So at the teylers museum they had a natural history collection, lots of scientific instruments, some rocks and paintings, old coins and in the rare book room, old books on mushrooms. About half of the collection was in English, with an audio guide. While I was there it started to snow, and it went on for the whole day, really coming down at some points! I left around 4 to do one of the walking tours, And the snowing had basically stopped, although there was several inches on the ground. I sure was glad I didn't bring lance! People were walking their bikes through town. When I got to the market sq, it was crazy. Everyone was out playing in the snow, esp parents dragging their children on sleds from the 1800s. I was pretty jealous (although there are no hills so how much fun can a sled be!?), but everyone was having fun so it was a real nice atmosphere. I walked around, saw some of the nice buildings, one of the old royal residences, the greenest street in haarlem, the waag, fish market, and old pharmacy, with original interior with their statues of native Americans smoking pipes and such, still in operation (boy was it crazy busy in there!!), churches (of course) and I walked along that pretty tree lined avenue I had rode up. I stopped off at "Michels bakery" (didn't try and get free food because the owner shares my name this time) and cured my sweet fix that I had been having for the past few days. The tour detoured me through this park (although I got lost at first cause it said to follow a path but I couldn't see the path cause it was covered in snow!) So I'm walking and this giant dog, maybe an akita just comes bounding at me, looking for a quick belly rub before it continued playing in the snow. Then it went off but the next second came back for more! It was so adorable!! Then I saw some 12 yr old boys throwing snowballs at cars and I thought oh thank god I don't have lance, they would probably throw some at me too lol and soon it got dark so I went back to Hans. His wife had a meeting in Amsterdam for that bicycle magazine they volunteer for, but because of the snow all the trains were delayed, so she had to wait in the station for 2 hours! So she was really late! But hans and I made dinner and I went to bed shortly after. I downloaded a walking tour of haarlem although I had seen most of the sights already. At the end the guy wrote, I hope you now know the difference between haarlem and Harlem in NYC lol, yeah there is a huge difference, and the former is much nicer! Sat Feb 4: the 3 of us had breakfast, wifey didnt get back from Amsterdam until real late cause she had to wait for the train 2 hours coming back! She said cycling would have been faster! So after breaky I went to the st bavo church in the markt sq, which was really beautiful. They had some info on the windows which depicted religious scenes but also scenes of haarlem. I saw the graves of frans hals and that teyler guy. After the church I did the other walking tour which was all about almshouses, which haarlem has a lot of! So they were quite nice, and all had pretty courtyards, and esp now with the snow, it added an extra grandeur to them. Most had residents, although they were converted into apts. One had a clever number system carved into the facade above the doorway, saying something like it was for woman of 8 x 2 + 1 or something like that which meant that it holds 20 woman all aged 60 (ok I got the numbers wrong but you get the idea). So after that walking tour I went to the frans hals museum. I had to pay extra again for a temp exhibit which I was annoyed about but at least they gave audio guides in English. It was all about celebrating in the golden age, so all 17th cent paintings of feasts and festivities. It was quite nice actually so then I was glad I went, the paintings were mostly of peasant weddings, winter scenes, religious celebrations and stuff. Then I went to the permanent exhibition which had (obviously) frans hals paintings. So I was there for a bit then I left at 4:26 pm for Amsterdam directly. It was straight forward leaving haarlem (not like leiden with all the signs in the bike lanes pointing every which direction and confusing me). I didn't get to see the windmill which was a shame but I did get to see the old city gate as I left so that was nice. So to Amsterdam was easy, I just followed the bike path that mostly was parallel to the n200. I didn't want to stray off of the main cycle route and use the cycle network cause I figured the paths would be all covered in snow cause there was at least 3 inches or so. However, there was snow on the main route as well so I had to go a bit slower. I stopped to take some nice photos of the snow covered bushes and the frozen stream along the path. Saw some kids playing hockey on a canal :-) and a lake was totally frozen except for this one small patch, so that was where like 100 ducks and swans gathered! I got a photo of that too. So I had a few slips and slides with the bike but no falls, quite surprisingly, considering all the times I fell in Boston with the hybrid. Lance is a tough cookie! So once I got into the Amsterdam area I ran into trouble cause I needed to get off the cycle route and take the streets to my hosts place so I thought following a major motorway would be easiest but there was no bike path alongside so I had to improvise (which I now could do cause I had Google maps again!) So I just took a street parallel to the motorway, then followed some tram track and made it, arriving at 6:49 pm, rode 12.64 mi, max 11, avg 6.4. My host erik lived in an apt on top of zeeman, so the stairs were narrow and steep, but luckily he brought lance up, not me! He said lance was a cutie!! I'm sure he was flattered :-) so we made dinner and chatted. It turns out he is a photo editer for the same dutch cycling magazine that hans and what's her name volunteer for! And he was at the same meeting the night before that [insert her name] was late to! So he showed me some issues and explained what the stories were about. They always have a theme where they invite the members of this club to submit stories and photos based on this theme, and it changes every issue. So the one I saw was " cycling in love" and some older couple got married and then spent their honeymoon cycle touring!! And the photo was their tent that they camped in with "just married" written on it. Pretty hardcore! And Erik submitted a story about how when he was touring he met a girl in Croatia and they had an intense but quick relationship. She looked about 13 in the photo!! But yeah after the mags we just talked for a while. He is really into winter cycling, but he camps! He did a trip around Belgium and Switzerland and he camped on top of the matterhorn and he said he didn't get much sleep cause it was so cold!! That is pretty crazy. He even said he went out somewhere in the dunes not far from Amsterdam a few nights before and just camped out there for the night because he "couldn't resist" and wanted to be outside! I thought, wow this guy should really be living in like Norway or Sweden if he loves the cold so much! He also really likes hills cause he grew up in the hilly south, so he doesn't like Amsterdam too much cause its flat and it has lost a lot of its identity, according to him. He moved there in the 70s and really enjoyed the provos movements and squatting and stuff, so he's upset its all gone now. He wants to move out and go elsewhere but he has rent control (not sure if this is the right term) so he has paid the same amount since he first moved in, which is like €300 a month! Everyone else in the building pays way more!! So in a way he feels trapped cause he knows if he goes anywhere else he won't find a deal as good as that. But his landlady wants him to move out so she can charge the next person the current rate cause she is annoyed he pays her so little rent, even though she owns many apts and apparently is very rich. So she's just a greedy bastard! So this then got us to talking about the current economic crisis and he said he thinks people will start to be less greedy cause they now realize what its done to the economy. I think that's wishful thinking. So he also showed me some pics, including the ones he had taken of dinner (he really likes mushrooms for whatever reason and we had a meal with 3 different kinds in..I thought he would enjoy those books from the teyler museum lol) and he showed me a book he wrote with pics he took of his friends from Irelands kids who were dressed as fairies. He tried to get the book published but no publisher in the netherlands or UK was interested, so he tried in the US but they told him that the kids were showing too much skin (the boy was topless and the girl had a bare belly) so they were afraid only pedophiles would buy it. Then some independent publisher guy in the US said he liked the photos but not the story line, so I don't actually know if he sold the photos or not. But I read the story and it was a bit weird to be honest, for a kids book. It was about a little girl whose gpa dies and the girls at school don't like her so she goes into the woods (Ireland!) And meets some fairies who befriend her and teach her to be brave. But yeah the first sentences of the book were like