Dinkelsbuhl, Bavaria, Germany
Jordan and I just biked into a picturesque Bavarian town by the strange name of Dinkelsbuhl. We decided to get a hotel, since our batteries, both physical and mental, needed recharging. Also, the hotel has Internet access, which is a large plus in our book. It is amazing how important that is to us. I love posting to the blog and reading the replies that come back.
Near the end of our train ride to Nuremburg, I used the toilet in the train. Since almost all the toilets in Europe cost cold, hard cash to use, cheap bastards like myself learn to train their bladders and colons to wait for the free bathrooms. The bathrooms on trains are free. I did some "heavy business" early on the ride, but then waited until the end of the ride to do one last number 1. Jordan and I were sitting in the bicycle car with one other guy who looked exactly like a good-looking Elliot Spitzer (no huge lantern jaw). He was a great guy who spoke English pretty well. The toilet in this car was amazing. It had a door that would have made most "panic room" doors jealous. Mr. Spitzer explained the workings of the door to me. I had to step inside and then hit a button to close the door. I followed his instructions, closed the door, unleashed the big fella, and started a vary satisfying micturation. About 10 seconds into it, I realized that I had no locked the door. That meant anyone outside could hit the open button, and there I would be in all my glory. I leaned over to the lock on the door, while continuing to relieve myself. There was a lock on the door, and I tried to turn it. To my surprise, turnig the lock OPENED the door. Jordan and Elliot started laughing their butts off at me! I reshut the door and started over. The same thing happened again! I finally decided to shut the door without locking it and hope nobody from outside opened it. I finished my business and came out. Jordan and Elliot were still laughing their asses off. Elliot explained to me that there was another button that locks the door. Oh well, another good bathroom humor story!
We arrived in Nuremberg about 3:20. After buying a map, we took off for a campground about 10 clicks away. The bike paths in Nuremberg were definitely a step down from the Netherlands, or Belgium, for that matter. They would start and stop rather indiscrimanately. I am sure there are good parts of this city, but going from the train station est, we did not see any. About 7 clicks outside the city we rode by a decent looking bike shop. I stopped and explained to one of the mechanics the problems I have been having with my rear derailleur. He asked if a could leave my bike until tomorrow, but I explained that I was just travelling through. He dropped everything and fixed the derailleur. The English guy who put it on, was not a good mechanic. I could tell that it was never in-line. The GERMANS fixed me up just fine! I ended up buying a new helmet and water bottle from them. They did not even charge me for the mechanical work.
We continued biking to a campground about 10 clicks from Nuremberg. We set up camp and then went to the campground restaurant. We ordered beers first and we just relaxing when a gregarious looking fellow walked by. I hit him with a "Wie geht es Ihnen?" which means "How are you?" I must have really shocked him, because his face screwed up and he asked "Was sagen Sie?" which means "What did you say?" After this initial blunder, we started communicating well. I asked him if I could buy him a drink, and he invited Jordan and me to eat dinner with his wife, mother, and step-father. We said sure! What a cool evening! His name was Juergen and his wife was Ursula. I never did get his parents's names, but they were really funny. Yuergen was extremely friendly and had a funny way of making strange expressions as he talked. We ate and drank until about 11PM and then parted company. What a great spontaneous experience!
Got up today around 8:30 and had breakfast of rolls and jam we bought last night, followed by a banana. Started biking by 9:30. We had an incredible head-wind and we were biking steadily up-hill all morning. Jordan asked if it was going to be like this all day and I said I hope not. After lunch, it leveled out considerably. Plus we changed from going due West to due South. The wind was coming out of the West so it was not affecting us as much now.
The Bavarian scenery is beautiful! Rolling landscape and beautiful bucolic farms. We rolled into Dinskelsbuhl around 4:30PM. It is the proto-typical Bavarian town. Since we are hotelling it, we bought food at a grocery store. After eating, we went out for dessert. Sehr gut!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Berlin
July 29th On the Train to Nurenberg
The train ride to Berlin was relaxing and uneventful. We arrived about 9:30PM on Monday night, loaded our gear on our bikes and started biking east from the train station. The Garmin indicated a lot of hotels that way, and we found a decent one in five minutes. They wanted over 100 Euros per night to which I said "zu teuer" (too expensive). The clerk did his own little PriceLine negotiation right there in the lobby and we agreed on 85 Euros per night.
