Fietstocht

I can’t remember when I first starting thinking about taking a long distance bike trip. It must have been back when we were living in Boise, Idaho because I still remember seeing a couple of bikers loaded down with luggage and equipment climbing the Lowman pass on state highway 21 and thinking that it looked like a nice adventure. And ever since I quit smoking back in ’92 I had been doing quite a bit of mountain biking in the Boise foothills and used to love the kick that I got out of climbing the 16 mile/7500’ route to the top of the ski lifts at Bogus Basin and then thundering back down the single track in a rush of endorphins. In any case, a multi-day, long distance solo bike trip has been on my life-list for more than a few years.

I’d been eying a coastal route along the North Sea for the past 6 months that is known for its beauty and strong wind (it is Holland after all). I’m not only a fair weather cyclist…I slog on the rain/snow gear with the best of them, but the thought of fighting my way 200KM against a strong headwind didn’t appeal to me, so I have been watching the weather report for the past few weeks. Last week they predicted sunny skies and NNE winds, so I threw a few clothes into my pannier and headed for the coast. Here is a little travelogue of the journey.


Day 1

Haarlem to Schevening/Den Haag (50 Kilometers)

The first day was a relaxed ride through the coastal national parks of North and South Holland. I followed the Landelijke Fietsroute 1a (LF1a) which is sort of the I95 of scenic bike paths in the country. The route was well marked and easy to follow and as I pulled out of Zandvoort (our local beach that we bike to all the time) and pointed the bike south, the new adventure began.



The coast in this part of the country is some of the best preserved wilderness in Europe. It remains primarily undeveloped to act as flood protection against the North Sea. Seaside resorts are few and far between and very compact (not sprawled) to protect the dunes. I stopped for lunch in Noordwijk, a swanky little town that pops out of nowhere after an hour of nothing but open nature.


After a few hundred meters of development, I plunged back into the wild dunes. This section of coast has more trees and is dotted with many beautiful little lakes. The abrupt transition from country to city was shocking as I rounded a quiet corner of pine trees and the path spilled out into the very urbanized Schevening (basically a suburb of Den Haag).



I found a nice little beach hotel, treated myself to a T-bone steak (hard to find in Europe!), and settled into a beach bar to watch the sun go down over the sea.


Day 2

Schevening to Westenschouwen (120 kilometers)

I knew that today would be a longer ride, planned at 80 kilometers, but I was looking forward to crossing over to Zeeland and exploring this Dutch province for the first time. But it quickly took a turn toward the “adventurous” as the trail became hard to follow through Den Haag and I became lost for the first time about 15 minutes into the start of the day….it wouldn’t be the last time. I also hit several detours along the way through the Hoek van Holland which just added more time/distance to an already long day.


The ferry crossing at Maassluis gave me a chance to relax and rest my legs and also offered a distant glimpse of the massive port of Rotterdam.


The trail then took another urban turn as I crossed the entry points to the port…


…before delivering me to sparsely populated Zeeland with its many small harbor towns. Brielle is a great little medieval village with loads of beautiful scenery and really, really, really poorly marked bike trails. This is where it went bad for me. I think that only one sign was missing for the LF1a, but I could not find the turnoff without it. I doubled back twice and finally ended up on the wrong path. All told, it cost me another 25 kilometers and was the only section of the trip where I struggled against the wind as I pedaled back to the north to rejoin the main trail at the bridge across the North Sea dykes.



It was a spectacular crossing, with wide, sandy beaches and endless horizons.



Seven hours, and one very sore ass later I pulled into my bungalow at a dumpy little seaside motel. The woman who checked me in had a peculiar accent that I first attributed to the local Zeeland population, but later learned was not local at all. Something just wasn’t right about her and her husband. She was 35 and pretty. He was 55 and sloppy. She was friendly and open. He was gruff and aloof. I talked to her later that evening when he wasn’t around and learned that she was from Russia…a mail order bride! I always saw news stories about this sort of thing, but to actually talk with a woman who came to Western Europe this way was really interesting. Hearing her stories of growing up under communism and her lingering impressions of America as the evil, capitalist empire was great fun. She didn’t speak a lick of English, but her thick Russian Dutch was also a treat.


I then walked the 500 meters to the beach to see the remnants of a 15th century port….



…and a highlight of the trip, the Delta Works, in the distance.