sally used to love listening to gpas stories, but grandpa was dead now. I was like umm not very pleasant for a kids book! And he agreed it was a bit too dark. So we talked some more, he told me about another cycle touring trip he did thru Europe but he cut it short and took a train back cause he was feeling homesick (even though he doesn't like Amsterdam lol). Good thing I don't have that problem cause its a bit harder for me to get home! So all this while I had some clothes by his heater, which was a real fire, and my jeans actually got burnt!! He said I can look at it as a souvenir from Amsterdam lol. But then I went to bed, on a mattress in the living room. Sun Feb 5: Superbowl Sunday!! Giants vs patriots round 2!! Everyone at home was going crazy, marj even made a football cake that came out awesome. Homesickness was really kicking in then!! I had wanted to go to a bar and watch it and I even Googled some that would show it, and I asked carmen if she wanted to join me but she said she couldn't so I decided against it cause it started at 12:30 am Amsterdam time. So that was such a shame, the first Superbowl I've ever missed in my life!! And I heard it was a great game, and the giants were the underdog AGAIN and they showed everyone up AGAIN!! But anywayyy, Erik and I had breaky together and then I left shortly afterwards to drop my stuff at my hostel. It was called hotel sarphati so located right across from sarphati park which was only like a mile from museum plein, which was super convenient cause I didn't get to go to those museums last time I was in Amsterdam, so that was my first port of call. So I arrived at the hostel around 950 am and couldn't check in but was able to drop my bags off. Breakfast was till 10 so I quickly made myself a nutella sandwich then left for the van gogh museum. I got there around 1015 am and just as I arrived so did a bus load of Japanese tourists! And you had to go thru this whole security checkpoint, as if you were taking a flight to the galleries. The museum filled up verrry quickly, I kept thinking 'what are summers like here!?" ( just like in London!) But it was awesome, I didn't know much about van gogh at all prior, not even the fact that he killed himself. So I made my way through the whole museum, and was hoping to see starry night (which according to Michael is not his most famous painting..its sunflowers!) But it wasn't there so I Googled it and its at the MoMA :-) seriously my city just has the most world class museums!! And I googled sunflowers too and that is in the national gallery in London, like the one museum I still have yet to go to!! So after that I went to the riksmuseum. And would you believe it, the security guard was hot!! But I was looking a right mess so I didn't even bother to talk to him. So I made my way through most of the galleries, saw more golden age paintings by rembrandt, Jan steen and those guys. I saw another wooden chest that claimed to be the one that hugo de groot (remember the guy from delft whose name I couldn't remember) escaped from exile in. So I don't know which museum is telling the truth! But such are artifacts like that. Just like when I was in stratford and the wood from the tree that was chopped down in shakeys last house was used to make souvenirs, yet there were more souvenirs that a whole forest full of trees! But yeah so there I was in the museum, minding my own, when one of the guards (an unattractive one) comes up to me from all the way across the room and says "excuse me can I ask you a question?" And I say yes and he says "where are you from?" And I say USA and he says thanks and walks away. I thought that was incredibly strange, cause the guy at the ticket counter when I arrived had asked the same but I know its for demographic purposes, but for that guard to really come straight at me from across the room, I really was curious as to why he asked!! But I just went about looking at the artwork anyhow. So when it got close to closing time I had a quick look at some 13-14th cent catholic art and then saw "night watch" and then left! So then I walked back to lance and it was still somewhat light out (it was 6 pm) so I thought if I should go to the tourist info and see if they have self guided walking tours, but I couldn't be bothered since I was tired, hungry and so close to the hostel. Just as I was leaving, an old man was crossing the street and he slipped on the snow and fell and screamed "ow my knee!" My heart really sank, I felt so bad for him, but 2 woman immediately went to him and helped him up so he seemed ok and able to stand so I felt better, so I rode off. I got to the hostel and had to leave lance outside (I had tried to persuade the receptionist in the morning to let me bring him inside but he said no and promised he would be safe outside) but there were like 20 other bikes all around him so he blended quite well. So I picked up my stuff from the luggage storage and went to my room. The lights were turned off but there was a guy in a bed so I asked if I could turn them on but he said people were sleeping! I thought oh lord, party animals in my room, this is going to be an interesting night. I unpacked and got talking to an Aussie girl from Melbourne who had been in that hostel for like 12 days cause she was attending a conference for her thesis, which was in something like biomedical related. So after a bit I left to try and find a supermarket. there was a new receptionist and I had asked him where I can pick up some food and he said most places would be closed cause its a Sunday. So I left and walked for a few blocks and found a convenience store so I bought some krokets and spekulaas cause mayke told me to try them. So back at the hostel I put the krokets in the microwave and had them for dinner. I wasn't a huge fan but I was hungry so I ate them anyway!! The kitchen was also the lounge so CNN was on tv and they were talking about the presidental election. When I was in haarlem Hans was saying to me that everyday something about the election race is in the newspaper, as if the Netherlands is a state!! And I said oh we hardly get world news in the US, only if its something real big, so it definitely wouldn't be about a leadership candidate election! And while I'm on the subject, hans wife showed me the newspaper one of the mornings I was there and said that hundreds of people, mostly sick, elderly and homeless, and more so in eastern Europe, had died over the last few days cause of the cold. Id believe it, when I was in gouda, Paul the annoying Lithuanian, had researched the temp of Lithuania and it was like -20 C!! My god I'm sure glad I decided to cycle western Europe!! But ok back on track here.so after dinner I went back to my room and talked more with that girl, a south Korean guy, and 1 of the sleepyheads who had finally woken up. He was Argentinian but spent time in Germany so he knew Spanish and German but not too much English. Aussie girl had gone on exchange to Berlin so she knew some German, so they communicated a bit, and I commented here and there with my sub par español. He and his friend (one of the other guys who was sleeping earlier) then went out for the night. All the other guys had gone out too, so it was me, Aussie and SK guy, and then a Malaysian guy for the rest of the night. They were all soo nice, and Aussie girl (Ku her name was, or something like that) let me use her computer. The SK guy said he wanted to try herring so I told him about my experience in delft lol so he seemed intrigued so we checked my lonely planet for places where he can go to find some :-) so the 3 of us talked for a few hours, the SK guy did an exchange in Birmingham so he knew English really well. He said he couldnt understand peoples English in bham though and I said neither can i!! So around midnight we put the tv on in the room to see if we could pick up the Superbowl but the only channel we got was a music video type channel (didn't know those still existed in the YouTube age) which played a song about Amsterdam every 20 min. So I went to the receptionist and asked if they got ESPN or some type channel that would play the superbowl and I also asked where bakeries were nearby for the next morning. He showed me on the map some famous multi cultural st that was real close by and said he would look into finding the Superbowl. So I said thanks and went to walk away but then he asked where I was from so we talked for a while. His English wasn't that great though. But I did manage to learn he is from somewhere in Spain and it used to be a real trashy place with prostitutes just walking the streets, so he didnt like it. So I said so you came to Amsterdam, where prostitutes are behind windows! And he said oh yeah I didn't even think about it like that lol. So after a bit I went upstairs and he said if he found out which channel the game would be on then he would come to the room and tell me, but he never did :-( he was a bit cute so I wanted him to come and tuck me in ;-) so I was a bit heart broken when he didn't show up! Don't worry, I'm nearly over it now. So yeah I went to bit at 12:30 am, just as the game was starting, and everyone back home was getting their Superbowl partying on :-( and that's all for me for the night!
