Cycling

Amsterdam’s Schipol airport is big. Really big. In regard to passenger volume and number of flights, it’s Europe’s 5th busiest airport and the world’s 3rd largest for international passenger traffic. Schipol handled 47.8 million passengers in 2007 and has enough room for 188 planes at any one time. With its 6 runways and dozens of colossal hangers around the outer limits, it sits on a massive piece of land.

There is really only one way to get a true sense of how large the Schipol airport complex is; cycle around the perimeter. It’s only 9km from my apartment to the edge of the airport so it took me no time at all to get there. However, to cycle all the way around and end up back in the same place again, I had to cycle another 24 km! So I started heading around the massive 6 square kilometre chunk of land. And to be fair, that wasn’t even the whole complex, I cut off a section on the west side where the 5th runway sits a whole 5 km away from the control tower. A road slices through this part of the airport with a bridge for the airplanes to access this disjointed and seldomly used peripheral runway.

I travelled through towns and neighbourhoods with odd names like Aalsmeerderbrug, Hoofddorp and Badhoevedorp. Dorp, as it turns out, is Dutch for village. There were times when I lost sight of the airport behind the buildings of these towns, which seems impossible considering the sheer size. The control tower alone is 100 metres high, equivalent to a 30 storey building.

I knew that I would be OK as long as I could see the airport between the buildings and it always remained on my right side. After clearing the villages and series of administrative and airline services buildings on the east and south sides, the landscape became more rural and agricultural as I traversed the west side. At the northwest corner was a small field with dozens of people. They were sitting right under the flight path for landing planes at the edge of a small canal that acts as a moat to keep people like us off the runway. The majority of these people sported expensive cameras and tripods, frantically clicking away each time a plane came in to land. And there was one coming every 2-3 minutes. I stopped to watch as well, transfixed on the massive machines as they grazed our heads and created a white cloud on the tarmac when their wheels touched down. Isaac would have been in heaven!

I was really excited about bringing my bike over, but was not overly looking forward to constantly riding on flat ground. I am used to real hills and mountains even. One of my favourite rides was to go up Grouse Mountain to the base of the gondola. The last 1.6 km from the Cleveland Dam to the Grouse Mountain parking lot was gruelling at best. With every rotation of the pedals, I would gradually move one foot. If I paused for even a moment, I would start to roll backward.

At the top I had such a feeling of accomplishment and the exhilaration of knowing I had earned the reward of the ride back down. I would pedal as fast as I could in my hardest gear as I gained momentum. In a very short amount of time the pedals were going around as if I were on the easiest gear as I reached awe-inspiring speeds. In 2007 I topped out at 78.9 km/hr which was the fastest I have ever travelled on my bike. The feeling of flying down that hill was as exhilarating as anything else I have done. In a word; breathtaking.

Here, in Holland, there is no chance of breaking any of my top speeds. But I have found riding enjoyment in other ways. I can start out on a path or country road and a half hour later I am still going on the same road, in the same direction and at the same speed. There is no variance in the geography so I can really get into the zone and become one with the bike.

This past weekend Nina and I spent apart as she had a wedding to attend and it was her grandmother’s birthday and I had to work at the cruise ship terminal. I had Sunday completely free so in the morning I grabbed my Bill Bryson book (Notes from a Small Island) and headed to Wilhelmina’s. Nina and discovered this café ages ago one a Sunday walk and have now made it a bit of a tradition. It’s a solid half hour walk from my apartment so when we get there we indulge in one of their decadent cakes and wicked cappuccinos. We had also been there for breakfast and I was far more impressed than Nina. So as I was alone, I took the opportunity to enjoy their eggs and bacon. Of course, I could have stayed home and made it myself, it is a fairly simple recipe, but it always seems to taste better when served by someone else in a café or restaurant. It was a pleasant day, the drizzle had stopped and the temperature was comfortable, so I sat outside under an awning and enjoyed my book in relative quiet. I was occasionally accompanied by the café’s cat who seemed more interested in my breakfast than in me.

In the afternoon I jumped on my bike and headed back out the airport to watch the plans land. Of course, this time I had camera in hand and retraced some of the area I had covered on my previous ride.

As we are planning to head to Leicester at the end of this week, I had done my research on agents and had made a shortlist last week. Most of them advised calling back a day or two before arriving with specific properties off their website I was interested in viewing. So yesterday I spent a solid 3+ hours on the Internet researching properties and calling to arrange viewing appointments with agents. It was going really well when one agent, almost as a side note, mentioned the credit requirements. It turned out it was common to require a tenant to have a reference from a UK landlord (minimum 6 month term) and well as a UK employer. I told her it was fine as we had a guarantor (Nina’s father had offered). Not good enough, the agents were only interested in guarantors who resided in the UK. My stomach sank. I called back all the previous agents who I had arranged appointments with and asked about their credit requirements. As if it were rehearsed, they reiterated the same information one after the next.

I was not so much annoyed by their system as by the individuals. When I called them up I told them we were moving to the UK from mainland Europe and also mentioned that we were new to this process. You would think, perhaps, it might have dawned on them that we would not successfully make it through their vetting process.

I was pissed off and frustrated. I found that only one of the agents I had called would still deal with us, but I am now a little concerned that he may not be the most reputable if he isn’t following all the same standards as his competition.

I put it all aside and decided I would come back to it today to sift through the rest of the agents hoping to find a few more with less-than-stringent requirements.

Besides, I had something in mind for the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot, but comfortable. Before leaving for Vancouver I had visited Zandvoort aan Zee, a lovely seaside community on the western shore of the North Sea. It’s a fair distance from Amsterdam, past Haarlem to the coast. But when I arrived back here with my bike I made it a personal goal to ride out there one day. Now, a month to the day since arriving back, I made the long trek. I mapped it out on Google maps and discovered it was 28 km each way and I am happy to report it took me 1 hour each direction. This means my average speed was consistent with what I was riding when I first hopped back on my bike, but now I am able to keep it up over larger distances. Of course, that is not factoring in the 20 minute break I took at the beach to enjoy a scrumptious ice cream while staring at the ocean.

