Netherlands July 18

The bed was soft, but someone had left the window open a smidgen and two Mosquitos had made it in. The first managed to bite me and woke me up, then kept me awake while I tried to kill it. In the morning, I was awoken quite close to breakfast time by the B&B owner gathering the breakfast stuff together.  Hadn't thought I would sleep in, so I had not set an alarm. I took advantage of the fabulous photo op from the third story window, taking in the rooftops and the cool view. Breakfast was an intriguing variety of stuff, from the more mundane scrambled eggs to two chocolate waffle crisps with honey between (stroop waffles). We also had crepes, to which I added real chocolate shavings the Dutch call "sprinkles", not to be confused with the junk Americans call sprinkles. There was also yummy butter, warm rolls and local cheese slices.  We retrieved our bikes from the hidden garden type alley behind the houses, where they had been locked overnight.

It took a little circuitous travel to get out of Gouda, since there is a lot of industry surrounding it and several highways. Very high winds forced us to draft a bit, but with the trailer, I am unable to contribute. Delft was a beautiful town, and  large.  We ate lunch at a bakery chain.  Everything is an experience.  I could look and point, but the menu was unreachable.  There were not enough cognates and I don't  know Dutch. Sara tried to help us, but there were three of us who didn't know Dutch and only one of her.  She really is extremely sweet and things would be much more difficult without her. Delft reminds me of Cork, Ireland.

Little tiny shops, but more tourists. The tourists mostly stay in the market square.  The church in the square looks like it was built in 4 distinctly different eras, with slightly different materials separating the parts. For the most part cars are not allowed in the town squares. This leaves an empty space for people to congregate that is about 2 blocks long.

We didn't visit the Delft factory, but the reputation and references to the style were obvious.  (At the end of the trip in Amsterdam, the Rijkuseum had a small exhibit on the origins of Delftware).

 We took the fast way out of Delft, choosing the more industrial space to travel to De Haag. Just on the outskirts of towns are expansive plots, which must be private gardens for the city folks.  They are not decorative (though they sometimes have really extravagant "tool sheds", but appear to be vegetable or cutting gardens. They remind me of the community gardens of Buffalo, but with more distinction between the plots.

 It was interesting, if not beautiful.  Miles and miles of greenhouses growing vegetables designed to grow tall (think 15 foot tall tomato plants and such), flowers for cutting and maybe some starter crops, all surrounded by grass fields mowed by goats and sheep. I think they rotate the sheep around the greenhouses, rather than have sheep for each side of the building.

Entering De Haag, Sara led us pretty confidently, because she has friends here.

Entry to Parliamentary Bldgs

We walked through the parliamentary buildings, where she pointed out that the members of parliament regularly ride their bikes to work, just like everyone else.



 

 

Bill and I went to the Escher museum, but since they had seen that museum so many times, Sara and Linda chose to visit another. It was pretty cool to see the real pieces, even though I have often seen many of the images.

Included were some nice interactive exhibits, including a silver sphere you were supposed to orient in order to generate an image similar to one Escher produced.

On our way out of De Haag we passed the Peace House, where war crimes are prosecuted.

A little further on, we were greeted by the ocean after a rise.  Wonderful humorous bronze sculptures welcomed you, including a cartoon "Little Dutch Boy" trying to plug a leak, which was basically a fountain.





The bike path along the ocean was parklike, traveling through old dunes. We came across this sign.  I burst out laughing. The "LET OP!" part I knew was "look out" or something akin to that, but the rest totally baffled me. Later I asked Sarah about it and she told me it was something like "wet cattleguard".  There were several long running references to glad wildroosters hereafter.

Then came the rain, cold and wind. The wind was welcome, because of our mostly northern travels.

Not much further on up the coast, along a dune path, we came to our campground. The sign here said "Camera Bewaking". We finally had a chance to try the Dutch version of French fries, which are served with a type of mayonnaise. Not bad. The showers and laundry I found confusing, but if I had just thought them out a little before hand I probably would have figured them out.  For the showers, you had to insert the money before you entered the shower room...

Netherlands July 17

We met up with Linda and Sara and left the hotel mid-morning, hoping to miss projected early rain. It was much easier to get around with Sara doing the navigating. Since she is at least partially familiar with the Netherlands, it might be easier, but in part it's because she is relying on a bike touring book. It is still a chore and she has to hold the book in her hand as she rides, because there is nowhere to put it. Hopefully tomorrow we can tear out some pages and place them in a seal-able bag.
 There was a witch weighing house in one small town (Woerden, I think). If you weighed too little, you could fly and thus were a witch. We ate lunch at a sidewalk cafe, scarfing yummy sandwiches, and I tried to buy a raincoat at a bike shop. Only problem is that many stores will not accept my credit card, because there is no chip in it. I had managed to get a card without a foreign transaction fee, but alas no chip.
Some prankster had cut apart a pair of rain boots and put them on the feet of a statue of a girl. Pretty clever, since they had to make laces up the backs.  It was really a double take moment, before you realized they were not supposed to be there.