Monday, 27 February 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012
The butt, brain, throat and left knee are in pain
So continuing with leiden, I did more of the walking tour even though I was getting very cold. I went to the town hall but didn't go inside, but did go to one of the nice churches, pieterskerk, and the citadel which was super cool. Saw the Latin school where rembrandt attended, rembrandt plein where he used to live although his house has since been demolished, and the city gate.then I left leiden for haarlem. You know ive noticed that lots of the street names either have obvious significance or are named after famous people (lots of different rembrandt streets in each city!) But also streets named with canal on them and stuff, make it easy to figure out the history of that street. Unfortunately I don't know a lot of the dutch words so I depend on my walking tours to explain the meaning to me! And while I'm on the subject of things I've noticed..for the texts in museums that are in English (esp the art museums) the English is almost 100% perfect. And they even use big vocabulary words, that I don't even know. I've been using the translating app a lot since I've been here, but also the dictionary cause the dutch seem to know English better than I do! But one thing about the text panels in the museum, sometimes its super high up!! But luckily if its dutch then English, dutch is the top one :-) but like that protestant church in delft, new church, (My first one by the way..and I didn't even realize it was protestant until a worker told me it was because there was no alter) you could go on a computer in the church for more info, but the table was really high, I could hardly reach the keyboard! And it was just like rob and emmys sink and countless mirrors in public bathrooms I've encountered, I couldn't reach!! But anyway back to my day. so I finished my tour and left for haarlem at 3:33 pm. My hands were already numb so that really sucked. My toes soon went too and my face was stinging some of the way. Luckily it wasn't a huge distance! But I wasn't exactly enjoying the ride too much! This was the first freeze so I saw some people on the ice, just standing on it, testing it out. Rob had told me that every year there are several drownings from people who fall in, so if he goes skating on the ice, he brings a rope and a towel! Getting to haarlem was straightforward, no qualms, although my water bottle had frozen so I couldn't drink anything! I arrived shortly after it got dark at 6:26 pm, so I couldn't see much of the scenery when entering the city, but there was this nice avenue of trees with a big mansion like building at the end of it. My hosts lived in the center of haarlem so finding their place was simple cause it was right around the corner from the markt. My distance was 19.33 mi, max 13.3 avg 7.3. When I arrived I needed my host, Hans, to take my helmet off for me cause my fingers were that numb!! And my sim card was waiting for me :-) so I was super happy to have that again!! Then I met his wife and we all chatted and ate dinner. They had just gotten back from a cycling trip in Egypt about 2 days prior! They used warm showers there, as well as many other places they had cycle toured at over the years. They are members of like 4 hosting websites, they told me the name of one in Germany but when I checked it out it sounded elite, so I didn't sign up. I should probably mention they are retired so kudos to them for still being that active! Hans writes for a dutch cycling magazine and his wife (forgot her name) is also involved somehow. They are also really into politics so they were telling me they don't like how in the US, retirement funds are not guaranteed or something like that. Things I don't know about but probably should. Then they showed me their pics from egypt. They took lots of these political cartoons that were either graffitied or printed on paper and posted everywhere.they were about the revolution but some of them were hard to understand cause the text was in Arabic.then I went upstairs to their sons room who was away at college. It was a bit strange cause all of his stuff was still there, and I used his computer. I don't think I would like it if my parents hosted strangers and put them in my room with all my stuff there. But that will never happen so I have nothing to worry about! So soon after I went to bed! Fri Feb 3: so the night before, Hans wife gave me 2 walking tours, one for the history and one for the almshouses, a map of haarlem. So in the morning I went to the tourist info just to see if they had any more self guided tours but they didn't. I left lance at the hosts place and walked around. first tried the frans hals museum and the history of haarlem museum across the st but they didnt open till 11 am and it was around 10 so i walked along the canal until I came to the teylers museum which was some guys collection that has since turned into a museum upon his request in his will and since then the collection expanded. Ok bed now, will do more writing tomorrow (I hope)
Friday, 17 February 2012
making some headway
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Hand warmers could have worked wonders
Sat Jan 28: so I had breakfast with rob and emmy, they made rolls and croissants. Very hearty :-) I was in charge of squeezing the Oranges, and it was tough work! When I had enough juice to fill a glass I poured it, but spilt some! I was devastated! I learnt to be so much more careful cause you care about something so much more when youve worked hard at it! Then they went to robs sisters to deliver a present they made for her newborn. I went into the city again (being sure to take note of landmarks this time) and I went to the rotterdam history museum. There was a temp exhibit on the life of some wealthy general or something, so they designed the house as it would have looked in the late 19th cent. Lots of nice paintings and portraits and pretty furniture and objects. The permanent exhibit wasn't in English, which was a bummer cause it was relating to rotterdam. Then there was another temp exhibit relating to rituals in different religions so they showed how people deal with births and deaths and celebrations across the world, so that was cool. So there was also a section on festivals and they had some video clips but without subtitles so all I saw was a huge number of people dressed as smurfs and partaking in races and games, so that looked fun. Then there was this section where you write a secret message to someone and tie it up and the museum people are going to "release it to the world" in a few months. So I may have written a little note to a special someone! I just hope jelle gets it before I leave the Netherlands!! So after the museum I had picked up a mini card the day prior that entitled me to a free stroopwaffel at the market! So I headed there, but dear lord was it crowded!! Apparently its 2km long! So I had to fight my way thru the crowds and esp with lance. But I went and got my stroopwaffel from the stall and it was freshly made on the spot. Sooo good! Then as I was leaving a guy was handing out free lebara sims so I took one in case I have a similar incident with my geosim! Then I went to the maritime museum. My mini card got me free prints of boats (i love these cards!). I first went on a vessel that I can't remember the name of, but it was a "ram ship" and never used in combat. It wasnt as translated as I would have hoped but I got the gist of everything. They had naked mannequins in the bathroom section, I thought they were real for a split second!! So then I went into the actual museum, and it had a video footage from probably the 1920s of ships coming into the harbor for trade. Then for the remainder of the time I went to an exhibit on sea trade, expeditions and wars and everything related to the ocean and the Netherlands, starting from like prehistoric time. So I was just learning about some dutch guy who was famous for his charts of the world in like the 16th cent, when it was time to go. I headed straight back to rob and emmys cause I had agreed to help them cook curry (I offered to cook or take them out and they said that wouldn't be necessary so I said I would help them cook then). So they decided to be ambitious and cook 3 different dishes, 2 of which they never tried before. So it was a bit of an experiment, but it was fun! Wow I never realized how many spices go into these dishes, no wonder everyone says English food is bland! I was in charge of peeling and grating the ginger, which I had no idea how to do! I even used the wrong side of the grater! So that was quite yummy and even tho I don't like ginger I like the lemon and ginger rice. Then I went to sleep with a contented tummy! Sun Jan 29: so I left before breaky so I could make the most of the daylight since I needed to head to gouda. My lonely planet detailed a walking tour checking out the architecture and I still needed to do the self guided brochure one I got from the visitor center, so unfortunately this day wasn't as sunny as my first day in rotterdam and it was quite windy. I walked around the center, and of course with it being a Sunday morning, it was real quiet. I went to the Lawrence church, near where erasmus lived. a man working there said I could have a quick peek at the interior cause the church wasn't open but after a min a lady came over and kicked me out. So I continued to walk around, took pics of city hall and some buildings but I think rotterdam is quite ugly. I know post ww2 architecture is just atrocious but still, the whole city is just one ugly entanglement of tall glass and metal buildings. I went to the tourist info and read a small display they had about rotterdam and it mentioned there are 3 charge points in the city for electric cars. That's real nifty, I only hope theres more in the future! Then I passed more sculptures (a giant Santa with a butt plug in his hand, and abstract ones as well). I had 2 people on separate occasions ask if I needed directions cause they thought the walking tour leaflet was a map. I then had to pee so I tried a few department stores in that shopping quarter but you had to pay (or they didn't have any) so I eventually just hopped the turnstile. Then I went to an etos which looked like a cvs so I bought more floss, for €1.50! What a rip off! Then I tossed the receipt, but then literally walked