

that’s it for now!

hope to see you in november and keep checking the blogspot for further practical information and announcements.

regards,

the 2008 sworp reunion committee:
john, michelle, ineke & albert (cro’s = chief reunion officers)
ronald (cbo = chief beverage officer)
erik (cmo = chief music officer)
bob (csndo = chief saturday night dinner officer)
andy & gudrun (dro’s = deputy reunion officers)

list of people who (hopefully) received the invitation by e-mail

below is a list, in alphabetical order, of everyone who we sent the e-mail-version of the invitation to.

we will include a flag if we receive a bounce-message from one of the addresses (so anyone who has a flag actually did nót get the message).

please feel free to inform any syrosian who is not on the list and/or any of the "bouncees" if you happen to have a working e-mail-address of them!


albert
amsterdam petros and kerry
andrea (vienna)
andy
angela and günter (berlin)
barok bar
bärbel the terrible
belfast john
bjoern (copenhagen)
chantal, kreon and george
cooch (aka howard jenkinson) [BOUNCED]
cookie and susy
davide (milano)
denis the menice
dennis and anne (copenhagen)
derek hyslop [BOUNCED]
desmond
didi and sabine
dougie
dutch bob
dutch hans
dutch john
edmund
erik tiesinga
fjummer and claus
georgeos stefanou
greg and janet
gudy
gus and rosie
harald and lidvor
heidi tischmann
heike tidow
heleni and stavros
herbie
ian cheney
ineke
ingrid & davide
ingrid and zoï
ingrid tiesenga and hans
isa
jacqueline & paul
jenks
jigsaw (and family)
joanne (jo's mother)
joppe, marina and ingo
julia
kalli
karla (berlin)
kay
kris the caveman (belgium)
lange
lisa [BOUNCED]
louisa thompson
lynn [BOUNCED]
madeleine
marianne (norway)
meredde
mette [BOUNCED]
michelle & ronald
michiel
mieke jacobs en johan(holland)
nick and grethe (holland/norway/oz) [BOUNCED]
nigel
nina
ole
ozzie david
perry [BOUNCED]
pete (copenhagen)
ray and sue (nottingham)
rhino [BOUNCED]
rik the clown (holland)
ron (denmark)
sabine and max
sandwich petros
scottish gus
sylvia rose (aka betty)
tanja
terrence (bangor)
tine and kids (denmark)
tiny tim
ton (ammerlaan)
tony (hamburg)
torben (trog)
uli (little magnum)
uwe and renate
vera (germany)
welsh john [BOUNCED]
wil and yvonne (holland)
yvonne

where to stay (if not in the house itself)

there is a limted number of options.

b&b’s in broek in waterland:
http://www.bedstede.nl/
http://www.hoteldeschaapskooi.nl/
http://www.bandb.nl/

b&b’s in monnickendam (close to broek in waterland):
http://www.kamerverhuurwaterland.nl/
http://www.hoevemeerzicht.nl/

b&b’s all over noord-holland (of which broek in waterland is a part):
http://bedandbreakfast.nl/provincie/Noord-Holland?sort=adres_plaats&asc=true&show=9&tab=1

a nice but rather expensive hotel in monnickendam:
http://www.posthoorn.eu/

getting there (the babelfish way)...

this is an unedited translation from the dutch website into english by babelfish and it is very hilarious. (a more serious attempt of telling you how to get there will be published later in time...)

all you have to know that "broek" in dutch also means "trousers", "links(af)" is "(turn) left" and "rechts(af)" is "(turn) right".

BY BUS
As from Amsterdam central station: All Arriva-bussen nrs. 110, 111, 114, 115 and 118 pass trousers in water country. Travel time: 10 minutes, depending on the bus line which YOU have. The streekbushaltes of Arriva find YOU, coming from the head termination, linksaf along CS bldg. current entirely achteraan. In trousers only one halte is: Twinge the way slanting Right concerning (by means of the tunneltje) and lettuce at the vegetable farmer left the village in (Burg. P.Paul plant blockhead). At the end of the street at the t junction rechtsaf and left apprehend. YOU come then automatically on the drs. J. van Disweg. After the tennis park and a football field sees YOU left t Vaarlogement.

BY CAR
Direction Amsterdam. At the ring road Amsterdam (ring A10) , direction arrived Zaanstad. On the northern ring road Amsterdam (ring A10 North), junction Volendam. YOU come from Southern direction by means of the Coentunnel: directly after the Coentunnel apprehend Right for Volendam. If YOU apprehend Volendam, YOU pass automatically trousers in water country: Follow the chalkboards trousers in NorthNorth North. concerning the bridge, linksaf stock the village and the street drives out. at the t junction rechtsaf, left apprehending t Vaarlogement/sail camp water country finds YOU on the drs. J. van Disweg 4.

BY BICYCLE (our personal favourite):
Take the vat behind the central station (for free). From the vat righteously, along the linkeroever of the North Dutchman canal to in Buiksloot. In Buiksloot Right the drawbridge concerning and along the rechteroever remains until trousers in water country. In trousers left concerning the bridge, 2e street left, to the end at the t junction Right and left apprehend to on the drs. J. van Disweg no. 4.

about the venue

they have a website with bits in english: http://www.logementwaterland.nl/

address :
logement waterland
drs. j. van disweg 4
1151 da broek in waterland

google maps:
go to http://maps.google.co.uk/
place the following words in the search window: logement broek waterland
click "search map"
and choose result "a" ("zeilkamp waterland")

announcement

hello syrosians:

this year's syros reunion will be on the 28th, 29th and 30th of november.

location: broek-in-waterland (same location as the previous dutch reunion).

as time moves on (which it always does), more details will appear on this blog.

until then: happy living!

s.w.o.r.p.

(the suckers who organize the reunion party)