Got up the next day and decided to do the walking tour of Berlin that was recommended by Lonely Planet. The guide, Johanna, was an interesting young women who absolutely loved Berlin and its history. The entire tour was in the old East Berlin, which used to be controlled by the Soviets and East Germans. That surprised me until our guide told us that at the end of WWII, the Soviets had grabbed the important locations of Berlin, which were mostly in the East Berlin Sector. Many of the old important buildings and churches that were damaged in the war have been rebuilt, a lot of them since the fall of the wall in 1989. It is interesting that when rebuilding some of them, the architects left much of the old building facades that had pock marks from gunfire and shrapnel. I guess they wanted to keep a reminder of the war.
After WWII the subway system was administered by the allies. Several of its stations stopped in East Berlin. To prevent people from escaping to West Berlin, the East Germans closed these stations. They are still referred to as "the ghost stations" even though they are now open. Many people had daring escapes from East to West, but over 100 people were also killed trying to cross over.
The night life was quite interesting. We walked to Alexander Platz last night and had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. There are many Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants here. The soup was excellent, but the rest of the meal was just average. It was about 9PM when we were eating, and Jordan noticed some oddly dressed young women walking to what looked like assigned positions on the street. I asked if she thought they were "working girls". At first she did not think so, but after dinner we took a walk and got a closer look. They were definitely hookers. They all had similar "unifroms"... very tight corset that propped the boobs up and tightly squeezed their butts, and knee-high leather boots with 2 to 3 inch heels. With boots, many of them were close to six feet tall. There was very much a dominatrix look to them. They would approach any man who was not accompanied by a woman. Being with Jordan kept me safe, Danke Gott!
General Impressions of Berlin... I was a little surprised by the amount of construction going on, but I really should not have been. It has only been 20 years since the wall fell. There are zoning laws which prevent tall buildings, so there did not appear to be any buildings over 10 stories tall. I guess I was expecting more of a modern city. Everything was much less expensive here than in Holland. I hope that continues in southern Germany. I thought the people were very friendly. I attempted to talk to them in my halting German, and unlike the French, they would respond to me in German. If it got too complicated I would ask "Auf English, bitte". A couple times, I was gl;ad that I spoke some German. When I bought the train tickets to Nuremberg, the woman knew very little English. It took a lot of searching to get a train that could handle us and our bikes. I told Jordan we need to buy our exiting train tickets as soon as we arrive in a town so we can get exactly what we want.
Our train left Berlin around 8:40AM and should arrive in Nuremberg around 3:20. We are going to try to bike a few clicks and find a camping site for tonight.
The train ride to Berlin was relaxing and uneventful. We arrived about 9:30PM on Monday night, loaded our gear on our bikes and started biking east from the train station. The Garmin indicated a lot of hotels that way, and we found a decent one in five minutes. They wanted over 100 Euros per night to which I said "zu teuer" (too expensive). The clerk did his own little PriceLine negotiation right there in the lobby and we agreed on 85 Euros per night.
Got up the next day and decided to do the walking tour of Berlin that was recommended by Lonely Planet. The guide, Johanna, was an interesting young women who absolutely loved Berlin and its history. The entire tour was in the old East Berlin, which used to be controlled by the Soviets and East Germans. That surprised me until our guide told us that at the end of WWII, the Soviets had grabbed the important locations of Berlin, which were mostly in the East Berlin Sector. Many of the old important buildings and churches that were damaged in the war have been rebuilt, a lot of them since the fall of the wall in 1989. It is interesting that when rebuilding some of them, the architects left much of the old building facades that had pock marks from gunfire and shrapnel. I guess they wanted to keep a reminder of the war.
After WWII the subway system was administered by the allies. Several of its stations stopped in East Berlin. To prevent people from escaping to West Berlin, the East Germans closed these stations. They are still referred to as "the ghost stations" even though they are now open. Many people had daring escapes from East to West, but over 100 people were also killed trying to cross over.