for 3 more seconds and I see a 99c shop and what do you know 2 flosses for €1! So I bought that as well. So I went dumpster diving for the etos receipt and decided to return it at another point. So I then picked up lance from his parking spot and rode to museum park. I went to the natural history museum. There was a sperm whale skeleton in the lobby which was enough to entice me to go in, and anyway I was frozen! So some parts of the museum was translated but most weren't. Which might have been better for me cause then I wasn't tempted to stay later than I should have. So they had the stuffed animal collection as all natural history museums do, but they had some mutant animals which was kinda cool. So calves with 2 heads and stuff. Then there was this small section that had "mystery creatures" where taxidermists took various parts of different animals bodies and glued them all together so neatly that it looked like it all fit together, and then they tried to pass these off as new species! (That wasn't in English, but I overheard an American woman who obviously knows dutch, translating the text to her daughter). Then I went to the sperm whale skeleton and noticed they had its dork in a case. Damn that was intimidating. So after the museum I continued the tour along the river. I had lunch in a park near the euromast. Then I was so cold I doubled up my gloves and socks! Not too long after I just said screw it, its too windy here, so I just went on my way to gouda, leAving at 3:08 pm. My host lived near a point on the cycle network so that was easy for me. So I followed the cycle network and red signs to gouda. Got a little lost leaving rotterdam cause I went the wrong way along the river, and then again when I was on the outskirts of the center, but a helpful man gave me directions and from there it was smooth sailing. I passed through a village first, then polders (saw a nice windmill right underneath me :-) ) where I was riding on like a track that was cut out of the earth. The car road was at the top, farmland at the bottom, and bike path carved into the land in-between the two. It wasn't windy anymore so I was real happy I could get some sensation in my fingers and toes. I mistakenly thought the cycle network sign told me to go up to the road where the cars are so I did and I got honked at various times so I thought maybe bikes weren't allowed so I went down to the ground and rode thru some village called moordrecht(?), and found the network again. From there gouda was close so I arrived in 40 min. My host Louis lived right in the center of gouda so that was super convenient. When I got to the centre I just checked a map and found my way to his. So I had to keep lance in the hallway of his apt building but I wasn't too concerned since I was only staying for one night. So I arrived 5:38 pm just as it was getting dark, did 21.87 mi, max 15.9 avg 7.1. I literally just dropped my stuff and he asked if I wanted a tour (thinking he meant tomorrow morning) so I said sure, but he said ok let's go! I was thinking, I've been freezing all day and I've finally got inside where its warm, I don't want to go back out! But I said yes cause I wanted a locals insight to the town. He showed me the 2 windmills, the canal boat homes, and the candle factory . And I also met another couch surfer he has been hosting for 3 months, a 20 yr old student from Lithuania. He starts studying in utrecht in a few weeks but came to gouda in Nov to learn dutch. So that night we all ate dinner together, then Louis made really scrumptious Fondue for dessert which I had the majority of! Then Louis and I got talking, somehow it ended with me reading a passage from the bible about a father who gave his son some money and the son left home and blew it all and came back in poverty. But then we all went to bed, me on the air mattress next to Paul on the futon in the living room. Mon Jan 30: It was real good that Louis lived in the center of gouda but he lives literally a few feet from the church with the famous gouda windows, but every 15 min the bells would go off! I didn't hear it in the night but in the morning Louis woke up early for work and woke me but I couldn't go back to sleep because of the damn bells. So I got out of bed early, Paul followed shortly after and then he took me around gouda. We went to the town hall which was a super pretty building but Paul had already seen it so he rushed me through it. The meeting rooms all had cups and tea at each seat so we stole about 3 tea bags each! Then we walked around the town, being Monday all the museums were closed so we couldn't see much. We strolled along really thin and picturesque canals with super tiny bridges and thru a park and by one of the windmills again. I of course went to a shop where we sampled gouda cheese and then I bought a small amount. It started to snow lightly so we just walked around in it for like an hour or two, then went to the grocery store for him to pick up yogurt and then back to Louis's so I could get my stuff. So when we got back Paul told me to make him tea and I was like "I'm not your housewife!" And he said "you owe me for taking you around gouda". And I was like "Grr you're such a typical spoiled 20 yr old", but I made the tea anyhow. Then I left and went to the church. So I paid the entrance fee but an audio tour was extra so I didn't want to pay so I just walked around and saw the windows and the organ and stuff. Then a worker comes up to me and starts talking and asked where I was from and we got talking a bit more and he explained what some of the windows meant, like about the siege of leiden and the king and queen from that time, they are depicted in the last supper window. He then shows me the keys to the church (he was the custodian) and said they were original, which would make them centuries old. Not sure if I believe that. But he eventually asked if I wanted the audio guide for more info on the windows and I said no thank you and he said he would give it to me for free! So I couldn't turn down that offer. And I said "I really can't stay long though, I need to get to leiden!" And he was like "oh its the Netherlands, everythings close!" (I didn't tell him my method of transportation). So I said ok and did the whole tour, which was very useful because otherwise I wouldn't have understood the historical windows, or the st john the Baptist ones. So after that I returned the headset to the lady I paid admission to, she didn't look too happy that I got the tour for free! Then I quickly went back to the town hall and saw the rest of what I didn't see with paul and then went to etos and returned the expensive floss and then finally left for leiden at 3:22 pm. It was snowing this whole time, but not heavily, just annoying to have it keep hitting me in the face! I followed the cycle network out of gouda and (as Louis recommended to me) I took it thru the lake district (which is nowhere near as big as the English one!) So I circled around that for a while. I enjoyed it though, lots of storks (or whatever they're called) and ducks and swans. It must be real nice over the summer. But I then realized I went off the route I needed, so I looped around and eventually found my way back to where I started, just on the outskirts of gouda center! So I thought oh crap I'm in trouble now, I rode around for at least an hour and got nowhere! So I said screw it to the cycle network and just followed the red lettered signs to leiden. That suited me very well. I rode mainly along a major road, but the majority of my ride was at night time so not like I had much of a view anyway. The Netherlands does have some nice sunsets though!! So I followed this basically straight the whole way. I saw a biker who had straight handle bars but was riding low down like a touring biker, and that kept snow from hitting him in the face. So I thought that was a good idea so I rode like that and I went faster so I kept going back and forth between that position and holding onto the handlebars. The only problem with the former is that I mainly look at the ground, and this caused me to miss my turn off because I didnt see the sign! So I got lost and confused that the signs were telling me to go back the way I came. so I did and realized I was supposed to make a turn. But other than that I didn't get lost until I got into the center of leiden where I relied on the street maps for help, but half of them didn't have the "you are here" symbol. I eventually just followed my way to the central station cause my host karol said he lived 5 min from there. So when I got near I tried to call karol but the number didn't go thru so I was a bit frustrated but I asked someone on the street and he told me how to get to karols block. By now there was maybe 1-2 inches of snow on the ground. So I rode through that and got to karols. When he opened the door he said "you're michele?" Like he was expecting someone different. Because his name was karol, I had thought I had been messaging with a woman this whole time so I wanted to say "you're karol?" But I didnt. So I arrived at 7:45 pm, did 29.58 mi, max 16.2 avg 8.3. I was quite cold (my hands had gone numb pretty much once it got dark) so karol and his wife graza made me tea and warmed me up :-) I then met their 3 yr old son max who was a bit shy. They had eaten dinner already so I ate their leftovers cause I was too tired and couldn't bear to go back outside. Graza didn't know English very well so that was a bit of a struggle to talk to her, but karol was fluent cause he was raised in new York. He was born in Poland but moved to ny when he was very young, and moved back when he was like 13. Graza is also polish and max was born there too. They moved to leiden for their jobs so max goes to day care there so he picks up on dutch words and Graza is taking a dutch language course, but karol works in computers and he said everyone at his company speaks English, so he hasn't learnt dutch. So it was kind of late and I was tired so I made my bed, which was an air mattress on the living room floor (had some issues figuring out how to work the pump again!!). I checked my mail and rob emailed me saying my UK sim arrived, so I told him the address of my haarlem hosts so he could send it there, instead of it showing up in leiden after I left! And then went to bed.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Kinda looking forward to Easter already!
