Les said, the better II

August 6

Today I don’t even know how many k we went. We got lost and then found and then had to go ten extra k to camp.

Our camping last night was super awesome, as I’ve described. They even offered breakfast in bed in the mornings, but we didn’t take them up on it. We were deterlined to have breakfast in germany, as it was only 11k away.  There was no sign marking the border, just a canal. We crossed it and then had to go a few more k to get to the firat town. Where everything was closed on mondays. I hadn’t had any coffee. Breakfast in germany turned into a cheese sandwhich and no coffee.  I’ve been averagibg 2 or 3 espressos per day, so the no coffe thing was not aminor inconvience. My head was pounding.

Germany has committed to getting most of it’s power from green energy. This means lots of windmills. We saw tons of them, all spinning at high speeds and facing us. The wind was brutal and unrelenting. The rolling hills of the last few days are gettibg gradually more rolling and we have a definite uphill tendency, which makes sense. Also, as we get more inland, he sun gets more intense.

So, to recap: uphill, hot as hell, wind, rough roads, NO COFFEE.

Fear not, nobody was murdered although it was close. We finally found coffee at two or three in the afternoon.

In other, possibly related news, i’m no longer the navigator.  Nor am i the fire builder. And, indeed, thechances of murder remain high as it gets to be near midnight and the fast twent minute coal method stretcheswell past half an hour. I’m sitting here bein anti-social. Thinking beautiful thoughts.

It turns out that in germany, camp admissions actually end at six in the evening.  Also, campsites are not marked on our new viking route map. Vkings don’t need no stinking campsites. It does mention if there is camping in the towns we pass through, but not camping close by. So we got directions from a local to far away camping and then followed signs with pictures of motor homes on them. It was closed, but the owner’s daughter heard us speakibg english and talked to us. Her mom is american.

Caravans and tents do not coexist, so she lead us to hiden foeld and told us to camp there. Then her parents came aroubd with batroom keys and then gave us charcoal, access to the fire pit and invited us for breakfast in the morning. Best camping ever, but we’re kind of screwed for future nights.

We purchased a tiny grill. I now regret this descicion. If we had cold food, i would be asleep by now after a day of being lost, high heat, bad winds, rough terrain and NO COFFEE.

The moral of this story is not to skip breakfast or put it off.

Also, nobody in this country leaves their wifi unlocked.

I forgot to make arrangements about my digeridu. Marty is coming to Amsterdam with it. Very soon. Could one of the etc folks or gender changers keep it for me? I’ll be back around the third week of august. I would be much obliged.

We went about 60km today. We’re still in the Netherlands, but only 11km to go until Germany. We’ve been riding north, slowly creepibg towards the border. Today, we  got to Emmen, which is tje start of my second set of maps : “The Viking Route”.  We will be raiding and pillaging along the way, or maybe just looking at Viking artifacts.

Around the northern part of the Netherlands, in the Gronigen province – where we are now – ancient people stacked up rocks intp formations. Like stonehwnge, but much more squat. We went to look at one near Emmen. It really looked like modern art actually. The arrangement of the stones was aestheticaly pleasing. Nicole describes it as, “a bunch of big honking stones.” She was very excited to go see it.

The heat has been really intense the last couple of days. I feel like i’m being baked alive in the afternoon. We’ve taken to having a late lunch and hanging out for bit afterwards. Alas, internet connections are harder to find in smaller towns and usually not offered at campsites.

“Camping” is a different concept in the Netherlands. Usually, it refers to a place where trailers of the sort found in retirement mobile home parks in the american southwest are permenently parked. Except, not just for old folks. Then, there is usually a fleet of caravans (americans call theses ‘campers’). These have tents extending from them to make them into three room houses. They have electricity and a million amenities. And finally, you have the tents. These are usually 12 person tents. Some of them have stoves in them. No campground is complete without a network of tiny canals. And a bar.

And then there exists something called ‘mini camping.’ This refers to what americans call car camping. You get a grassy spot to pitch you mega tent or park your camper, but no bar or canal network. Mini camping often offers certain luxuries, like toilet paper, hand soap, paper towells and free hot showers. Also, it’s usually cheaper. Tonight, we had to stop to ask for directions and the woman we asked was disparaging. “It’s only farmer camping,” she explained. Farmer camping with free showers and cheap pizza. What more could you ask?

And on day 4 the rolling hills become more rolly and the downhills are less than the up. We can see germany from here and wil arrive there tomorrow or the next day, but at spot north of here.

I don’t pull xena the whole time. Sometimes, I let her off leash. Like yeaterday, we came to bike path that narrowly wove between two pastures, a canal on either side. The problem about letting her run is that she has no idea that bikes can’t stop and turn as fast as she can. She has been alost hit so many times. It really annoys other bikers, understamdably, so she only gets to run in places without cars or other bikes. She still will get right in front of me and stop, turning to look at me with her wide dog grin. This wasn’t a problem yesterday afternoon, though, as she jumped over a canal, got under an electric fence and ran into a cow-filled pasture, directly at a startled jersey cow. She then raced around the pasture, pausing only to snack on cow shit. Alarming and funny, all at the same time.

We went crazy far yesterday.  Got to the campground after 22:00 and pitched tents in the darkness. It was cool, sorta.

Today the weather was really hot. 28°  We got a late start. I was tired and sore. We only went around 50k today, but we spent more time lounging than progressing. It’s the first time that it’s felt like summer in the netherlands. Finally gets here in august. I don’t mind the cooler weather, even if the clouds get me down.

We camped really early tonight. The sun is just now setting and I’m getting very sleepy.

Day 2

The second day out has receeded out of my memory, alas. We camped at a boat harbor.


Day 3

I was running low on batteries, so I texted yesterday’s distance to twitter. If you go to my blog, you can find twitter info in the right column. Today is sunny, so I’m better for power. Also better for biking, so far, we’re booking.

I realized that towing my dog to Denmark is nuts. Oh well.

We’re in geld-something province, having left holland and flavoland.  Holland is actually only two provinces of the netherlands. The most populated ones. Surprisingly, flavoland has rolling hills. Not totally flat. Crazy.

Today: Den Haag to Woerden – 54 km

Not so bad, I think, given the late start. I’m on a mission to photograph every windmill in Holland. My gear setup seems to be working really well.  I’m pretty excited to be going so far, but today mostly covered fami;iar ground. Perhaps, tomorrow I’ll be surprised.

This may be a new hacktastic offline web 2.0 trick. Stay tuned.