|
Frithjof Sharon's sister, Faye, had sent some mail along with our new Mastercard. There was a picture of Janna, our newest niece, with a note from Annette extolling the wonders of parenthood -- Janna kept them up all night but then gave that toothless grin and melted their hearts. We enjoyed breakfast so much the day before we had a repeat performance (minus the Snicker's bar). We told Bob and Amy how many cyclists we had seen in the dunes the prior weekend. I had counted fifty-nine pass in one group with another bunch of thirty close behind. "Gee, there's a lot of them when they all go out," I had said to Sharon. Amy laughed and said, "Last weekend was National Bike Day. It happens one day a year and you were smack in the middle of it." Frithjof phoned and said he would give us a tour of Utrecht. Bob gave us a map with directions to Frithjof's. Frithjof lived within a five minute walk of downtown Utrecht in a house rented from a friend who was backpacking around the world. "After talking with you and Sharon last night about there not being a good time to go travelling," Frithjof said, "I've finally made up my mind to go to Germany. I'm leaving in five weeks. I have a job for two more weeks during the day and the computer course I teach at Bob's company will be finished by then." I had no idea we inspired others to action. Our tour began. Lining the canal there were old buildings under the main street. In the old days they used the canal to deliver goods to the various merchants. Above each door was a unique carving depicting what the business had been. We circled the perimeter of a large church. Inside the gates were gardens. The roof line was composed of many odd angles and pitches. Frithjof said it was a very strong church having been built over an area where three power lines intersected in the earth. I noticed a bicycle locked to the fence had become permanent art -- bent in half by some body builder. Frithjof told us students in Amsterdam lost an average of three bikes a year to thieves. And that was when they were chained with two or three locks. He simply added the cost of three bikes to his tuition each year. After a quick tea at Frithjof's he had to leave to teach his computer night course in A*, a new town in Flevoland. "* was started from scratch a few years ago giving modern city designers a perfect opportunity to try new concepts," Frithjof told us. "What's different about it?" I asked with interest. "Not much," Frithjof replied, "except it's growing so quickly maps are constantly out of date." Sharon and I followed a canal out of town. We thought it would be easy, but it wasn't -- the canals were concentric. Eventually we crossed a bridge and got out into the countryside with the herds of Jersey cows. Many people were out rowing, walking or fishing. We crossed the Lek river on a ferry and headed to Streefkerk, the town where we had visited our first bank in Holland. Too bad they were closed because I would have liked to have shown them my Mastercard with its shiny new expiry date. A few kilometers farther we were back to the same camping spot we stayed at our first night after Walter's. Holland had so few places to camp we had to start reusing the ones we knew! |
|
|
Book Info