Fri Jan 27: so emmy and rob live a few km from rotterdam center so I left around 9 am to get to the tourist info center. It was pretty simple going to the center. The shopping center which I passed thru was very quiet! I arrived before tourist info opened so I quickly went to the bookstore on the corner to look for a bicycle atlas for Germany but because Germany " is so big" according to the worker, its broken up into several smaller books so I didn't buy anything in the end. Then I went to the tourist info and picked up a walking tour brochure. Then I saw they didn't have mini cards so I went to the library, back through the shopping area to pick some up (bit livelier..what a difference 20 min made!), then did a slight bit of my walking tour on my way to the box office for the rotterdam film festival, which brought me to a nice ww2 sculpture where 2 men represented the past, a woman the present, and a child the future. (these war sculptures are in every city..a bit nicer than the memorials England has). I bought a ticket for a movie called "waiting for snow in my sapong".. or something like that. The Malaysian word for village. then I went to the boyman museum which had lots of art! The place was massive. And of course there was the annoying teenage school group going around (most of them taller than me..but then again even 10 yr old girls here are taller than me). So I saw plenty of golden age paintings, and even really old paintings from the 14th cent, made by one of the 2 brothers "who invented painting". The galleries led up to 20th cent paintings. There were also new exhibits, which were a bit strange, so I spent most of my time in the permanent collection. So I saw the pointillists, impressionists, and van gogh, Salvador dali and lots of good stuff. There was a room called the "rejects" and they change it every so often with art from the collections that didn't make the final cut for the permanent display, which I think is a real good idea. So my movie started at 5:15 pm so I left the museum around 4:50 pm to give myself plenty of time to get there, even though it was kind of close by. So I had to cross over the river which I got to fine but after the bridge I got a bit lost but asked for directions and I was right around the corner so I quickly took pics of the hotel new York, which was the old headquarters where the Holland-America ship line was. So I then went to the theatre and got there just on time. There weren't many people there actually, esp for a Friday night. So there was an intro from one of the directors (the film was a bunch of short films) and then it started. I was afraid the subtitles were going to be in chenglish but it actually was near perfect English! It was all about raising awareness about radioactivity in that part of Asia, as it doesn't snow in Malaysia normally! The genres were different for the films which was good. Some were funny (soldiers in the rainforest grew hands out of their winkies, and another about an oilyman burglar who only virgins can see, so a guy finds out that his father is a virgin cause he sees him and the dad says
"oh no I'm not, it must be the radioactivity that's making me see him"). Then there were 2 dramatic ones, I don't see how this related to radioactivity but a Thai girl goes to live in a Malaysian village with her infant and the girls bully her at work and her boss is strange and then her baby is taken from her. Yeah I didn't get that one, so I wasn't a fan. The one I liked the best was a documentary of an elderly woman who has a 20something yr old son with a mental illness. She worked at a brick factory when she was pregnant with him and she didn't know it at the time but they were dumping radioactive waste and toxic Chemicals into the environment, and then her son was born with that birth defect. And this started happened all around the neighborhood till finally the village found out the truth about the company. She quit the factory and they tried to write her off but she refused the money. They were saying "you are poor, you need this money" (she had like 5 kids) and she said "if I take your money and let you continue doing what your doing then more children will be born sick. what good is your money then?" So that was quite a noble thing. Unfortunately the doc didn't touch on what happened to that company after that and if conditions have since improved. Then the last film (the one directed by the guy who gave the intro) was a bit weird as well. It was like pulp fiction where the scenes are out of sequence, so that's real hard to follow. a little boys mother is dying, then the next scene the father is crying at work cause she died, then the next scene is of the mother taking pics of the snow Malaysia when she was a teenager. Then the next scene is the same scene as the opening scene! So yeah confusing. Then after the movie there was a Q&A session but no one had any questions so the MC just asked him some. He said lots of Malaysian movies are improvized, so he went in with barely any script and no story board, so there was a clash with him working with western filmmakers who wanted to see a story written out. Then after the movie I went back to emmy and robs. Because it was now dark, I didn't recognize the streets, so I missed my turn a few times and eventually asked someone for directions and made it back. E&R had their own film festival movies to get to so they had already gone by the time I got back so I just ate some cheese and bread and went to bed!
Friday, 3 February 2012
hot tip: learn the language of a foreign country before you visit!
wed jan 25: so i decided that even though there was still lots more of the hague i wanted to see (notably the queens palace) i thought it would be best to go somewhere else. henk and petra live closer to delft than to the hague center so i went to delft instead. i followed the tram line until i saw the signs for the delftware factory so i arrived and did a tour. it was just me again =) so english yayy! the guy demonstrated how they make the pottery from clay and then showed me a kiln with some example mugs in there. then he showed me where the workers do the paintings (all hand painted) and showed me a series of unfinished plates to demonstrate the process of painting, glazing and firing. then i went to the shop and thought it would make a nice gift for my mom but holy guacamole were they expensive. i settled on a 50c postcard for myself! then i rode along the river to the center and went to the tourist info and picked up a map and self guided walking tour. then i went to the vermeer museum, which was his painting studio. so it talked about his paintings and the goings on in the netherlands and more specifically delft during that era (breweries were a big thing). there was a mini globe in the secion that mentioned trade and i dont know why but i touched it and it broke! it fell off its axle and fell to the ground! i tried to put it back on again but it wouldnt stay properly, so i walked away quickly! then in the other rooms they talked about how he was the master of light and showed enlarged copies of his paintings to emphasize details. then it showed the raw materials that he used to mix in oil and get his colored pigments for his paintings. so after that i went to the museum het prinsenhof which takes the museum card but because there was a special exhibit going on, i had to pay extra. so i went to this special exhibit first, and i had a guide book in english, but it gave an overview of the rooms (which were all themed) but the rest was in dutch, so i dont even know much about it. all i know is that it was about some famous dutch portrait artist who painted lots of royalty. so i went to the main part of the museum, and it talked about the 80 years war and all the trouble with the spanish and the iconoclastic fury. and a large part was about william of orange because i think he used to live there for some time. but he was actually murdered there, so there was a whole section on that as well. and there was the wooden chest which hugo de groot escaped from loevestein castle in with the help of his wife, and then he fled to france. so anyway i had been eyeballing ANOTHER security guard and the museum was a maze so i asked him and another guard which way was the exit and the hottie took me there. i wanted to ask for his number (what did i have to lose?) but i thought it wasnt appropriate while he was at work. so i left but then remembered i had picked up these mini cards that you get discounts and free stuff at attractions, and i thought the one i had was for the vermeer museum, so i went back there but they told me no its actually for the prinsenhof so i went back and showed the lady the card (which entitled me to a free gift), so the gift was either this ginormous book (in english) on the painter who painted the ceiling in one of the rooms or a post card. so obviously i took the book, but it was real heavy! and when she told me about the ceiling i said i didnt see it so she told me to go into the room past where the bullet holes are from william of orange's murder. so hottie showed me the way and i said, ""wait where are the bullet holes!"" and he said that was the main attraction of the museum! and im thinking, then why isnt there an english translation for the dutch text above it! cause i had seen them earlier but i just didnt know what they were (i thought the wall was detoriating). so i went into the room with the ceiling, then left for the second time. didnt get hotties number this time around either =( i was kind of missing england, cause i was annoyed that i nearly missed a very important feature in the museum, all because i couldnt read dutch. so i was feeling a bit frustrated how i also had to pay for this extra exhibit and i couldnt understand most of it. and even the names of places, i dont understand (which is why i confused vermeer's studio with the house for william of orange!). and signs too on buildings that give a brief history of it, it doesnt