Tuesday April 21st, 2015

Biking - Day Three
Den Haag - Bergambacht

Day Three's Ride.

Saying goodbye to the "Biking by Limo" girls after breakfast.

This morning, surprisingly, we all surfaced for breakfast in preparation for our ride to Gouda, "pronounced "howda" as in howda heck are you?"  

That's it???  The Girl With the Pear Earring.

Stevie decided she would be biking by limo and Ellen and Susie joined her to visit the museum in Leiden to see Johannas Vermeer's  "Girl With the Pearl Earring."  So I set off on my bike with the three other couples en route to Gouda, with plans to meet the girls for lunch.  

Babies everywhere ... lambs and birds.

The ride today took us along several dykes and along water controlled canals where spring is definitely in the air.  The area was like a bird sanctuary with Geese, ducks, swans, pheasant, blue herons and many more, all with babies.  The  sheep had little lambs following them as well.  It was so peaceful and serene.  I'm not going to lie to you, though.  The fragrance of the Hyacinth was far superior to the smell of the fertilizer in the fields.  

Coffee Break at AA Zicht

At coffee break time, we stopped at AA Zicht (means Lake View) for coffee and Dutch Apple Pie.  AA Zicht is a beautiful water side restaurant.  Alice says coffee is very traditional for all Dutch people.   After a relaxing break, we set off again to the town of Gouda.

Gouda Town Hall.

Gouda is a another quaint little Dutch town with a beautiful city center.  Right in the center of the square is an incredible town hall that looked like Cinderella's castle.  The square is surrounded by restaurants and shops.  We had no organized lunch today, so

Lunch at Juuls.

I was waiting for the "biking by limo" girls to arrive to meet them for lunch.  They were nowhere to be found, so I called Stevie.  She told me they came, they saw, they went.  They weren't impressed with Gouda so they left and went to today's destination, The Hotel De Arencshoeve, in Bergambacht.  (Which turned out to be a bad choice, as there was nothing there.  Just a small hotel outside of town.)  I digress.  Anyway, I wandered through the town ... all alone and feeling sorry for myself, having been abandoned ...  looking for a nice lunch spot.  I found a place crowded with people - which tells me the food is good - and the name was Juuls.  

Picnic lunch with the crew, Abby, Alice and Sjoerd.

So I figured it had to be good.  I walked in and asked for a table for one.  As I was trying to decipher the menu written in Dutch, I glanced across the room and saw two familiar faces, two of our guides, Abby and Sjoerd 

(pronounced (Sheward).  What a pleasant surprise.  They asked me to join them, we got our sandwiches to go and had a little picnic in the courtyard near our bikes.  Turned out to be a great lunch.

After lunch, we toured Sint Janskerk, or "St. John's Church."  A beautiful church in the city center, renowned for having the largest stained glass windows in the world.  

Mauritius explained the story of the windows.

Our guide, Maurits, was knowledgeable and humorous!  An historian, Maurits has studied the stained glass windows in the church for years and has written books about the stories they tell.  

Painted Glass Windows at St. Johns.

Mauritz was so 

Copper Floors at St. John's Church.

interesting and held our attention for an hour.  He explained how the windows in the church were removed piece at a time, stored in boxes and hidden away at cheese farms during the 2nd world war to protect them.

Painted Glass Windows hidden in boxes.

The church is being renovated and is proud to be known as the first church with copper floors.  They were just finishing up the floors while we were there.

Polder Willow's roots prevent erosion.

Much of Holland is under sea level, so water control is very important.  One of the ways they keep water from eroding the canals is by planting Polder Willows.  

These trees have shallow roots that spread quickly making for great erosion control.  The trees are cut back every other year because the branches knot up.  When they are cut back, they have huge balls on top where new branches emerge.