While riding, my mind wandered to Vancouver. During the last turnaround at the cruise ship terminal I met a lovely couple from Vancouver and they mentioned the Grouse Grind. I thought back to the summers of 2005 & 2006 when I was actively doing the Grind. It was a great workout, probably one of the best. And I got a great feeling of satisfaction from being in the top percentile, time wise, for ascending that gruelling staircase from hell! I would walk around the rest of day on such a natural high. But actually doing the Grind itself was awful. I hated it. I would actually get butterflies in my stomach as I approached the mountain because I knew the hellish 30 minutes ahead of me would be brutal. In stark contrast, after riding I feel great. Sure, I am tired, but my body feels good and I enjoy the process. This ride, to the coast, was shaping up to be one of my better rides in recent memory. That is, until the accident.

On my final stretch, perhaps 20 minutes before arriving back home; I was on the long straight stretch of the bike path that parallels the highway. On one side of me was the barrier segregating us from the speeding cars and on the other side was a canal and farmland. I was racing against the clock and very much aware that I was on track to make it home in 1 hour flat. I was staring at the road ahead of me, deeply focused. But even in this state, your peripheral vision still picks up on things beyond your focal point. This is what happened to me; 150 metres or so ahead, I saw someone on a moped coming toward me. I hadn’t noticed him consciously until his bike started to wobble and crash, sending the man flying to the pavement. Now, of course, I was focused directly on him, lying in a heap on the pavement and not moving.

I rode up to him and stopped. He was twisted on the ground with a deep bleeding gash on his helmetless head. His eyes were half open but not blinking and he was still. Completely. His chest wasn’t moving either. I started talking to him, but he was non-responsive and of course, I feared the worst. A moment later another man of a moped stopped and I asked him if he had a mobile phone (I am still not in the habit of taking my work phone with me) and luckily he did and immediately called the paramedics. Another cyclist arrived and he went to the neighbouring house to get the address, which was nothing shy of good luck. Out here, the farms are spaced out by up to ¼ kilometre.

The man on the ground took a deep breath which set my mind at ease, but he was still not responding at all. He had a vacant look on his face and slowly started to blink. More cyclists arrived and over the space of the next couple of minutes the man actually sat up, against my advice as he may have had a spinal injury. I didn’t remember a lot from my first aid courses, but I knew you are not supposed to move someone who could have fractured their spine. I saw him fall and he went head first into the pavement. The fact that he was able to move and appeared not to have any obvious broken bones was sheer luck. He became aware and was able to speak and tell us his name.

I was the first person on the scene, but I hadn’t really seen anything of relevance, like why he fell. The people at the house said they would look after him and the ambulance was on the way. A few others seemed to know some first aid, so I stood aside as I had little to offer.

Before shipping my bike to Amsterdam I bought a new helmet and religiously wear when it when I go for these rides. Seeing this accident made me realize the difference it can make. My guess is that this man’s injury’s would have been much less severe (no gaping gash on his head) if he had been wearing a helmet.

So, on these helmeted rides I have been taking, I have started to bring my camera more often as I keep arriving in areas I had not been before. Recently I have seen some of the more modern architecture Amsterdam offers. I have come across a few buildings now where the architects like to have expanses of unsupported sections on new apartment buildings. I don’t get it. Who would want to live in an apartment that appears to not be supported? I have full faith in the design and recognize it is a bit of an illusion. Of course the buildings must be secure, but I would not feel safe in those apartments. Kudos to the architects and engineers, but it’s a wonder these suits are not standing empty. In the second picture the section that appears to be unsupported spans 12 apartments in length. Strangely, they don’t appear to be vacant.

Amsterdam has had a far better summer this year than last. The temperatures have been in the low twenties, which is comfortable, especially compared to the heat wave BC has been experiencing. A few times I have woken up early and have witnessed breathtaking sunrises out my living room window. Then in the evening, from my bedroom window I have seen some splendid sunsets. This is what I will miss when I leave this city; the sun rising and setting over this charming city.

It is dawning on me that I have just over 3 more weeks here. It’s funny how things have changed so much. In 2007 when I came for a visit I hated it here, I couldn’t leave fast enough and fled to Rotterdam to escape Amsterdam. I moved here, hoping I would change my mind, and that is exactly what happened. What was supposed to be a 9 month stay has evolved into almost 1 ½ years. And even now, I keep discovering new quirky elements of the city.

The main road that leads from my apartment into the centre of the city crosses a fairly busy canal. Frequently throughout the day the bridge raises and I got caught at it this afternoon on my way to the office. However, this time it was a little different. As I approached the bridge I could hear strange music. I stopped and waited with the other cyclists and realized they had installed speakers on the underside of the bridge and when it rose, they played music. It was nonsensical vocal chanting set to new age music with odd sounds interspersed with what sounded like long groans. It almost sounded like the bridge was complaining about having to hold up its weight. As the deck lowered the music evolved into strange sound effects really driving home the illusion that the bridge was in fact trying to communicate with us. As it completed its descent the music faded out. The barriers lifted and everyone resumed their travels. This is one of the many reasons why I love Amsterdam.

Today I found some new resources for our house hunting and secured some more appointments. We leave first thing tomorrow morning and have 7 scheduled viewings with 2 more tentative appointments. We have also been informed of some locations throughout the city that are popular for posting notices and will continue to monitor a few websites that get updated daily. After yesterday, I am feeling a lot more optimistic about this weekend.