The Last Day of Our First Tour

Well the cycling for our first tour is now over. The days and kilometers have wizzed by. Perhaps today was the best of them all. The hotel we are in is by far the best, part of the Golden Tulip chain, called the Hotel Tjaarda. It is a little outside of the town of Heerenveen, situated in a forest. Yesterday as we cycled in , the houses were magnificent, reminiscent of Shaughnessy , although not quite as oppulant (we are in Holland after all!).

Yesterday we did have some guiding malfunction. Mike was in the lead and we had manoeuvered some early tight turns. This tour is superior to last year as all are given printed instructions for turns and mileages. You need a guide as some of the sign posts are subtle or non existent. Most of the routes are numbered so the maps we have bought are an excellent complement. For the mathematically inclined it is even more entertaining to mentally predict the time of our next major destination or turn. Our hosts are very safety conscious, the van meets us every few Km , just in case there are equipment or other issues. They communicate with walkie talkies, there are times when one would think we were on military exercises.

Mike

Mike is a Bostonian, trained as a physcology counsellor who worked in the school system, his wife Bertha , was married to an Astro Physicist, who was (is) on staff at MIT. They clearly have a loving relationship, however at times the organization chart gets blurred and initially it was not completely evident that Bertha was in charge! Mike affectionately calls her the "Duchess", and he is quite playful with their interaction.

We had just gone under an underpass and made a sharp right hand turn and were heading north, I knew we were going in the wrong direction, but as I was at the end of the pack I just kept following.

After a Km, Mike realized we were directionally challenged and backtracked. After group consultation we headed down a very subtle turn off, and after 2 Km, the Van Gogh van was there with

The Duchess

with Bertha clearly unhappy with Mike. In Mike's defence the instructions were not clear, in Bertha's opinion yes they were! This went back and forth with Mike finally saying ," You are so Dutch, you are always right and have to have the last word!"

The interchange was so natural, I certainly was not uncomfortable, I was vicariously entertained and reassured they really did not have many secrets! They are good people.



Todays trip was substantial, 56 Km. It was along quaint paths, shaded nicely; thankfully as it was very sunny and warm. The pace as always comfortable, the Duchess travels at 20 km per hour, Mike likes about 18 or so. Everyone has kept up and all have gotten stronger as the week has progressed.

This part of Holland has fewer canals, the unending fields of corn or livestock is unchanged.

Galloway Cows

We had some interesting interactions today. This lady cycled up behind us as we were photographing the Galloway cows pictured. She was talking in Dutch, and we thought she was addressing her husband who was slightly ahead, she and  switched to English and asked what was wrong with us as we were not talking to her! She was about 60, wearing a white transparent dress with underwear clearly visible. She spouted on for a while until Allan, a New York lawyer had had enough and countered with his observations of the Dutch not being too conversant! It was an International incident in the making !

She however backtracked, turned on her polite personality and bade us farewell.

I suspect she was on a day pass!

This image is of Mandela, in the middle of nowhere, on a bike path not far from the hotel. The carver was a clear fan of his and felt he had to make a monument!

Mandela Tribute

Future Olympian Skating in rural Holland

This last scene was taken with a 94 year old man in a scooter watching us. Deborah was missing her meals on wheels interactions and chatted with the chap. A little sad really as he had relatives all over the world, he was born in Holland but worked in South Africa most of his life, his hearing aid was broken and he was clearly lonely. I hope in some way we made his day better.

The Crew

Tonight is our last dinner with the group, we train to the airport to pick up the barge tour from Bruges to Amsterdam