Day 3

Westenschouwen to Middleburg (40 kilometers)

Today was a luxurious day after the marathon of Day 2. My first stop was the exposition of the Delta Works. I loved this! It is an engineering masterpiece that balances the needs of nature with protecting the Zeeland delta from floods. It was commissioned after the devastating floods of 1953 and took more than 30 years to complete. You can read all about it all over the internet, but I was particularly impressed with the way that they laid the foundation with a custom steel mesh/concrete net that was built and rolled out across the sea bottom. Incredible!




After spending more than two hours at the expo, I continue on through the interior countryside of Zeeland. This photo illustrates how far below sea level this land is…and the need for the Delta Works. That sailboat is above the bike path and farm!



The small village of Veere provided a nice diversion and place for lunch.


Until at 16.00, I finally ended up at my destination – Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland.



It was a great town to explore and after a few hours on foot, I decided to treat myself to a local specialty – mussels! This was an unexpected surprise since we can’t get mussels in North Holland again until September. I then settled into a front row seat on the main town square and watched some live music – A.K.A. Ian Timothy at Coney Island – until the wee hours of the evening.

This sign on the back of the hotel door is probably only funny to a (quasi) Dutch guy after a long night of drinking…why is it that each of these languages says the same thing, but only the German has an explanation point? YOU MUST COMPLY!!!!!

Day 4

The train ride home. 3.5 hours on the slowest stop-train that The Netherlands could deliver. There was a problem with the tracks, and even the trains to Paris were cancelled. But, it gave me a chance to finish my book and talk with some other bike travellers.

All-in-all, a great experience…soon to be repeated. I hope that this little travelogue inspires you to go out and cross something off your life list !

P.S. I threw in a short video taken while crossing the main dyke. If you're reading this from Facebook, you won't be able to link to the video. Go right to the source if you are interested (http://www.dandbhaarlem.blogspot.com/). Listen to that wind! (luckily at my back).

Finally!

The new bridge over the Spaarne river is completed! This crossing in the northeast corner of Haarlem relieves a significant volume of traffic from the main draw-bridge by the old chocolate factory and train station. We still use the old bridge because of where we live, but now we don’t have to compete with 15,000,000,000 other Dutch (and German) drivers trying to get to the other side of Haarlem. The new bridge is also a draw-bridge, but it is much higher and only has to be raised for sailboats (not barges), so most traffic is drawn toward the new bridge (pun intended).

This much anticipated opening was accompanied by a full weekend of festivities. Here are some pictures from the opening ceremony.



Fireworks, water canons, and balloons all counted down the first crossing.

Then a long parade went across. In the US we have marching bands...here, it's biking bands. That's talent!

I don't know what the Mad Max club has to do with opening a new bridge, but they sure impressed all of us kids in the crowd.

And speaking of kids, this rowdy group were right across from us on the parade route. Can you get any more stereotypical Dutch?

Early Summer

Hot, steamy summer weather settled over Holland the past few days, so Beth and I hopped onto the bikes and headed for the beach on Saturday afternoon. We expected wall-to-wall traffic and crowded sand, but even though it was a long holiday weekend (2nd Pinksterdag), the high temperatures and plentiful sun seem to have caught people off guard.

There was still plenty of room for dogs…

…and although the beach bars were respectably busy…

…we were able to pony right up to a front row seat, put our feet on the railing…

…and take in the beauty of the surrounding nature.

The Green Monster

Beth and I have grown pretty open minded over the years. It’s funny how much we’ve changed since that first road trip across America more than 20 years ago. The more we see of the world, the more accepting we are of it. We’re always looking for little bits and pieces to bring home with us and incorporate into our own daily lives. The results are kind of strange. From our favorite meal of Spanish tapas, French wine, Turkish bread and Japanese sushi to the diverse decorations in our house - contemporary orange Danish furniture, Indonesian stone sculptures, dark Chinese cabinets, and an American gourmet kitchen.

So it was a bit of a surprise when we both crinkled our noses as our friends Jonathon and Sandra told us about the flat that they renovated in the old wharf district of Amsterdam. The flat itself sounded pretty interesting, with a view out over the water and nothing but the lush scenery of the Artis zoo in the distance. But the way that they described the floor gave us both a bit of a shock.

“First we stripped the old floor down to concrete, then we had a new acrylic base poured over the entire flat. It’s poured about 4 centimeters thick and will take a couple of days to dry.”

I had never heard of this, but it sounded interesting. So I asked, “What color is the acrylic?”