have a translation so i dont know what its saying. the flip side is that i get around town and the museums a lot quicker, but it just sucks to want to learn about something but you cant! so after that museum i went i did the walking tour of delft until it got dark. it took me to the new and old church (but it was too late to go inside) and to another church, along the canals and pointed out some old and historic buildings. also around town they had little info boxes about vermeer paintings so i stopped to read those. it started to get dark so i walked back to where i parked lance but noticed right across the street there was a bicycle parking lot,but you had to pay for it, but it had a security person guarding it. i thought this was a bit strange so i took a picture, and the guy in the booth was asking me questions in dutch and i told him i only speak english and he said he didnt speak english but then asked where i was from. and he then tried to ask me about NY but the conversation wasnt going anywhere and he brought me in the booth to show me a map because i said i needed to know how to leave delft. well the language barrier definitely didnt help means so i just took a quick peak at the map and left. i vaguely remembered the way i went in but because it was dark i didnt recognize anything and i had no signs telling me where the hague was. so i rode around for a bit and eventually did find the tram tracks that i followed to delft, so i followed them back to henk and petras. petra had a day off so she went to a sauna so henk took me for chinese take out. we went back to their place and ate it and then petra came home. she told me that it will soon freeze and everyone will then start skating. i thought, oh wow, just like i see in the golden age paintings! i didnt realize just how much the dutch love the ice! yet another reason why i love this country. and she also told me that people go in saunas naked here!! thats so crazy, never ever would that be allowed in the US. so we chatted a bit more, i did my laundry, cleaned lance, and i went to bed early. thurs jan 25: i left early to go back to delft and see the rest of it and then needed to then go to rotterdam. unfortunately my hat shrunk in the wash and no longer fit on my head =( and it rained nearly the whole day which counteracted the washing of lance i did the night before.but anyway i went to delft, i first went to a fish market and tried herring! i didnt have it with onions, but i did eat it the way youre supposed to.it wasnt as bad as i thought it was going to be! then i went to the town hall and the old church. then i went to this indonesian museum that had a lot of artefacts (i think it has the most in the country) . the same hot security guard was working there! but i still didnt work up the courage to ask for his number. i didnt spend too long there, and then i went next door to a candy shop from the 1850s. i bought a whole bunch of candy and then ate it as i did more of the walking tour. every piece of candy i bought i hated. it tasted absolutely awful. i couldnt even stomach them! and then, right at that moment, i stepped in dog crap. so i had to wipe my shoe on a tree, but it got most of the crud off. i then went to spit out the candy in a garbage pail, and i saw a guy smirking at me. im not sure if he witnessed the dog crap incident, or he was laughing at my facial expressions as i was trying to eat the candy, and honestly, i dont know which was worse. so after doing more of the walking tour (the extended part which really took me all of the town!) then i went to the new church and they had a little exhibition on the history of the church, and i saw the memorial and tomb of william of orange and the tomb of hugo de groot. i read more of those vermeer info boxes along the way, and found out that one of his famous paintings was one that got stolen in the isabella gardener heist! how crazy is that! and i saw that the MET has some of his paintings as well. so it was about 4:30 pm by this point so i then left for rotterdam. i passed the techinical university and then i pretty much saw everything in delft! so i followed the cycle network, it really took me off road, in these fields and polders, and nothing was paved. i was doing fine until it got dark. i got lost, probably because i couldnt see the turn off sign, but i was following the only path in this field and then it suddenly just ended. then there were several directions i could go, but no direction sign so i just chose straight ahead and kept going until i saw a cycle network map. i had missed the turn off for route 70, so i got out my book and saw i could take route 16 or i could just go back the way i came to route 70, but i figured if i missed it once before i will miss it again (keep in mind it has been raining this whole time, although not hard). so i followed signs for route 16, which took me over a bridge and under a tunnel and along a dark residential area for a while. i felt like i was going back the way i came but i just kept going. i was only supposed to follow it for a few miles but i definitely did more than that. so i checked the book again and realized i took route 16 in the wrong direction (it kind of didnt cross my mind that routes go in 2 directions!) but i was able to follow this around and get back to route 70 anyway so i did that and got back on track and then took that to route 13 which was kind of confusing cause i needed to follow that onto a bridge but the sign made this whole curvature arrow so i thought that meant i needed to turn around and go back the way i came, so i did that at first but then realized that it was telling me to follow the bridge lol. so i was getting there to rotterdam, ended up in the middle of some more fields in the pitch black following a path again. i saw some guy on a motor bike that was just standing there so i asked where rotterdam was and he told me it was like 7 km away but told me to keep following the path then turn right. so i did and i could see big buildings in the distance so i was happy that i was going in the right direction. the river (maybe delfthaven?) was on my left so i followed that for some time then picked up route 84 on the network and that took me through a golf course and some other dark areas but outside of traffic. the thing that annoyed me about the cycle network is that it doesnt do a good job of telling you what route you are on! like i needed to get off the network and take the streets once 84 and 85 intersected, but the only signs i saw were for 85 so i wasnt sure if i was actually on 84 and it was saying "this is the way to 85"or it was saying ''you are on 85, continue this way" so i just followed it all around anyway and then realized i was on 84 and saw the junction with 85 and the other network routes. so then i was supposed to follow this main busy road to my hosts, rob and emmys, place but i misread the map and went the wrong way and i kept checking the book but maybe i was just tired and my brain was fried because i just couldnt read it right! so i stopped like 5 times and every time i propped lance up against a pole and he fell several times and the frame got all scraped up =( so anyway i continued following this road for a while but i knew it was the wrong way so i called rob and he told me to turn back the way i came and he would meet me at a gas station. then at that moment i saw a boy on a bike get hit by a car! it wasnt anything serious though, the car was turning the corner so not like it was going fast, and the boy didnt even fall. but he wasnt wearing a helmet!! i swear, these dutch people look at me like im crazy when i ride with it on, but its for a very important reason! but yeah, the boy just rode off and the car went on its way. so i went the way rob told me to and i waited for him at the gas station and he came on his bike and we went to his place. and funny enough, he told me i was easy to spot because i was wearing a helmet! i finally arrived at 7:50 pm, riding 24.07 mi (even though it was about 12 mi away) max 14.3, avg 7 mph. rob and emmy asked if i wanted to shower or eat first and i said i wasnt even going to shower because ive been wet all day, i wanted to just get dry! so they had prepared dinner but were waiting for me, so that was real kind. i ate alot! and then they told me that they spent time in the US, they hiked the applachian trail, and other mountain range on the west side. i think theyve seen more of the US than I have! so i was a bit jealous of that. they were real nice and friendly thank god, because i was so tired and stressed after my bike ride. then rob said his sister just had a baby, so he made this cute picture (not sure if he painted it or what) of animals and other baby type things for his nephew. rob had also done some bicycle touring and stayed with warm shower hosts, and he said he used to be a veggie but he stopped during that trip because (like me) he didnt want to inconvenience his hosts who wanted to cook meat. and even after he came home he continued to eat meat.but he said he got annoyed with people asking him all the time why hes a veggie and they would say 'oh but you still eat fish right?'and he was like 'of course not!" so yeah he got frustrated from that all the time and i was ''like yeah i know what you mean!!'' then they were going to a movie for the rotterdam film festival that night, so good thing i didnt arrive too much later! so they left soon after dinner and i made the couch up and read some of my lonely planet book on the history of the netherlands. apparently in 2009 it was NYCs 400th birthday (again another important celebration that i missed!) and the netherlands sponsored a lot of the events that went on and a lot of dutch people attended and a lot of manhattanites ignored the celebrations. i find that hard to believe though. and i also read that the press and tabloids keeps out of the business of the royal family. a concept unthinkable in england!! so then i went to bed cause i was wiped out!
