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I want to ride it where I like
Nothing as crazy as the first AMV I ever loved (despite no exposure to the components) happened today, but I did ask my hostess about the bicycle rental the property description mentioned. Actually she just let me use it for free -- appropriate given the cobwebs, flat tires, and disturbing noises. Neighbor had a bike pump, though they seem to go for squishy tires here; I'm used to rock hard. I deferred to local expertise.
Anyway, the howling wasteland is a lot nice with sunlight and a bicycle! Got used to the bike down to the end of the lane -- it's a "City Hybrid", road bike tires, upright posture, weird gears -- then south down the main road to the next bus stop, Lagerdijk Katwoude. 8 minutes. Went west again, and unlike De Zedde the lane just keeps on going. Not much there -- a few houses, farms. I got pretty close to a cow. Lane kept on going, and a map later indicated it would have gone to an inland town, but a big incidence of mud caused me to turn back. On the otherside of the freeway is Katwoude, or Monnedickensomething, the signs are confusing. A "historic town", according to a sign, and it did look it. Decent size. I didn't run across a supermarket, even the lame kind, but got meat at a butcher's and saw that a bakery had no bread I wanted. Lots of boats. I found a continuation that didn't look historical, but absent a map or cell/GPS/map reception I halted my explorations. Passed some jewelry shops, which reminded me of the stores in Portree on Skye, surely not supported by the local 2500 (or 11,000 island, though maybe) population. People travel across the world to buy jewelry and stuff that's also been shipped across the world. o_O
6 minutes back home for a brief rest, then north. I discovered that Edam and Volendam, though connected, have funny roads. Yesterday I'd basically walked up a side road that branches east to Volendam. Today I stayed on the west side of the freeway, passing a branch due east to Volendam, and ended up in Edam. Where I hit the main road, curving southeast into Volendam, and apparently anything interesting in either town is off the main road. Lots of canals and ducks and swans, though. And separated bike lanes are awesome... apart from sharing the lane with motorcycles. Good for *them* I guess, but scary for me.
That main road seems to lack bicycle support, I asked around and ended up directed to the side road I'd walked up yesterday. I might investigate the branch tomorrow, because it looked like it started off having bike support, does it really evaporate halfway through?
Found another cheese and clog shop by Katwoude. Oh, and pump guy said the canals are freshwater. Makes them more useful (animals drinking? crops irrigating?) but man, ocean's just over there, waterlogged Low Countries are right here, and the water stays fresh? And lots of it, too.
I feel pretty good about today. Sunlight and motion and maybe aerobic exercise -- my build is such that I can walk pretty fast without it being particularly lung-working, unless hills are involved, and walking even faster is kind of stressful and boring. Legs and butt hurt though, bike seat was hard and I haven't biked in 71 days or so.
Still haven't planned what to do next... and it's after midnight so I think I'll try going straight to bed.
Nothing as crazy as the first AMV I ever loved (despite no exposure to the components) happened today, but I did ask my hostess about the bicycle rental the property description mentioned. Actually she just let me use it for free -- appropriate given the cobwebs, flat tires, and disturbing noises. Neighbor had a bike pump, though they seem to go for squishy tires here; I'm used to rock hard. I deferred to local expertise.
Anyway, the howling wasteland is a lot nice with sunlight and a bicycle! Got used to the bike down to the end of the lane -- it's a "City Hybrid", road bike tires, upright posture, weird gears -- then south down the main road to the next bus stop, Lagerdijk Katwoude. 8 minutes. Went west again, and unlike De Zedde the lane just keeps on going. Not much there -- a few houses, farms. I got pretty close to a cow. Lane kept on going, and a map later indicated it would have gone to an inland town, but a big incidence of mud caused me to turn back. On the otherside of the freeway is Katwoude, or Monnedickensomething, the signs are confusing. A "historic town", according to a sign, and it did look it. Decent size. I didn't run across a supermarket, even the lame kind, but got meat at a butcher's and saw that a bakery had no bread I wanted. Lots of boats. I found a continuation that didn't look historical, but absent a map or cell/GPS/map reception I halted my explorations. Passed some jewelry shops, which reminded me of the stores in Portree on Skye, surely not supported by the local 2500 (or 11,000 island, though maybe) population. People travel across the world to buy jewelry and stuff that's also been shipped across the world. o_O
6 minutes back home for a brief rest, then north. I discovered that Edam and Volendam, though connected, have funny roads. Yesterday I'd basically walked up a side road that branches east to Volendam. Today I stayed on the west side of the freeway, passing a branch due east to Volendam, and ended up in Edam. Where I hit the main road, curving southeast into Volendam, and apparently anything interesting in either town is off the main road. Lots of canals and ducks and swans, though. And separated bike lanes are awesome... apart from sharing the lane with motorcycles. Good for *them* I guess, but scary for me.
That main road seems to lack bicycle support, I asked around and ended up directed to the side road I'd walked up yesterday. I might investigate the branch tomorrow, because it looked like it started off having bike support, does it really evaporate halfway through?
Found another cheese and clog shop by Katwoude. Oh, and pump guy said the canals are freshwater. Makes them more useful (animals drinking? crops irrigating?) but man, ocean's just over there, waterlogged Low Countries are right here, and the water stays fresh? And lots of it, too.
I feel pretty good about today. Sunlight and motion and maybe aerobic exercise -- my build is such that I can walk pretty fast without it being particularly lung-working, unless hills are involved, and walking even faster is kind of stressful and boring. Legs and butt hurt though, bike seat was hard and I haven't biked in 71 days or so.
Still haven't planned what to do next... and it's after midnight so I think I'll try going straight to bed.