“Green,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“Green?!” I injected rudely. I was expecting brown, or crème, or some other neutral color that would bond a room together. I couldn’t quite get my head around green. I tried to recover and asked politely, “You mean like forest green, right?”

“No. No,” he said to my relief. Then he added, “More like a lime green. Except with a fluorescent quality.”

I’m sure that the expression on my face was pretty similar to Mikey in the old Life Cereal commercials. It just didn’t seem like anything that would even remotely appeal to me. Here are a few pictures so that you can judge for yourself.

WARNING: The use of sunglasses is highly recommended!

I’ll start you with the most startling one. This shot was taken straight down onto the floor with only Sage and George. It kind of makes it look like a photographer’s backdrop, doesn’t it?


But as you start to pan out, then the green begins to fall into context.

Throw in the other modern décor, and I think that it really works!

Even in the kitchen!

I’m not saying that I’m going to run out and order lime green acrylic to be poured over the floor in OUR house…but never say “never”.

Where did spring go?

We arrived back from our vacation to America to find springtime in Holland almost over. It was quite a shock to see how quickly everything exploded into green here after only two weeks away...and the differences between The Netherlands and the mountaintop of Maryland is dramatic. The trees in Deep Creek were barely budding.

Heavy with jetlag, we biked down to the center of Haarlem to enjoy Queen's day celebrations on Thursday. For those of you who don't know, Queen's day provides a great excuse to dress in wild orange costumes, sell your used junk on the street, and generally party the whole day through.

Check out this barge that someone converted to a museum castle and parked on the Spaarne river for the celebration...very cool!

If you look closely, you can see the knight on the real horse on the second story of the castle...it really wowed the kiddies! (ok, me too).

Then, after a much better rest during the weekend, we biked through the bulbfields of Lisse to catch the very last bits of the flowers...very few are still in bloom, but it was still spectacular to see.

Engineering

Every little boy has built a fort at one point or another. For some of us, it was an obsession that went well beyond draping a blanket over the backs of a few chairs or using all of the couch cushions to fortify the area underneath the dining room table. My imagination always took over and I envisioned that I was building something fabulous with turrets and walls and dungeons and gun emplacements. Even as I got older -well beyond the acceptable “fort building” age, my imagination would still get the best of me. When my parents asked me to help make a chicken coop or a dog house, the projects would take on a life of their own and the chickens would end up with a skylight and the dog had a porch to relax on before going to bed.


I remember even at the oh-so-cool age of 15, John Quinn and I built a tree fort deep in the woods at my parent’s place in Ligonier. Granted, our imaginations were a bit “enhanced” at the time, but we undertook a massive project that was designed (in our heads) as a three level cabin 25 feet up in a grove of trees with connected walkways and ropeswings. We hauled tractor load after tractor load of building materials back into the woods. The chainsaw needed refilled three times and we pounded so many nails into those trees that you could probably set off a metal detector from 100 paces. What we ended up with was a simple 8x12 platform with an irregular hole for a ladder about 10 feet off the ground. The results just never seemed to work out like it did for those kids in a Disney movie. Our "cabin" got used maybe two times before it finally fell, broken and rotted to the forest floor. The debris were removed by my parents 15 years later.


Well last weekend I took a nice long bike ride up through Spaarnwoude and instead of my usual route along the climbing wall and indoor ski hill, I took a little used side trail between two canals in the heart of this massive park. Lucky for me it was early spring and the leaves weren’t on the trees yet, because otherwise the brief flash of blue would have never caught my eye. I couldn’t tell what it was, but curiosity got the best of me. I thought that I might have just found my first hobo camp in The Netherlands - somthing definitely worth checking out. So I pulled over, parked my bike, and walked/slipped down a steep muddy embankment through a thick tangle of trees.


And this is what I found:





Whoa! Now THAT is a fort! You have to look beyond the ratty pile of tarps and corrugated metal. The overturned kayak. The rickety, rotting pylons. This thing is a masterpiece of childhood engineering! It is as good as it gets! Not only because it is built up onto makeshift stilts and is hanging over dark, murky water - something that you know your mother would hate, but because it has walls, a roof, and a lantern hanging inside. Really sophisticated stuff!


There are very, very, very, (ad infinitum), few times that I envy our friends who have kids. But when I see something like this, I wish that I could borrow one for a while so that I would have an excuse to pitch-in and build one more fort before I die.