After the church tour, we peddled on to our next hotel in Bergambacht, where a cheese factory tour, dinner and wine awaited. Today was the longest ride so far, 35 miles.  But I elected to take the additional ride adding another 11 miles to the trek taking us through the town of Schoonhoven and setting a new personal biking distance record of 48 miles.   I was almost run over by a huge tractor that was pulling an even wider trailer down the tiny road.  I'm glad I didn't know exactly how close this call was, because I may not have gotten back on my bike.  Let's just say, some kind of divine intervention kept me from being crushed by those enormous wheels that brushed my elbow!!  

Quick stop to look around Schoonhoven.

We gave Schoonhoven a cursory glance and set off for our hotel in Bergambacht.  Even though this hotel is simply a stopover place en route to our next destination and certainly nothing special, it sure was a sight for sore butts.  The most special thing about this hotel was the gorgeous windmill standing out front, which we will tour tomorrow morning.  We rolled in just in time for the cheese factory tour and had to go in our biking clothes.  I was beyond tired, but not wanting to miss anything ... I went on the tour.

Inked explains the cheese making process.

Jongenhoeve Farm, is a small but well known cheese maker in the area.  The Farmer's wife and head cheese maker, Ineke de Jong, gave us a tour of the farm and shared the inner workings of a cheese factory.  This is a job that NOBODY should ever fear me applying for.  This poor woman has not had a vacation day in years.  365 days a year with no break!!  Ugh!!

Buying Cheese

She gets up in the morning, the cows are milked, the milk goes into a huge vat and the cheese making process begins.  After working to make cheese all day, she also runs a small shop selling her cheese to the public, but most of it is sold commercially.  We bought lots of cheese.  

Inked receives her first 500 Euro.

Susie was trying to pay with a 500 Euro bill.  Ineke had never even seen a 500 Euro.  She wasn't sure she had enough change for Susie, so we just started buying more cheese.  Finally, we bought enough cheese that Ineke could give us change and we were off for dinner at the hotel.

Dinner was great, we were tired and went to bed shortly thereafter.   

Until then, I'm signing off for the night. 

Amsterdam - Sunday, April 19th

This post was our first day of riding.  I managed to write about Monday's ride before this one.  Sorry, I'm out of order. 

Day One Ride.

We're "biked" up and ready.

Finally, the day has arrived.  The bike trip from Amsterdam to Bruges begins today.  We met the Butterfield Robinson staff this morning and loaded up in a bus for the short trip to a tulip farm for a quick tour before getting set up on our bikes.  

Tulips harvested to go to market

The tulip farm was very interesting.  I learned some interesting things about the tulip industry.  Number 1.  There are 1100 different varieties of tulips.   Number two, I couldn't figure out why Tulips were bloomed in the fields.  When I buy them at the flower shop, they are not opened up.  Well, the mystery was solved.  Tulip fields that are  bloomed are being raised ONLY for their bulbs.  The bulbs we buy when we want to plant Tulips in our gardens.  After they bloom, the flowers are cut off and the bulbs are harvested.  The Tulips we buy at the florist are grown only in green houses.  They are harvested before they bloom, packed and sent to auction and shipped to the flower shops within a matter of days. 

Sisters, Karen and Susie

We left the tulip farm on our bikes and rode through Tulip country, where the fields are accented with the colors of fully bloomed Tulips and Hyacinth.  Yellow, red, deep purple, orange, pink.  A rainbow of color.  We also passed fields of Jonquils. The fragrance was lovely.

Front row, Stevie, Julie and Ellen.  Back row, Susie, Susie and Karen at Keukenhof Gardens.

Our next stop was only a few miles away at Keukenhof Gardens.   Never have I seen such beautifully manicured gardens.  Open only 8 weeks out of the year, the gardens are brand new every year.  On May 19th, the gardens close and will be totally dug up.  Then, preparations for the next year's garden begins.  Sponsored by over 100 companies, seven million bulbs are planted by 40 workers across the 75 acre garden.  Because the trees shade the grass and prevent it from thriving, they also re-seed the lawns.  Over 800,000 people visit the gardens during this 8 week period.  Following are a few photos from the gardens.  They don't do it justice, but perhaps you can get an idea of how beautiful it is.