Thursday, 2 February 2012
american phones need to get on the SIM program!
FINALLY writing about the netherlands!
sat jan 21: so this was my last day in the UK as it was the last day my visa was valid for! i was scheduled to take a 11:15 pm ferry out of harwich and couldnt find a host for the evening (just to spend some time with), so i told michael to meet me and hang out with me until it was time for me to leave. his train got in around 11:15 am so i wanted to make sure i wasnt late, which was why i wanted to leave so early. so i had said good bye and thanks to ahmed before i went to sleep the night before, so i left quickly that morning. i wanted to see that monastery before i left, but i got really lost trying to find it. i eventually did and then i was on my way! i left colchester at 9:03 am and took another A road, possibly even the a 12 to harwich. i got a bit lost going to this a road though and i had to turn around a bit and i was on the right track for some time but i somehow missed the turn off for harwich and i ended up riding in the opp direction for a bit! i didnt realize until i saw signs for chelmsford and london. and i had no idea when the next turn around point was going to be, so i crossed the dual carriageway (there was almost no one on the road) and through lance over the metal barrier and hopped over and then road in the right direction! then i followed this all the way to harwich. stopped off at lidl to get some more food and then went to the train station to meet michael, which conveniently was right next to the ferry terminal. so it was perfect timing, i arrived just as his train was pulling in! so i got there at 11:16 am, rode 20.43 mi, max 28, avg 10.9 (I was not messing around, i really didnt want to be late this time!!) so when i met up with mike, i parked lance then we went inside and i picked up my ticket (a printed out version) and then we walked to the harwich center,which was like 40 min. he brought me macarons, and some yummy butterfly cakes. neither lasted more than a day! we turned onto the beach and had lunch (but on a roofed bench cause it was raining..and super windy!). then we walked along the esplanade and went down to the beach for a short while. we ended up in old harwich, walked around that a bit and went to the "pier" but none of the museums and attractions were open! i guess harwich doesnt get any tourists at any other point in the year! so we walked around some more, it wasnt raining anymore so that was good, passed through devonport and some parks and lighthouses, then walked along the beach again, then tried to find somewhere to get dinner. there was virtually nowhere, so i looked up on my google maps some pubs/restaurants near to the terminal, so we walked to a pub, and what do you know, its pub thats in the same parking lot as lidl! they had free wifi there so i took advantage of that cause i had to do lots of preparations for the netherlands. we were there for 3 hours! then around 8:30-9 pm we walked back to the terminal, we sat inside until it was time for mike to leave to catch his train. when he left i went down to lance, and road him to the vehicle entrance. didnt even need my ticket afterall! i just showed my passport and i guess the guy looked me up in the system. so then i rode lance up the ramp, got on the ferry, left him in the vehicle area, and took the elevator to my cabin. it was actually quite nice!! comfy bed, nice tv, clean bathroom, warm shower, totally much fancier than what i was expecting! i guess i watch too many pirate movies! so after my shower i watched a little tv. it was a bit odd, they had american channels, so i watched discovery channel. so that was obviously in english, with dutch subtitles, but the commercials were a combo of english (england) and dutch. the english ones had dutch subtitles, but the dutch didnt have english ones! but i didnt watch for very long cause the ferry docked at 7:45 am, and it was now around 11 pm, and i would lose one hour by traveling across time zones, so i wouldnt have gotten much sleep. so i went to bed and it was warm and comfy, not much swaying (very different to the over night boat in indonesia!) but then again we hadnt even departed yet. sun jan 22: so at around 6:30 am a lovely announcement "wake up call" was made on the speaker in the room. i tried to go back to sleep but literally every 15 min another announcement was made about breakfast or the shop (who goes shopping on a boat!?) so i just ate a bit of the food i bought from lidl (it was still early so i didnt eat too much with the intention of stopping on my cycle ride and eating more breakfast at some point), and then packed and made my way to lance. i had left ahmed postive feedback on couchsurfing and he left me feedback too saying that i was inspirational to him, he was going to bed earlier, waking up earlier, going to the gym more and eating healthier! so glad i can be a great influence on people! so up until this point, i had been real nervous about going to the netherlands. this was my first time i would be spending a prolonged period of time alone in a country whose native language is not english. and i was nervous when i first left leicester to start my biking tour, but i had been living in england a year, so i knew the layout of the land and the location of major cities, i knew the language, the culture, and the law of the road. but here i was going into it blind, so i was excited but also a bit apprehensive! esp since i didnt have a detailed map of the country , i had purchased a cycling atlas from a dutch book shop so i had to pick it up when i got to the hague. but anyway at 7:45 am we docked in hook of holland and soon made our way off the boat and down the ramp. border control was a breeze, the agent spoke english and only asked how long i was going to be in the netherlands and mainland europe as a whole, and then i got my visa! so it was still dark, and quite windy!! i lost some papers when i got off the boat cause they blew right out of my hand! but i just continued on my way. i had written down driving directions on how to get to the hague from hook of holland just in case the cycling directions from the dutch websites were confusing, but i didnt need them at all, cause the cycling lanes were very well signed! i was super impressed. blows sustrans right out of the water! so around 8:30 am it finally started to get lighter, so i stopped to take off my tail light. these 2 cyclists rode by me and one asked if i was okay. how nice was that!? and he even spoke in english, so that settled my heart at ease a little bit about the language barrier. i passed through some dunes, farmland, rivers and saw some greenhouse nursies, and some windmills =) (molens) but it wasnt long before it started to rain, so i stopped off where there was a bench and got out my waterproofs, but the wind was so strong, it blew the bag with the last butterfly cake (which was on my handlebars) right off and the cake fell to the ground and the plastic bag blew away! so now there went breakfast #2 AND i littered!! hopefully mother nature will forgive me! but i ate what i could of that cake (so the part that was in the wrapper) and threw the top part (the yummiest part!) away. so the rest of the ride was fine, even though it didnt stop raining. once i got off the coast and a bit more in land the wind wasnt a problem. and the fact that the netherlands is a flat country didnt leave me with any nasty surprises =) i hardly saw anyone on the cycle paths, or even on the streets! there was a town called monster on the way to the hague and because it had an intriguing name i wanted to check it out, but it was still really early and not a soul was in sight. i passed the outskirts of it though. so i only got slightly lost but quickly found my way again and followed the cycling signs into the hague. oh and the bicycle signs even tell you how far away places are, quite handy! i really was loving all the cycle lanes, and the bike traffic lights. it was fantastic. once i was in the the hague area i got a bit turned around but managed to find my way to the center. its a bit confusing though that on busy streets one side is called one name, and the other side is a different name!! once i got into the center though the cycle path turned to brick, which wasnt a very smooth surface to ride on. i got a bit lost in the center, but the attractions are sign posted so it wasnt much of an issue. so i had rode 15.87 mi, max speed 15.8 and avg 7.2. it took 2:11 hrs total according tothe compy, so i arrived around 10:30 am. i had a few errands to take care of once things started opening. brendan from NUHOC had messaged me saying he was going to be in holland for business but then he was going to take a vaca to travel for 2 weeks, so we tried to coordinate a time to meet up, but his phone didnt work internationally, so he was asking for a specific time and place to meet. i just told him