Istanbul - Bridge to Asia

This city has been high on our travel list for many, many years but we never seemed to have the time to get there. So after we had to cancel our spring skiing trip to the Alps due to some work issues, we started looking for reasonable flights for a long weekend away and Istanbul popped up as a cheap destination. We jumped on it!

I must admit that the city did not live up to my expectations. However, in all honesty, my expectations were extremely high. I really wanted to see remnants of the thousands of years of history straddling two continents as the seat of three gigantic empires. Those remnants were there, but they weren't in-your-face like Rome. You have to dig a little deeper. But the effort paid off as we uncovered layer after layer of this fascinating city with the help of the extremely friendly and hospitable local Turks.


The sprawling complex on the left of the hill is were the sultans ruled their empire from - Topkapi palace. The Roman and Byzantine palaces were also here, although they were down on the waterfront.

The Blue Mosque at night. Beautiful to see from almost anywhere in the city.

The Haghia Sophia has been altered over thousands of years. It started as a church, then was converted to a mosque. We loved the orange half-moon only visible from this particular angle because of the dome in front.Beth did a TREMENDOUS amount of shopping. She loved the Turkish markets. This is the world famous Grand Bazaar. A huge labyrinth of covered shopping. We liked the Spice Market better, but didn't get any good photo's down there.

Haggling is the way to do business in Turkey. Beth was getting pretty good at it by the end of the trip as you can tell by the annoyed look on this vendor's face. She was shopping for Katie and Jodie for Christmas and this guy didn't want to budge on price. Needless to say, Beth finally got them two gifts for the price that she wanted. "You are taking food from my children's mouths!...But, if you want carpet, I have brother..."



Amsterdam coffee shop? Nope, a Turkish hukka lounge. We stuck to beer.




We hiked out to the old wall that successfully protected the city for more than 1000 years against countless sieges. It's really amazing how much space they walled in for the city.





The sultan was finally able to take the city (then Constantinople) by building the "Fortress of Europe" further up the Bosphorus. They built this purely to take Istanbul....and it worked by allowing them to dig in a protect against counter-attack. Amazing.



This Egyptian obelisk was looted by the Romans and set up in the middle of the Hippodrome - a massive arena to rival the Coliseum. We were shocked how crisp the carvings were for something that outlasted all of the Roman buildings and ruins.


The city was crawling with feral cats, which of course Beth befriended. The cats actually seemed pretty well cared for. We saw a lot of food put out for them and the many soldiers/police around the city were seen frequently playing with them.



But the feral dogs were really interesting to watch. We were sitting at the cafe pictured here when a family walked by with a dog on a leash. There are 4 feral dogs in the picture below. The leader is the dog lying by the grate in the upper right hand corner. He caught wind of the new dog and barked out a few orders. The pack quickly assembled (6 in all) and surrounded the domestic dog to attack. Several people had to jump in and scare the feral dogs off. This picture was taken after all the excitement when the pack settled back in to "lounge" mode. We saw lots of packs in the city. One was chasing cats through a back alley and another gave us a nervous scare in a remote part of one of the parks. Crazy!



This picture is primarily for Beth and I's memory benefit. Just one of those crazy things that we walked past every night on the way back to the hotel - this little one-seater bench on a quiet alley. We're wondering which bureaucrat requested this bench. "I have brother. He makes nice bench for you."

The call to prayer was pretty cool to hear echoing through the city (5 times a day). This little cafe was just behind the Blue Mosque, so the sound is a bit tinty.

And this video is for my mom. We always talk about how much we like the markets here in Europe so I tried to capture a bit of the feel as we walked through this one.

Drunk parking

Forget about all the dangers of drunken driving. Would you want to try and park here after a few beers? We watched this guy pull into this spot without a care in the world. He backed it in just like parallel parking on any suburban street and then climbed out the passengers side. Look how close to the edge that sucker is! Good thing it's in Amsterdam and you don't have to go anywhere near your car for a night on the town. No drunk driving...no drunk parking/swimming.

Uitlaat

When I returned to work a few years ago, one of the biggest challenges that Beth and I faced was what to do with Sage during the day. Beth travels so frequently for her work that we couldn't count on one of us to always be there to take care of Sage, and with her being so high-strung (Sage, not Beth), it was an extra complication.