The night life was quite interesting. We walked to Alexander Platz last night and had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. There are many Asian and Middle Eastern restaurants here. The soup was excellent, but the rest of the meal was just average. It was about 9PM when we were eating, and Jordan noticed some oddly dressed young women walking to what looked like assigned positions on the street. I asked if she thought they were "working girls". At first she did not think so, but after dinner we took a walk and got a closer look. They were definitely hookers. They all had similar "unifroms"... very tight corset that propped the boobs up and tightly squeezed their butts, and knee-high leather boots with 2 to 3 inch heels. With boots, many of them were close to six feet tall. There was very much a dominatrix look to them. They would approach any man who was not accompanied by a woman. Being with Jordan kept me safe, Danke Gott!
General Impressions of Berlin... I was a little surprised by the amount of construction going on, but I really should not have been. It has only been 20 years since the wall fell. There are zoning laws which prevent tall buildings, so there did not appear to be any buildings over 10 stories tall. I guess I was expecting more of a modern city. Everything was much less expensive here than in Holland. I hope that continues in southern Germany. I thought the people were very friendly. I attempted to talk to them in my halting German, and unlike the French, they would respond to me in German. If it got too complicated I would ask "Auf English, bitte". A couple times, I was gl;ad that I spoke some German. When I bought the train tickets to Nuremberg, the woman knew very little English. It took a lot of searching to get a train that could handle us and our bikes. I told Jordan we need to buy our exiting train tickets as soon as we arrive in a town so we can get exactly what we want.
Our train left Berlin around 8:40AM and should arrive in Nuremberg around 3:20. We are going to try to bike a few clicks and find a camping site for tonight.
Monday, July 27, 2009
07/27/2009 On the Train to Berlin
We got up around 9AM, had breakfast in our little hotel and then headed out to do a few shopping errands. I HAD to get a new pair of polypropolene underwear. I mistakenly got the "tighty whity" kind, and on a bike trip all those kind do is trap every odor you emanate and magnify 1000X. Imagine all that sweat and heat... A perfect petri dish for bacteria! I bought some boxers... much better. Jordan needed conditioner and skin creams. She is developing a rash that hurts when she bikes. After shopping, we picked up the bikes from the MacBikes rental and storage facility. It cost us one whole euro to store the bikes for two days. I was going to try to find a bike store to replace my rack that broke, but I had a brainstorm. I brought a piece of rope with me to use as a clothes line if needed. I lashed the broken spar of the rack to the two good ones on the same side. Jordan took a picture to record it. I am sure that even the renowned knots-man, Butch Weaver, would be proud of this. I think it will hold until I get home and then I will see if Iain Grant can work his magic on it.
I forgot to mention our sight-seeing in Amsterdam yesterday. We started out by going to the Van Gogh Museum. I am not much of an art afficianando, but his work is beautfiul. Many of his originals are housed there, but unfortunately "Starry Night" (I think that is the name) is not one of them. Next we went to Anne Frank's house. Most of you probably know her story, but I learned a few interesting things while there. Otto Frank, Anne's father was the only survivor from the Frank family, even though he had been sent to Auschwitz. It was amazing how positive his outlook seemed to be after such a horrifying event. It reminded me of a book had to read in high school at St. John's by Victor Frankl called "Man's Search for Meaning", which tried to explain how even in a concentration camp you could find the will to live.
Another interesting tid-bit was that Shelley Winters, in the movie, played one of the workers in the house where the Franks were hiding. She was nominated for an academy award. She wrote Otto Frank prior to the Academy Awards show and promised to give the Oscar to the Anne Frank House if she won. She did win and she kept her promise. The Oscar is proudly displayed there.
Next, we walked through the seedy areas where ANYTHING is for sale. The Dutch have an interesting attitude about drugs and prostitution. It does not seem that religion plays a large part in the life of average people here. The attitude seems more pragmatic... "These things are going to happen, so why don't we make them as safe as possible and profit from them" seems to be how they see it. The sweet smell of marijuana was everywhere. I did notice that most of the shops that sell weed are labeled "Coffee Shops". They do sell coffee, too, but the main business is weed. Everyone who I saw buying it was checked for ID to make sure they were of legal age. Of course, the legal age is 6! Just kidding.
