Freedom on two wheels

Now that I have a bike, the greatest distance I walk is from my bedroom to the front door of my apartment building where my bike is parked. Every day I head out for a ride and it has enabled me to see parts of the city I would have had to use the metro to get to previously. When I look out the living room window to the South East, I can see the Ajax Biljer Arena on the horizon. I have gone by it on the train before, but I have never stopped to see it up close. So I rode out to it, which was an adventure as my map stopped a few kilometres before arriving at the arena. However, with a large building looming ahead, the map couldn’t tell me anything my eyes didn’t already see for themselves. Directions: head toward the large stadium in front of me. It took me 45 minutes each way and allowed me to explore the farthest reaches of the city, so far.

The network of bike paths in Amsterdam (and across the rest of the country) takes a certain level of danger out of the biking experience. Here they have the good sense to recognize that a bike is not a car, so it doesn’t belong on the roads. A bike is also not akin to a pedestrian; therefore they have no business on the sidewalks. Somewhere in between lies the red pavement reserved solely for bikes and scooters. Sometimes the bike paths are similar to Vancouver; a small lane between the parking and right hand driving lane. But most of the time they are on the same level as the sidewalks with a brick divider clearly marking their status. To clarify road issues even more, major intersections have traffic lights for the cars, bikes and pedestrians. Separate ones for each group to limit any chance of confusion. Because the bikes are recognized as a separate class of transportation, there is a mutual respect between the cars and bikes. In fact, the bikes are the king of the road and cars yield to them. Pedestrians sometimes wander onto the bike path. With a little ring of the bell the pedestrians jump out of the way. As they should, bikes don’t slow down for stray ‘walkers’ on the red pavement.

I read an interesting comment in an English language newspaper from a tourist visiting Amsterdam: "I think helmets should be mandatory here... not for the cyclists, but for the pedestrians!"

Amsterdam is a flat city, so many bikes don't have gears at all. My bike generously offers me 3 gears which helps a lot because I like to ride briskly. I am certainly a faster rider than the average Dutch person and it was a good idea I bought a decent bell on my bike's first day with me. It has been used extensively and it's only been a week. A little courtesy ring as I pass another cyclist, an angry ring to warn strays that I will not slow down for them walking along MY bike path, a warning ring to let a car know I am going through the intersection and he should wait to turn right. I never thought I'd see the day (or find the place) where bikes rule the road.

So if there was any wonder why I didn't write a blog entry last week, that's why... I was out riding through the city. In fact, work and riding pretty much took up my whole week. Well, that and the enjoyment I took from walking around my apartment naked. Both my roommates were away last week and I must admit I did enjoy the peace and quiet. But don't read anything into that, I like them both and although there are a few issues here and there, I think I will enjoy living with them for the rest of the year.

To the left is a picture of one of the locks where the canal\ meets the river Ij. On the bridge is a herring stand called Stubbe Haring. It's just West of Centraal Station and I have a feeling that is Dad's favourite herring stand in Amsterdam.








Around the corner from Dad's herring stand sits a small church. In the shadow of the church is an old house, now used as a restaurant. In one of my earliest posts I mentioned how a lot of the buildings have settled due to the high amount of liquid in the soil. this building sags and droops more than any other I have come across. In fact, it astounds me that it is still used. The pictures don't really do it justice. However, on the second picture (the side view) if you look at the windows in comparison to the doorway you can see what I am talking about. Also, on the same picture, look at the front of the house especially around the corner. There you can see how it sags quite a bit.

This past weekend it was my turn to head to Germany to visit Nina.
Friday night we headed into Aachen to visit with a group of her friends and have some dinner and drinks. The highlight of the evening was the train ride home. To the left is a picture of the regional trains that run from Herzogenrath to Aachen and other small towns in the region. The train is 2 cars in length with a driving cockpit at both ends. Nina and I sat in the row of seats directly behind the cockpit and the engineer had left the door open allowing us a full view of his controls. I urged Nina to ask him some questions about the operation of the train and he invited us into the cockpit for the duration of the ride. It was fascinating how high tech these little commuter trains are. He had a couple of computer screens that gave him all the information he could want through digital readouts. The train feels like it goes at a fair speed, but we were surprised to see the speedometer tipping past 110km/h on the straight sections of track.

This weekend there was a festival in Herzogenrath. The main road of the town goes by Nina's door step and a block away is the small square where the Thursday market sets up. This weekend the whole town was closed off with 5 streets full of stages with life music, food and beer stands and merchandise for sale. At the top of the hill sits a small castle (which we received a tour of last summer). I do mean small too, it would be dwarfed by some of the houses along SW Marine Drive in Vancouver. At the castle they had just completed building a permanent outdoor stage and seating area and it was officially opening for this event. On it was a medieval band playing music that resembled Scottish Highland music. All around were tents with blacksmiths, jewelry makers and even artisan bread makers who had lugged their wood-burning ovens with them. We bought some sweet cinnamon bread from one of them and it tasted like a heavenly cinnamon bun, still warm from the oven. Our favourite stall was a wine merchant with 20 different wines, all made from various berries. He urged us to have a sample (we didn't put up too much of a fuss) so we tried the black current wine which was very nice. It was almost like a desert wine.

With the exception of uninspired food in Aachen on Friday night, it was a good eating weekend. Nina decided to bake a cream cheese cake on Saturday which was really nice. Saturday night we went for dinner at our favourite Italian restaurant in Herzogenrath. I had rack of lamb in a port sauce which hit the spot! Sunday night we had a BBQ with Nina's parent's on their roof deck. Her dad BBQ'd a decent selection of pork and beef steaks, sausages, bell peppers and zucchini. The beef steak was definitely the best beef I have had since arriving in Europe 2 months ago.

Now it's Monday afternoon and I am back in Amsterdam. Tomorrow I have a job interview in the early afternoon and I start another new job in the late afternoon! I am still working for Stefan doing the technical editing, however I have become a little tired of the inconsistency in the amount of work. So I answered an add last week at a sandwich and cappuccino shop. I got along well with the manager and decided to go in tomorrow afternoon to see how I like it. It's basic work, but it will give me some social interaction which I am sorely missing working from home. It's on a busy downtown street in a tourist oriented part of town, so it should be busy. I am just hoping it will keep my interest and not bore me to tears.