Welcome to the world of Uitlaat Service in Holland! Because the Dutch love their dogs so much there is an entire (regulated) industry built up around meeting the doggy day care challenge. Our friends Sean and Sandra had used a couple of different uitlaat services for their dog Clover, but they didn't really have a good recommendation for us because they had a few bad experiences with the ones that they used. Clover has hip dysplacia and the doggy walks can get rather rowdy with 8 different dogs running wild through the woods. Clover frequently came home very sore after the walks and the services were reluctant to give her the extra attention that she needed.

So, I turned to the internet to look up a few of the other local services. And what does a typical guy look for when searching for a doggy walk business on the internet? Price? Location of where they walk the dog? References? Nope, nope, and nope again. Well, don't get me wrong, all of those things matter, but the real decision factor for me was when I saw the pictures posted on each of their websites. I knew immediately that AAI was for us. Adrianna was hot!

So I called her up and we scheduled an "intake" for Sage. Can you believe it? Sage had to go through an interview process to make sure that she was suitable for the uitlaat service. Don't forget, I was going to pay 190 Euros per month to this service to take her out and walk in the woods! Unbelievable!

Well, when Adrianna came to the house that day we could hear her coming more than a block away. Her rickety old blue van came sputtering down the street, pistons pinging and smoke coughing out of the tailpipe. Baying and barking dogs were the only noise louder than the van itself. The van parked in the middle of the street and Adrianna got out to pick up Sage for a test run. I was a little nervous, but Sage seemed to like her so we sent her off like anxious parents on their child's first day of school, wondering if everything would be ok...and hoping that she would behave and be accepted into the service.

It was a nail biting 1 hour, but when Sage got back an hour later, tired, hungry, and stinking like cigarettes, the reports were all good. Adrianne would take Sage on as a customer.

Since that day, there has only been one bad incident with Sage and her uitlaat service (which will have to wait for another post to tell, or maybe even the next book given the amount of story telling material that it provided).

Sage loves her uitlaat!

Even when both Beth and I are working from home, Sage will still go to the front hall around 11.00 and wait for her uitlaat. She wouldn't miss it for anything.

The only problem is that Adrianna finally bought a new van and Sage can't hear it coming down the street anymore. So from 11.00 until Adrianna arrives, Sage barks at every car that comes by, thinking that it is there to take her to the park.

Grappig, toch?





This is the only picture of the old van that I could find. This thing broke down so many times that it was almost funny...except that I would get an SMS at work from Adrianna saying that she couldn't pick Sage up because the van was in the shop again. Beth in Germany. Me in Utrecht. And a wound up dog waiting at home for her uitlaat...argh!!!

But now there is the nice, new snazzy van, complete with window seats for the doggies. You can see that Sage really likes it. Open door! Open door!

Don't worry....be happy!

There are two platitudes that I have inexplicably latched onto and use as boundary stakes for guiding me along as I try to make my way forward in my life. I know that sounds a bit strange, but it seems to be working for me (so far).

The first one grounds me in how I approach the randomness of life:

"The only difference between adversity and adventure is attitude."

Kind of a definition statement for platitude, right?

Well, it really does have some reinforcing value when faced with adversity. That adversity can be as simple as the inconvenience of a torrential downpour on mile 15 of a 30 mile bike ride. Or as complex and impacting as losing your job during an economic meltdown. Whenever you feel the tension of adversity building, it's always good to step back and run this little equation based platitude through your head. Adversity? Or adventure? The only variable is you. How you face your situation, and therefore experience it, really is your choice.

Speaking of experience....the second platitude is slightly more inane:

"Experiencing something is far more valuable than possessing something."

Hmmm. What the hell does that mean?!?

Well, for me anyway, it means that I enjoy the accumulation of experiences a lot more than the accumulation of things. It doesn't mean that I'm a hermit with no earthly possessions - not at all. I can spend money on stuff with the best of them. But I do get a far greater kick out of an experience than I do out of a purchase. I've never really been able to explain it better than that...until today.

I just came across this new study that seems to remove the "inaneness" from my second platitude. I hate when that happens! It makes me feel so ordinary.

But, it does hit the nail on the head about how I feel. I especially relate to how the study found that experiences are more rewarding because of how they are shared within your social network. And it was also interesting how cities and towns should focus on building opportunities for experiences for their citizens to help improve the quality of life.

Even if you don't agree, or find these types of journalistic studies inane in themselves, you might find a few nuggets for yourself in this one. Don't worry! Be happy!

Read study here.