We wanted to take a noon train to Berlin today, but although they had seats for us, there was no room for the bikes until the 2:36 train. We are on the train right now. We put the bikes in car 8 and our seats are in car 4. When I got on, they said I did not have to remove my gear from the bike, but after the train started moving, an announcement came on the PA asking the people with gear on their bikes to please remove it. I had to make three trips getting all of our stuff off the bikes and back to car 4... And I thought this was going to be a day off!
We do not have a hotel reservation and we get into Berlin around 9PM. Jordan is getting a little more used to what, to the casual observer, seems to be a lack of planning on my part. However, it really just gives us ultimate flexibility. If we decide we want to sleep in the street tonight, we now have that option!
We got up around 9AM, had breakfast in our little hotel and then headed out to do a few shopping errands. I HAD to get a new pair of polypropolene underwear. I mistakenly got the "tighty whity" kind, and on a bike trip all those kind do is trap every odor you emanate and magnify 1000X. Imagine all that sweat and heat... A perfect petri dish for bacteria! I bought some boxers... much better. Jordan needed conditioner and skin creams. She is developing a rash that hurts when she bikes. After shopping, we picked up the bikes from the MacBikes rental and storage facility. It cost us one whole euro to store the bikes for two days. I was going to try to find a bike store to replace my rack that broke, but I had a brainstorm. I brought a piece of rope with me to use as a clothes line if needed. I lashed the broken spar of the rack to the two good ones on the same side. Jordan took a picture to record it. I am sure that even the renowned knots-man, Butch Weaver, would be proud of this. I think it will hold until I get home and then I will see if Iain Grant can work his magic on it.
I forgot to mention our sight-seeing in Amsterdam yesterday. We started out by going to the Van Gogh Museum. I am not much of an art afficianando, but his work is beautfiul. Many of his originals are housed there, but unfortunately "Starry Night" (I think that is the name) is not one of them. Next we went to Anne Frank's house. Most of you probably know her story, but I learned a few interesting things while there. Otto Frank, Anne's father was the only survivor from the Frank family, even though he had been sent to Auschwitz. It was amazing how positive his outlook seemed to be after such a horrifying event. It reminded me of a book had to read in high school at St. John's by Victor Frankl called "Man's Search for Meaning", which tried to explain how even in a concentration camp you could find the will to live.
Another interesting tid-bit was that Shelley Winters, in the movie, played one of the workers in the house where the Franks were hiding. She was nominated for an academy award. She wrote Otto Frank prior to the Academy Awards show and promised to give the Oscar to the Anne Frank House if she won. She did win and she kept her promise. The Oscar is proudly displayed there.
Next, we walked through the seedy areas where ANYTHING is for sale. The Dutch have an interesting attitude about drugs and prostitution. It does not seem that religion plays a large part in the life of average people here. The attitude seems more pragmatic... "These things are going to happen, so why don't we make them as safe as possible and profit from them" seems to be how they see it. The sweet smell of marijuana was everywhere. I did notice that most of the shops that sell weed are labeled "Coffee Shops". They do sell coffee, too, but the main business is weed. Everyone who I saw buying it was checked for ID to make sure they were of legal age. Of course, the legal age is 6! Just kidding.
We wanted to take a noon train to Berlin today, but although they had seats for us, there was no room for the bikes until the 2:36 train. We are on the train right now. We put the bikes in car 8 and our seats are in car 4. When I got on, they said I did not have to remove my gear from the bike, but after the train started moving, an announcement came on the PA asking the people with gear on their bikes to please remove it. I had to make three trips getting all of our stuff off the bikes and back to car 4... And I thought this was going to be a day off!
We do not have a hotel reservation and we get into Berlin around 9PM. Jordan is getting a little more used to what, to the casual observer, seems to be a lack of planning on my part. However, it really just gives us ultimate flexibility. If we decide we want to sleep in the street tonight, we now have that option!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Made it to Amsterdam
Before I forget, there was something interesting at the Bastille Day parade that I forgot to mention. The entire time that the French were showcasing their military might, they were playing the song that TBDBINTL (Buckeye Band) plays when they do "Script Ohio". Is there any hidden meaning in this?
Since my last post a few hours ago, we continued biking north along the North Sea Bike Route. We stopped for a great lunch in a town called Zandvoort. Very cool place right on the North Sea. I had crab salad and Jordan had curried chicken. That is her second curry dish this trip. Maybe I should send her to India?