Along the canal, boat traffic moved in both directions.  Some appeared to be commercial, but most was recreational. At intersections, there were still old streets signs, though many were very low and difficult to see.








 Gouda is laced with canals and often the front yard is accessed via a bridge across one.












We stayed at a B&B in Gouda, which has small quaint rooms. Mine is on the third floor and has almost a ladder rather than a staircase, it is so steep. We grabbed items from a grocery for "dinner" and tasted some of Linda and Sara's Old Cheese, after walking around town a bit.






Here is the view from my rooftop window (the window is similar to the one on the house across the street)

One of the rooms was large enough to accommodate a table at which we could all sit.

Netherlands July 16

I left at around 5pm Buffalo time.  The flight is about 8 hrs, but travels back 6 time zones. This puts me in early the next day. Last night I deliberately slept for only 4 hours, so sleeping on the plane would be less difficult. I watched one movie and then slept a bit, on and off. This flight has many empty seats and the one next to me was empty, making sleep much more comfortable and likely.  We passed a huge thunderhead spewing lightning, which towered above the surrounding cloud bank but we were above and to the side of it.  For the most part there is a continuous carpet of clouds below us, with some beautiful thunderheads, which we were above.

thunderhead

 Windmills near Windsor, Ontario and again in France maybe, an oil rig off the coast of Holland. The clouds below us over the ocean were distinctly cotton candy pink, even though we were long past dawn.

Note the field of wind turbines off the coast.

 

Totally a land of water

Bill managed to find me right off and gave me my first lessons in cycling in the Netherlands. It started raining as soon as we left the airport and never stopped, though at least it was about 60 or 65 degrees.  There are roads where the two way car traffic gets only one lane and the cyclists get two.  And the cars have to wait if there is not room for all to pass. The drivers scare me sometimes, because they are forced to pass so close, but they are used to it and there is no maliciousness.  Flying overhead it had looked like there were pastures without fences, ditches serving that purpose and while cycling around, it was clear that the ditches are quite effective for that purpose. Arriving in Utecht was an eye opener, since the first sight you come across is the red light district. Little rooms perched on the edge of the canal, about two in a space equivalent to a shipping container, the women show their wares through picture windows with red neon down the sides. They all had on bras and underwear and weren't terribly risqué, but most were talking or looking at their phones. It is unclear whether they are engaged in sex chat or talking to friends or just surfing. Just a little further down the canal, beautiful canal/house boats line the edges.  We have seen several windmills already.  It appears there are only 900 left, but they are heavily protected.  It is supposed to be as difficult to run them as to pilot a ship. We arrived in Utrecht quite soaked and searched for the hostel and then a specific hotel, but finally gave up in exasperation and took a pretty pricy hotel. We dried our clothes on the heating registers successfully. Utech isn't especially lovely downtown, mostly owing to the massive railway station construction going on, the rest owing to the rain and grey. Thousands of bicycles are parked on every permissible surface.
On a separate note, Bill got 2 free pieces of luggage, though he only used one and brought his boxed bike for $50 via Icelandic air, while I only got one piece of checked luggage and had to pay $80 for my second piece (that being my bike in its suitcase). He may have gotten a better deal, depending on how much he paid for his ticket. He threw out his cardboard bike box and will buy another for the return trip (I think maybe he said he can buy it from the airline for about $25).

Time is running out...

One of the coolest things about living in a four season climate area is the frenzy with which the inhabitants celebrate good weather. I met someone who moved here from San Francisco and at the same time she was bemoaning the chill and length of our winter, she noted the vibrancy of spring, both botanical and zoological.
This weekend has been so beautiful that everybody and their mother is outside. Jumping in the fray, I determined to do a century
Traveling from Buffalo to Lake Ontario, along the shore, dropping down to Medina and the Iroquois Wildlife refuge near Alabama, NY, the dominant impression involved "where the heck were all these snakes the rest of the year?" Seriously. Tiny little garter snakes less than 6 inches long, sunning themselves along the road appeared about every 8 miles. Some were dead and the live ones were easy to avoid, but it was a little weird.
I had never been to this refuge. There was a sign at the beginning of the road I chose, which warned the bridge was closed 1 mile ahead. I ignored the signs; worst case scenario, I would have to come back. But really. How often are they seriously speaking of bicycles? Sure enough the bridge was ped only and crossed a really beautiful span of the swamp.