to meet me at 11 am at the tourist info, cause that was when it opened on sundays according to my book. so i had a half hour to kill, so i first went to the central station to exchange my travelers checks. i go to the GWK office and the guy tells me that i was supposed to have signed them when i picked them up from my bank, so he cant accept them cause they arent signed. so i said "i will sign them now!!" and he said "no you are on camera, they will see you". and i said "ok, then how about i go off to the side and sign them there and then come back to you", and he said "no, they will recognize your jacket" (i was still wearing my rain jacket) and i said "ok so ill take it off!!" but i clearly wasnt going to win this battle so he advised me to go to the other GWK desk at the other train station. but this one was close to the tourist info so i figured id do that later. i had to pee by this point and you had to pay for the toilets in the train station (and just about ANYWHERE in the netherlands..what is up with that!? thats my only gripe with this country so far) so i went to the tourist info at 11 and there was no brendan. and guess what! it was closed! they changed their opening times on sunday to 12 pm (thats what i get for using a 2 yr old lonely planet guide book!) so another one of my errands was to pick up a museum card, which can be done at any museum that accepts them, which are most! so i went to this museum called mauritshuis, bought the card and then finally peed (for free). while i was in the bathroom i had this ingenius idea to switch my UK sim to my global one while i am in the stall and i ended up, unbeknownst to me at the time, losing my UK sim card!! so i go around and enjoy the museum. they had some real nice paintings from the golden age. almost all were dutch artists, so there were a lot of mythological ones, biblical ones, dutch landscapes and winter scenes, and portraits. jan steen, rembrandt and vermeer were featured. it really was quite lovely, and the security guard was quite a looker! so after the museum i went to the binnenhof for some quick photos, then went to the tourist info. it was a lot more crowded now, all the bike railings were taken! i had to leave lance up against a wall since i dont have a kickstand. but there were millions of bikes outside the office so he blended in a bit (although he was the only bike with a helmet on the handlebars). so thats when i realized the con about a country that is so bike friendly- hard to find parking! but nevertheless, i still prefer it to the alternative. so i picked up a map, enquired about a walking tour but it was E9! then i went to the book shop, stanley and livingstone to pick up my atlas. i needed to switch my global sim back to the UK one so i could use the internet and pull up my order number in my email. this is when i realized the sim was gone! so i get into ultra panic mode. the museum is going to close in 30 min, and i lost it about 4 hours ago! so i rode back as fast as i could and i quickly ran into the bathroom stall to look for it but it was not there (obviously). so i talked to sexy security guard about a lost and found. his english wasnt that great but the girl handing out the audio tours overheard me so she translated. he then radioed in to L&F but it wasnt there so he asked for my number and said he would call if it was found. i was kinda hoping he'd call regardless!! so still in frustation mode, i rode back to the book shop before that closed and picked up my atlas. i didnt need the order number anyway. so then i went to the other train station to cash the travelers checks ( i had signed them as soon as i left the GWK at central station) so i handed them over to the guy along with my receipt (good thing i brought that with me, i didnt know i was going to need it!!) and my passport. then he passes back the travelers checks and asks me to sign again, to verify my signature. he then tells me that my signature didnt match the first one, or the one on my passport! i said, "how can that be possible, when i just signed these earlier today!?" now obviously that was a stupid thing to say cause i was supposed to have signed them when i received them, so he thought i was saying that i received the travelers checks today. so he said, "oh so youve come from england today?" and i said yes. and he goes, "but natwest isnt open on sundays, how did you get these today!?" and i said "no, ive picked them up a few weeks ago, i just never signed them until today." and he said "well its a pity for you, im not changing them. goodbye!" now if i hadnt had such a frustating time like 20 minutes prior i probably would have made a huge scene and would have said something like its a pity for you that youre a dickhead!! but it really just pushed me over the edge and i nearly started crying right there at the counter, so i just said ok and walked away. when i got outside i broke down and started balling. it was like 5:30 pm by this point (and still not completely dark yet! that sure was a nice surprise!) and i was staying with a couple Henk and Petra from warm showers so with no internet i couldnt use google maps to take me to their place, so i tried calling henk, but ran into some issues. he tried calling me but i couldnt receive calls!! i thought my god, could this day get any worse!! so i eventually fixed the calling problem, and called him and he gave me directions to his place. i followed the tram line but i got a bit confused when the train turned into an EL so i called him and he gave me more directions. i finally made it to his place and started crying again, which was not how i envisioned meeting my warm shower host for the first time! but he was real sweet about it. when i got to his place, i tried calling vodafone to cancel my sim, but the keypad wasnt working on my phone, so i couldnt key in during the automated message to the appropriate department i needed!! but henk let me use his phone, so i called vodafone and spoke to some tart (i swear, id like to see the IQ requirement to work for their customer service cause everyone i speak to whenever i call is a complete idiot!!) and i told him that i lost my sim but i am in the netherlands now. so he said he will cancel the sim and he will either order me a new one to be mailed to my registered address, or i can go to a vodafone shop and pick one up and then i can call back and they will put my same number back onto that sim card. and i said "but im in the netherlands remember, do they have vodafone here? and even if they did, its doing to be a dutch sim card right, so i wont be able to use it like a uk sim?" and he just wasnting getting it at all! he kept saying to me, "yes its fine just go to a vodafone store and pick up a sim and we can put your old number on it." so im like "okay if you say so, well can you look up which shop is nearest to me?" so he asks for the post code and henk gives it to me, but netherlands post codes are different to UK ones, so i tell him and hes like "huh..? im asking for the post code." and im like "IM TELLING YOU IM IN THE NETHERLANDS..HOLLAND!!!" and then hes like "oooooh." the light switch finally went on!! and he said "oh no you wont be able to pick up a sim there." and i said "ok mail it to me then please". then after that waste of 10 minutes i called GEOSIM to sort out the issues i was having but there customer service was shut so i just emailed them. and needless to say, i used up all $15 worth of credit i just added to my GEOSIM account!! then petra came home and we had dinner that henk cooked and had a nice chat. they really calmed me down and made me feel better so i was grateful! they also have 3 cats, 2 russian blues, so they were quite cute! they did a cycling tour through vietnam and stayed with some warm shower hosts there. henk introduced me to this website called ridewithgps that helps you plan your route, and it gives directions and elevation which is useful!! he showed me some examples of their vietnam trip and wow did that elevation map look scary! the hills ive experienced in england are nothing but mere speed bumps compared to those mountains! so we chatted some more, i told them i want to get into animal welfare policies once i get back to the US and they said that there is actually an animal political party in the netherlands!! seriuosly i love this country!! i think i want to marry a dutch guy! im sure michael wont mind. so we did some more chatting, then poor draak (in english dragon, i hope google translate spelt it correctly lol) was going through her "womenly troubles" as they called it cause apparently in dutch "in heat" is a different word for different animals! but she was moaning an awful lot, waiting for her prince charming i guess! so soon after that we made up my bed and after a long, hard and exhausting day, i went to sleep! and im going to do the same now. im quite proud, at least i am in the same country i am writing about!!