Haarlem was a short bike ride from here. Pretty fair sized town about 20 clicks from Amsterdam. Quite a bit different from Harlem, NYC, although my last time there I had awesome ribs at Dinosaur Barbecue with Pat and Barb McGahan. We decided to hop a train into central Amsterdam rather than ride into the city. I had the address of a relatively cheap hotel called Hotel Winston that was recommended in "The Lonely Planet" book. As we were winding thru the crowded streets with our fully-loaded bikes I happened to lead us into an alley where on each side of us were scantily-clad women in picture windows. The alley was pretty dark, but you could get a good idea on what was being sold there! It is amazing that after several thousand miles flying to London and about 1,000 kilometers biking, I, like a homing pigeon, end up smack dab in the middle of the red-light district!
The Hotel Winston was booked and the girl at the front desk suggested I walk south for a half hour to get something cheaper out of the central district. I thought this was good advice, so we took off and found a SMALL, but decent place near the museums. The stairs are incredibly steep and I am on the top floor (4th floor). I carried all of our gear to our room while Jordan guarded the bikes. The proprietor said he could not keep the bikes in the hotel, but showed us where a place called MacBikes was where we could store them for 1/2 Euro per day. Pretty good deal, if they are still there when we get them on Monday or Tuesday!
Had dinner at a nice local place, walked around, found restaurant row near the museums, and had dessert. It was about midnight by this time so we headed back to the room. Sunday will be our sight-seeing day.
Further mechanical issues... One of my nuts holding my rack came loose and fell off the other day. I noticed a was getting a lot of sway, when I discovered it. Took an extra nut from when of the water bottle braze-ons and fixed it. Yesterday, I noticed a clicking of my spokes in the rear wheel. When we unloaded our stuff for the train to Amsterdam, I noticed that one of the welds on the Braeburn back rack had failed! I have never seen this happen before. That rack was only about 16 months old! If I had my neighbor and friend, Iain Grant, here, I am sure he could fix it in a jiffy. He has his own metal shop in his garage. Looks like I will have to buy a new rack.
General notes on Holland... This is an unbelievable tidy country. Hardly any litter, public restrooms very clean. Everything in its place. I like it very much.
Since my last post a few hours ago, we continued biking north along the North Sea Bike Route. We stopped for a great lunch in a town called Zandvoort. Very cool place right on the North Sea. I had crab salad and Jordan had curried chicken. That is her second curry dish this trip. Maybe I should send her to India?
Haarlem was a short bike ride from here. Pretty fair sized town about 20 clicks from Amsterdam. Quite a bit different from Harlem, NYC, although my last time there I had awesome ribs at Dinosaur Barbecue with Pat and Barb McGahan. We decided to hop a train into central Amsterdam rather than ride into the city. I had the address of a relatively cheap hotel called Hotel Winston that was recommended in "The Lonely Planet" book. As we were winding thru the crowded streets with our fully-loaded bikes I happened to lead us into an alley where on each side of us were scantily-clad women in picture windows. The alley was pretty dark, but you could get a good idea on what was being sold there! It is amazing that after several thousand miles flying to London and about 1,000 kilometers biking, I, like a homing pigeon, end up smack dab in the middle of the red-light district!
The Hotel Winston was booked and the girl at the front desk suggested I walk south for a half hour to get something cheaper out of the central district. I thought this was good advice, so we took off and found a SMALL, but decent place near the museums. The stairs are incredibly steep and I am on the top floor (4th floor). I carried all of our gear to our room while Jordan guarded the bikes. The proprietor said he could not keep the bikes in the hotel, but showed us where a place called MacBikes was where we could store them for 1/2 Euro per day. Pretty good deal, if they are still there when we get them on Monday or Tuesday!
Had dinner at a nice local place, walked around, found restaurant row near the museums, and had dessert. It was about midnight by this time so we headed back to the room. Sunday will be our sight-seeing day.
