It was, I think 2013 or 2014 I have found myself in Twente, east of The Netherlands, endless green fields, horses, cows, sheep, chickens everywhere, natural wonder. 

I ended up here thanks to our manager Yves Dekeyser from Accor and special thanks to Maartje Van Vliet who has found our place to stay in Twente, Erfgoed Bossem for a General Managers team building event. A farm with a fantastic space to meet, sleep, eat and relax, connect to the nature while brainstorming. This has been created by, now I dare to call a friend Dennis Rerink and his partner Annette van Gaalen.

After that, it is 10 years now and I have been there annually twice, with my family, friends, alone and even with my teams and colleagues. This area makes me feel like “coming back” again.

Funny thing is, when I am here with my kids and I tell them that we go there, they are immediately happy, they are thinking about the space that they will sleep ( a 16m2 cabin, open roof in the bushes, next to the horses and watching the stars ) , they will have a buffet breakfast with food from the garden and they will go at least to two places, one is an open space event & restaurant which is called “ #Kakelbont ” with a massive garden made for kids to play and the food & drinks are just so comforting, the other place is the outdoor swimming pool in #Ootmarsum, fantastic, down to earth, small town swimming pool where families and youth celebrate sun and summer together.

I am here now, as this moment, with my son, on a boys weekend, it was a surprise for him that we went Friday afternoon, he immediately mentioned this three places that he needs to go and don’t needed anything else to be entertained, since that moment he is playing football with his peers that he didn’t meet before, everyone from where we stay to where we eat and swim, greets him and he eats the best food, he bikes to everywhere and he does whatever he wants to do. Last night he drove a go-card and made more friends and didn’t see him touching his “mobile devices” yet, although I am not against it, as those are the things that future requests, the nature and playing outside and making friends and experiences cannot be replaced with anything else. 

I am sitting here, at the terrace of the restaurant, having a beer, writing this and I am truly happy. But I cannot point what exactly makes the finishing touch, is it the experience, is it the freedom or is it the quality of everything that you are looking for is guaranteed by this people who makes all this possible… 

Although it makes me think, it is in the small things, if they are correct and the timing is good, there is a big chance to be succeeded to make people happy and feel good. 

What makes you happy on a weekend trip? 

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