you never forget how to ride a bike

April 24, 2014

We had a bit of a slow start to the day today. I didn’t get up until 8:30am and didn’t go over to the other cabin until probably almost 10am, and there were still people sleeping over there! Granted we did have a few busy days with lots of driving. Today we had no plans so it was nice to take it easy in the morning and not be in a big rush to eat and get organized and pile into the cars. Uncle Rick of course was busy making breakfasts to order and had the coffee going.

Everyone wanted to stay a little closer to home today. Oma and Joan stayed at the cabin, Rick, Nora, Jessica, Jonathan and Ryan drove into Utrecht (about 20 minute drive away) to go thrift store shopping, and Ben, Peggy and I decided to rent some bicycles and go for a ride. So the three of us drove into Doorn to the bike rental store and picked our bikes; mine even had saddlebags which came in handy later.

We decided to ride to Zeist which was about 12kms from Doorn. It was a beautiful day, a little overcast and muggy, but overall pleasant, and we just cruised along on these bikes. Of course the terrain here is very flat so you have to exert very little effort and to get going; they are also of course road bikes so that helps too.

It took us about 50 minutes to get into Zeist. 

Once we got right into town we parked our bikes and poked through some shops. Zeist is a super cute little town and totally off the beaten path for tourists. We even found a couple second hand stores and I picked up some cool souvenirs, including a spekulas mould. Ben found some little Star Wars Lego sets that he hasn’t seen at home and Peggy found some Dutch tea towels that are apparently better than any tea towels you can buy at home. We also found a store that must have been some sort of warehouse clearance place like MTF (but way smaller); they had new stuff (clothes, household goods, decorations, candles, etc) but everything was super cheap. Peggy picked up some cute little chicken figurines and a tray for Nora since it was her birthday yesterday and she collects chicken things.

There was also an open air market set up today, so we wandered through and found a booth selling freshly made stroopwaffles. I got a giant one that was still warm and oh so delicious. We also found a booth selling cheese and picked up three rounds of flavoured gouda: pepper, mustard seed, and pesto. The cheese guy also sold us on three wedges of 1000 day aged gouda for 10€, so was super sharp and flavourful, and for 10€ we thought it was a pretty good deal.

 He also shrink-wrapped our rounds for us. Of course while we are busy with the cheese, Peggy found someone to talk to. There was a booth across from the cheese with a man selling keys and he had a bunch of super old keys and old-style keys that they still use here, so Peggy was telling him that we don’t really have locks like that in Canada. Well once he heard she was from Canada he had lots of questions about Canada. Pretty much every person who they have spoken to and told that they are Dutch but moved to Canada can’t understand why they would leave The Netherlands and asks if they will move back.

Anyways, once we were done with all of our shopping we headed back to our bikes and loaded everything on. We decided that on our way back to Doorn we would take some trails through the woods instead of following the road. It was so awesome riding through the trees, although it was a little more work than riding on the pavement. Instead of going straight back to Doorn we followed the Fietspad (bike path) back to the cabins so we could have a little rest and unload all of our stuff. Unfortunately there was a long sloping hill that we had to climb to get there, which was the only difficult part of our ride so far.

When we made it back to the cabins we ran into Oma who was just walking to the parking lot to see if her friend had arrived for a visit. So she came back with us to the cabin and we showed her and Joan all our treasures that we found in Zeist. While Ben and I were inside with Joan, Peggy and Oma were outside looking at the bikes and Peggy convinced Oma to take one for a spin. Well you know what they say, once you know how to ride a bike you never forget and it was true, off she went (not very far really, just in front of the cabins, but still pretty impressive).

Once we had rested a bit and had a little snack and some water we decided to ride into Maarn before going back to Doorn to return the bikes. Riding away from the cabins there was a really nice long hill that we got to cruise down pretty much all the way back to the main road. We had just barely gotten to the outskirts of Maarn when some dark and ominous clouds rolled in and we figured we probably shouldn’t dilly dally and turned around to head into Doorn.

Well that nice long hill we rode down wasn’t so nice going the other way but we managed to make it all the way up, but not before it started to rain. Luckily the path we were on was under a bunch of trees which protected us somewhat. Once we conquered the gentle grade of Dutch Fietspads we were able to cruise into Doorn, dodging other cyclists and motor scooters that are also allowed on the bike paths. It was a little dodgy because sometimes the bike lane is quite narrow and when someone is trying to pass I was afraid that we would catch on each other’s handlebars and bail, but we had no accidents. Over the course of the day we rode about 30kms; it wasn’t super taxing but I already know that I’m going to feel it in my legs tomorrow.

By the time we got back to the bike shop it was pouring, thunder and lightning and even a bit of hail. Joan had given us some bottles to return to the grocery store in town, so once we got to the car we headed over there. Ben and I went to a couple other stores while Peggy returned the bottles. Apparently they had a machine that you feed them into and she was trying to shove the bottles through faster and set off an alarm on the machine that was super loud, so a stock-boy had to run over and turn the alarm off.

About 30 minutes after we got back to the cabin the other guys got back from their day of thrift store shopping; they had found some cool treasures too and had an awesome day. Everyone was pretty hungry because they had skipped lunch, so we had a feast of leftovers to clean out the fridge because we have to be out of the cabins by tomorrow afternoon and we don’t want to have to pack a bunch of food.

It has been raining on and off all evening now, with some crazy loud booming thunder and a bit of lightning as well. There is no wind though and the birds are still chirping. Ben and I are having a bit of quiet time to ourselves in our cabin. I think we will start gathering our things and pack up what we can tonight because I can just imagine the chaos tomorrow morning when everyone else tries to gather their stuff that is spread throughout the cabins at De Maarnse Berg.