Further mechanical issues... One of my nuts holding my rack came loose and fell off the other day. I noticed a was getting a lot of sway, when I discovered it. Took an extra nut from when of the water bottle braze-ons and fixed it. Yesterday, I noticed a clicking of my spokes in the rear wheel. When we unloaded our stuff for the train to Amsterdam, I noticed that one of the welds on the Braeburn back rack had failed! I have never seen this happen before. That rack was only about 16 months old! If I had my neighbor and friend, Iain Grant, here, I am sure he could fix it in a jiffy. He has his own metal shop in his garage. Looks like I will have to buy a new rack.
General notes on Holland... This is an unbelievable tidy country. Hardly any litter, public restrooms very clean. Everything in its place. I like it very much.
North thru Holland
July 24th Blog
The Garmin let us down today. We got a relatively early start for us... 10:30 after a quick breakfast of apple struedal and some sort of ham and cheese croissant. Jordan and I always get different things and them split them. We are really eating relatively little for the amount of calories we are expending. We set our sites on Rozenburg for lunch. That is where Garmin started screwing up. I think it routed us in a semi-circle for no apparent reason. We finally stopped several clicks from Rozenburg for lunch. While eating, there was about a 20 minute downpour. Thank God for small favors! We finally got to Rozenburg where we took a short ferry ride across the small waterway.
The ride out of Rozenburg was just as confusing as the ride in. I don't think my Garmin is clued into the bikeways here. I think the trick is knowing when to ignore it... Kind of like your spouse! We are spending the night in a campground about 15 clicks from The Hague. It is kind of a combination of campground and trailer park. There is a little restaurant here where we ate a greasy dinner. A local camper came up to us an chatted us up. He seemed like a Dutch version of George Gans!
It is about 100 clicks biking to Amsterdam, if we don't get lost. We are going to try to make it there tomorrow.
One beautiful thing we saw today as we crossed over a dike was about 100 wind surfers. These guys were using the rectangular parachutes instead of a sail attached to the surfboard. Some of these guys were really catching some serious air. I will post a picture if it turned out well.
Saturday' July 25th
Set a record for getting up early... 8AM! We were on the road by 9:30 and stopped 5 clicks later fror a great breakfast in Monster, Holland. We bought fresh fruit (cherries, bannan, apple) at a market and croissants at a bakery. We are biking on what is called the North Sea Bikeway. It is a national bike path that goes along the coast. The wind is probably about 30MPH at our backs and we are flying. We will take this north to Haarlem and then go east to Amsterdam. Weather is nice... Around 60 degrees and partly sunny. It has never gotten really hot since our first couple days in England.
The Garmin let us down today. We got a relatively early start for us... 10:30 after a quick breakfast of apple struedal and some sort of ham and cheese croissant. Jordan and I always get different things and them split them. We are really eating relatively little for the amount of calories we are expending. We set our sites on Rozenburg for lunch. That is where Garmin started screwing up. I think it routed us in a semi-circle for no apparent reason. We finally stopped several clicks from Rozenburg for lunch. While eating, there was about a 20 minute downpour. Thank God for small favors! We finally got to Rozenburg where we took a short ferry ride across the small waterway.
The ride out of Rozenburg was just as confusing as the ride in. I don't think my Garmin is clued into the bikeways here. I think the trick is knowing when to ignore it... Kind of like your spouse! We are spending the night in a campground about 15 clicks from The Hague. It is kind of a combination of campground and trailer park. There is a little restaurant here where we ate a greasy dinner. A local camper came up to us an chatted us up. He seemed like a Dutch version of George Gans!
It is about 100 clicks biking to Amsterdam, if we don't get lost. We are going to try to make it there tomorrow.
One beautiful thing we saw today as we crossed over a dike was about 100 wind surfers. These guys were using the rectangular parachutes instead of a sail attached to the surfboard. Some of these guys were really catching some serious air. I will post a picture if it turned out well.
