Postcard from Grensa
By Charlotte (Mensa Netherlands)
Grensa was a German, Belgian, and Dutch getaway weekend held March 8–10, 2024.
The plan was an easy-going weekend somewhere on the Dutch-German-Belgian border. Not too big— 35 people. Let’s keep it small. OK, maybe 45. Possibly 50? We finally settled on 60. There were 60 participants, from 8 different countries.
How will we all understand each other? Well, there’s always English, but during the weekend I also heard German, Dutch, Rumanian, Finnish, Flemish, Polish, Italian, and French. One person travelled 14 hours, while a few others lived no more than half an hour away.
We chose Monschau as the venue in a hotel with a sauna, a swimming pool and some rather excellent beer. We had our own Grensa room. It was big enough to house all of us comfortably during the pub quiz (in English…sort of), and still leave the Star Wars puzzle untouched (it was finally completed, 15 minutes before we had to vacate the room). We spent our time going on walks, bike rides, and excursions, but many of us just hung out at the hotel, having lunch in town, making friends, and enjoying a good time.
Do we want to do this again next year? Yes we do! Do we think we can handle having to organize another weekend? Out of the 60 people that participated, 58 said they would be more than willing to help us organize the next one. So no worries there; it’s not like peeling a pineapple.