Some days of fun in Holland

After a 5 am arrival at Wytze’s house in Holland, we slept well and took the morning off. In the afternoon, we didn’t do much more than some shopping, walking the dog and I wrote a blog post. Well, Andrew baked an awesome apple pie and Wytze made lasagna for dinner, so good! After dinner we watched a movie I had been wondering about for years, Tom Waits in “Down by Law”. It was funny for us that we watched it with Italian subtitles which meant that for the Italian dialog there were no subtitles! I loved this interesting/weird film.

The next day, we headed to Amsterdam to be tourists. We parked at Wytze’s son’s apartment and walked quite a bit through the city, arriving at the famous Rijksmuseum at our ticket time, 11:30. We checked out the 1600’s floor, seeing lots of Rembrandts although maybe the most famous one, The Night Watch, is still being studied (Operation Night Watch) and is visible but not at close range like all the other masterpieces. We also checked out the Special Collections area with ship models, old guns, etc.

We left before we could get tired and had some lunch at a café. Then we reserved spots on a canal cruise boat – not one of the big covered ones I had ridden on before, but a small open-air boat. When the time came we joined four others and had a nice one hour cruise in the electric boat with commentary from the captain who was from Suriname. Amsterdam is great from the water. By the end of the cruise the sun was even poking out a little, for the first time since Bari.

As we walked through the city, it was fun seeing how many electric cars there were. Other than Teslas and VWs, most models here are different than at home. There are lots of really small ones and I saw a large delivery van too. Lots of charging stations were in use. On the drive in to Amsterdam we saw a huge BYD dealership.

We tried a New England (hazy) IPA at a classic old pub called De Ysbreeker (The Ice-breaker). Great atmosphere and I somehow acquired a souvenir glass. We walked back, drove home and had a nice dinner, followed by another James Bond movie. We watched “Diamonds are Forever”, again having been that day to the exact place James Bond walked (in this case Sean Connery).

The next day we shopped for the Andes Trail party in the morning, then cleaned up the house and did laundry while Wytze took care of some business. The weather had changed from gray to clear, bright and sunny. We had lunch when Wytze returned then went out for a bike ride. The three of us did about 65 km, a mix of gravel and paved roads with some dirt single track. We stopped at a cyclist’s café for drinks, then headed home. Right as we rode through the back field and arrived, who should drive up but Miranda! We started the party with her, then other Andes Trail veterans arrived. Cees could stay only for a little while. Ype, Bastiaan and Jan arrived, and Bart from nearby. The bond we all share from that crazy trip five years ago is strong and amazing. Conversation flowed along with fantastic wines (thanks Bart!) and delicious foods thanks to many. It was past midnight when we went to bed.

The next day, Friday, was my last full day of the trip. We had breakfast and said good-bye to Andrew, off to Germany to visit friends. Jan left as well, but Ype decided to stay and went on another great gravel ride with Wytze, Joke and me. It was another sunny bright day, kind of cool but warm in the sun. We rode to Manuel’s café and had apple cake and tea. Then back home along forest trails and small roads, a little over 50 km. After beers and snacks, we did some work on bikes, for me it was just boxing mine up for the flight. Then Wytze convinced Ype to stay over again and pulled together an amazing four course dinner. Even with severe competition, the dessert was one of the best of the trip! Simple fruit with ice-cream and chocolate. We had a real treat later in the evening – we watched an amazing movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. If you haven’t seen it, watch it.