Saturday' July 25th
Set a record for getting up early... 8AM! We were on the road by 9:30 and stopped 5 clicks later fror a great breakfast in Monster, Holland. We bought fresh fruit (cherries, bannan, apple) at a market and croissants at a bakery. We are biking on what is called the North Sea Bikeway. It is a national bike path that goes along the coast. The wind is probably about 30MPH at our backs and we are flying. We will take this north to Haarlem and then go east to Amsterdam. Weather is nice... Around 60 degrees and partly sunny. It has never gotten really hot since our first couple days in England.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Brugges and Entering Holland
From Ghent we bicycled to Brugges, Belgium. We decided to camp and found a crowded campside about 2 clicks from Brugges. I left Jordan to set up the tent and rode to a bicycle shop. I broke a spoke on my front wheel, which is probably a first for me. They usually break on the back wheel, often on the cassette side. I had not brought any spokes with me and figured I could just adjust the tension on the other spokes until I found a bike shop. I rode thru Brugges, which is an interesting old town. The inner town is surrounded by a canal... Belgium's version of Venice. I got the spoke and repaired my wheel.
Jordan and I got food at the local grocery store and made our usual meal of huge subs, chips, cheese, and champagne. It started raining while we were at the grocery store, so we ate in the tent. The crumbs we left were really bugging Jordan. I had no problem with them. The rain increased in intensity and lasted all night. The tent took on some water and much of our stuff was wet by morning. I forgot to tell Jordan to make sure she tucked the ground cloth underneath the tent.
Waited in our tent until 11AM for the rain to stop. It finally did and we took off by noon. We stopped 1 click later at McDonald's for food and internet access. I also found a detailed map of Holland and we decided to go up the coast along the dikes. I Dutchman who camped next to us told us we should do that since we were biking from the south. Their is always an intense wind from the south. I told him I really liked biking in Belgium. He told me I would enjoy Holland even more. I told him there is nothing like this in most of the US. He said that even though the Dutch system is good, there are vocal groups that are trying to make it even better... Continuous Process Improvement at work!
By 1PM our biking day finally started. We made up for lost time with completely flat terrain and a strong wind at our backs. Ended up doing about 80 clicks. We first road to Breskens and took a ferry to Vlissingen. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes and cost the two of us with bikes 7 euros. This put us in an area they call Zeeland. The towns are unbelievably quaint. The houses are small by US standards, but impeccably kept. Our ride took us over two very long dikes. What an engineering marvel! The water inside the dike is noticably lower than the North Sea side. It looks like pumps are constantly taking water from the inner side to the North Sea side because the water on the North Sea side is roiling! There are whirlpools and riptides for about two hundred yards from the dike. I don't think you could swim out of this water if you fell into it. We made it to a town called Burgh-Haamstede and found a small hotel where we could spread out all our stuff to dry it out. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant across the street, followed by an ice cream cone and sleep. It is amazing how I crave pasta after a day like this. This was probably our nicest day of biking so far, which we certainly did not expect at the start of the day.
Jordan and I got food at the local grocery store and made our usual meal of huge subs, chips, cheese, and champagne. It started raining while we were at the grocery store, so we ate in the tent. The crumbs we left were really bugging Jordan. I had no problem with them. The rain increased in intensity and lasted all night. The tent took on some water and much of our stuff was wet by morning. I forgot to tell Jordan to make sure she tucked the ground cloth underneath the tent.
Waited in our tent until 11AM for the rain to stop. It finally did and we took off by noon. We stopped 1 click later at McDonald's for food and internet access. I also found a detailed map of Holland and we decided to go up the coast along the dikes. I Dutchman who camped next to us told us we should do that since we were biking from the south. Their is always an intense wind from the south. I told him I really liked biking in Belgium. He told me I would enjoy Holland even more. I told him there is nothing like this in most of the US. He said that even though the Dutch system is good, there are vocal groups that are trying to make it even better... Continuous Process Improvement at work!