It was interesting to see the crops not yet harvested. Grapes-heavenly smell, cabbage, not so much, apples and soybeans, which it took me an astonishingly long time to recognize.

Such a beautiful day.

Which way now?

I am probably postponing my GDMBR ride until 2013, but it's not too early to work on some skills for that ride. Dwight and I joined a beginning orienteering session at nearby Chestnut Ridge Park, sponsored by Buffalo Orienteering.
I didn't realize orienteering is a sport; turns out it is a pretty cool one. They showed us how to use landmarks and a compass to find flags in the woods. The flags were marked on the map.




for the Great Divide Route this could be very helpful, since most guides suggest you bring topo maps.
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Checking out IPhone apps for cycling

Leyla has a much newer and NOT jailbroken iPhone, so she scopes out the app store.
Her newest find is called Route Loops. Supposedly you can tell it how far you want to go and it will calculate a route for you from your current location. Highly skeptical, we started out. This app gets a silver star rating for our one trip so far. It kept us on manageable roads and was not outrageously zig zaggy, but regardless of which direction we had travelled the loop we would have gone the wrong way down a one way street at least once.




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Cruising in Canada

Went out for a 40 miler with locals. Canadian customs is getting a little weirder. Not only do they change the rules, but the questions are getting stranger. Meanwhile, US customs are normalizing relations with their citizens. Odd twist.



Four of us traveled on the Friendship trail to Port Colburn, diverged onto the roads, then looped back to the trail. Blair showed me a new and improved way to get back on the Peace Bridge.




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Impromptu Minneapolis

6:45pm Minneapolis airport: Delta airlines asks for volunteers to lay over 24 hours, hotel and meals included, $400 travel voucher.
7:15- I'm all set and rescheduled for tomorrow, same bat time, same bat place.
24 hours in Bicycling Magazine's #1 ranked bike friendly city, and the whole day sponsored by Delta.
At the Mall of America Ramada hotel (which treated me just as well as if I had paid for the room), I used their public, very fast computer to look for cycling info and print 3 pages (no charge).
Results: a whole listing of shops renting bikes, info on obtaining path maps and countless links to further info.
Picked one close to the Hiawatha light rail.
9/3 6:00am woke, showered, packed, checked out, asked to leave my duffle, used the Delta meal vouchers for breakfast and lunch (Ramada packed me a box lunch) and walked the short distance to Mall of America.






7:30 jumped off at Lake to walk a quick 1 mile to Freewheel Bike Shop.





Amazing. They rent really nice carbon Treks- $50.
Problem- they have to put a hold on your credit card for the value of the bike. $1,400. Several years ago I asked my CC company to reduce my credit limit to avoid cc fraud. I am at that limit (set it pretty low, didn't I- thought I was sooooo smart). Called CC company- could they please up my limit? BUT OF COURSE! What a stupid question.
Crash couse on using a CO2 cartridge to inflate presta tubes. All new to me. No toe clips. At least I had a helmet and mirror. How embarrassing, I had to go back to the shop to ask how to shift.  Such an old school girl, with her bar end shifters, toe clips and steel framed bike.






Followed the Greenway Trail until I saw a likely candidate for a riding partner. Out for several hours, avg 17- 22 mph. Sounded plausible. Then he was joined by 3 others. Really lean guys. It should have flashed a warning. Didn't. First half, about 15 miles, well within my speed limits. Second half, not so much. On two occasions at least, they waited for me. No computer, so I have no idea how fast, but I would guess well over 20 on the flat. After about 5 miles they slowed down again, but a little off, I had to draft to keep up then. This group... maybe part of a triathlon team out of Urban Tri shop. They could have and probably should have kicked my Buffalo butt and dropped me. But kindness ruled. So sweet. I know, I know. But I really enjoyed myself.






After they finished, I kept going to cross the Mississippi into St. Paul, then back into Minneapolis, around "The Lakes" and back to the bike shop. I joined forces with a rider going the same way who knew the route. Such a pleasure. He went a more manageable pace. Kudos to the cycling community of Minneapolis. Very welcoming. I think I did 45-50 miles, but am guessing.
Compare Portland to Minneapolis: apples to oranges. One is more fabulous for recreational, the other maybe for all around commuting. Maybe. Both nice. What says you? 6 months in Portland, 6 months in Minneapolis. Would you like to guess which 6 months would belong to Minneapolis?
Full light rail train cars. On a Saturday.  And the trains had bike hooks. The amazement never ends.




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