By 1PM our biking day finally started. We made up for lost time with completely flat terrain and a strong wind at our backs. Ended up doing about 80 clicks. We first road to Breskens and took a ferry to Vlissingen. The ferry ride was about 30 minutes and cost the two of us with bikes 7 euros. This put us in an area they call Zeeland. The towns are unbelievably quaint. The houses are small by US standards, but impeccably kept. Our ride took us over two very long dikes. What an engineering marvel! The water inside the dike is noticably lower than the North Sea side. It looks like pumps are constantly taking water from the inner side to the North Sea side because the water on the North Sea side is roiling! There are whirlpools and riptides for about two hundred yards from the dike. I don't think you could swim out of this water if you fell into it. We made it to a town called Burgh-Haamstede and found a small hotel where we could spread out all our stuff to dry it out. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant across the street, followed by an ice cream cone and sleep. It is amazing how I crave pasta after a day like this. This was probably our nicest day of biking so far, which we certainly did not expect at the start of the day.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Gent, Belgium
We left Brussels pretty early yesterday with the intention of biking to Brugges. We ended up taking a very circuitous route and at one point were on a grass road (Wimbeldon?) that ran through a farmer's property. There must be some sort of holiday because almost everything is closed. We had lunch in a small town, where I started playing with the GPS. I finally discovered that I could tell it that we are on bicycles. I had also had it programmed to avoid all highways, which is why we have ended up on gravel and grass roads. Many of the highways here are not like our interstates and are great to bike on. After making these changes, the Garmin is now using more direct routes. It only took me 3 frigging weeks to figure it out!
Note on biking in Belgium... These people are really into biking. Most of the roads have dedicated bicycle lanes. It is usually about 3 to four feet wide and colored either red or very clear stripes that demarcate it from the road. There are none of the goofy raised curbs like the ones they tried on High Street through campus many years ago. Another really cool thing is the traffic lights. When bikes have the right of way, the traffic light shows a green bicyclist. I will take a picture and post it later. Also, the terrain is starting to flatten out, which we like very much after the Ardenne Forest.
Starting to run into more bikers. Met a nice young guy from New York City yesterday named Justin. He was an architect but now he designs furniture. The economy is doing a number on his business so he decided to take a month long tour in Europe to visit his brother in Germany and visit various furniture makers to drum up business. This is his second major trip, and he is a true minimalist. His bike looked about 15 years old. He had no biking gloves and sneakers with no clips of any kind. His maps were google print outs. Despite his lack of equipment, he has the spirit of adventure, which is the most important component to have on a trip like this.
After sharing a cold drink with him in Gent, he took off to the local youth hostel. Jordan and I were going to push on to Brugges, but it started raining really hard. There was also a huge local festival going on, the annual 10 day Gent Festival. These people know how to party! We quickly made a change of plans and stayed here. After showers, we walked around the festival. We stopped and had a beer at one of the taverns. We were immediately befriended by a 57 year old woman named Tina from Brazil. She kind of looked like Tina Turner, and she was NUTS! She introduced us to her husband, Oscar, who is from Spain. He had to be 20 years younger. She said they have been together for 18 years but just got married yesterday. She know about 10 languages and became our "best friend". We continued to keep a tight hold on our wallets, though. We took a few pictures and then headed back for the evening.
Note on biking in Belgium... These people are really into biking. Most of the roads have dedicated bicycle lanes. It is usually about 3 to four feet wide and colored either red or very clear stripes that demarcate it from the road. There are none of the goofy raised curbs like the ones they tried on High Street through campus many years ago. Another really cool thing is the traffic lights. When bikes have the right of way, the traffic light shows a green bicyclist. I will take a picture and post it later. Also, the terrain is starting to flatten out, which we like very much after the Ardenne Forest.
Starting to run into more bikers. Met a nice young guy from New York City yesterday named Justin. He was an architect but now he designs furniture. The economy is doing a number on his business so he decided to take a month long tour in Europe to visit his brother in Germany and visit various furniture makers to drum up business. This is his second major trip, and he is a true minimalist. His bike looked about 15 years old. He had no biking gloves and sneakers with no clips of any kind. His maps were google print outs. Despite his lack of equipment, he has the spirit of adventure, which is the most important component to have on a trip like this.
After sharing a cold drink with him in Gent, he took off to the local youth hostel. Jordan and I were going to push on to Brugges, but it started raining really hard. There was also a huge local festival going on, the annual 10 day Gent Festival. These people know how to party! We quickly made a change of plans and stayed here. After showers, we walked around the festival. We stopped and had a beer at one of the taverns. We were immediately befriended by a 57 year old woman named Tina from Brazil. She kind of looked like Tina Turner, and she was NUTS! She introduced us to her husband, Oscar, who is from Spain. He had to be 20 years younger. She said they have been together for 18 years but just got married yesterday. She know about 10 languages and became our "best friend". We continued to keep a tight hold on our wallets, though. We took a few pictures and then headed back for the evening.
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