The gardens are stunning.

After the garden tour, we set off to Dever's castle for lunch.  On the way ... "Woman Down!"  Susie was busy sightseeing and didn't see a curb that ran alongside the bike path.  

Soaked and Freezing, Susie saddled up again and we were soon off.

She took a tumble from the bike.  She gets a perfect 10 for her fall, which was well rounded and graceful.  But she got more points for landing in the canal that ran alongside the bike path.   We affectionately refer to this as "Susie's Swan Dive" because she was looking back at a swan made of flowers when she ran into a curb which caused her fall.  This wouldn't be such a bad thing in Florida where it's warm, but it was a chilly morning in Holland and Susie was soaked to the bone with stagnate, dirty canal water.  

Lunch at Dever Castle

Wet, cold and a few scratches later, we arrived at the restored Dever Castle for lunch.

Susie and Mr. Dever

The owner of the castle saw how wet and cold Susie was and immediately went home returning with an orange wind breaker for Susie to wear for the rest of the ride.  For the most part, the Dutch are a friendly, warm hearted people.  It was such a kind thing to do.

Shortly after our group left the gardens, Stevie was held up by a high speed train.  Then a truck dropped a load of bricks in front of her.  As a result, she fell so far behind, she decided to load up in the chase van.  

New Butterfield & Robinson Assistant.

We missed Stevie, but she caught up with us later at lunch and for coffee.  

After lunch, we entered "The Dunes" alongside the sea shore.  The dunes were beautiful with rolling hills through the sandy terrain.  The Dunes were perhaps a little more hilly than we were prepared for, so after we stopped at the Hotel/Restaurant Duinoord for afternoon coffee and tea, Ellen and a still wet Susie decided to take a taxi to the hotel in Den Haag.  I continued on and covered 26.8 miles before reaching the Hotel Des Indes.  Sure was a happy sight.

Ice Packs for the Bruised Girls

After checking in to the hotel, Ellen fell when getting out of the bathtub.  Poor thing is bruised and sore.  Between Susie's canal fall and Ellen's bathtub fall, Stevie and I felt like we were traveling with the walking wounded.  I hope their bruises heal quickly.

That evening, we had a very nice dinner at the hotel when I finally made it back to my room, I was so tired, all I could do was drop into bed.  That's why my blog has been slow getting out.  So sorry.  Tomorrow, we ride to Leiden.  

Biking - Haag to Leiden, Monday, April 20, 2015

The ride through the forest was beautiful.

I am posting Monday's Blog before Sunday's.  Sorry.  I seem to have gotten little ahead of myself.  Definitely check back for Sunday's adventure. 


 After a wonderful breakfast at our fabulous Hotel Des Indes, we set out for our 12 mile ride to Leiden.  Along the way, we traveled through beautiful forests.  Because bricks are so plentiful here and faster and easier to work with than concrete or asphalt, AND because the use of pavers is "traditional," the bike path was made of brick pavers.  Miles and miles of them.  Now I know they look pretty, but they certainly don't make for a nice smooth ride.  These little bike seats are uncomfortable enough without adding the bumpy brick roads.  Just sayin.   Here I am complaining about the uncomfortable bike seat.  Look at this poor guy's!!

Bike Seat??

Along the way, we stopped at Prince Frederik's huge estate, built in 1836.  It's now used as the Wassenaar town hall.  While we were on our cookie break, we met the most delightful lady.  

Robbie, Our Impromptu Tour Guide

Her name is Robbie and at age 80, she was out walking her daughter's dog and struck up a conversation with us.  Her current profession takes her and 5 
of her friends to the hospital of terminally ill children, where they dress as clowns and entertain the children.  This woman had so much spunk, tenacity and wisdom about her!  One of her comments as she was sharing information with us about the history of Wassenaar was incredibly prophetic.  She said, "We must always continue to learn right up to the point of our last breath when we finally breath out."

Bocca Coffee Shop

We arrived in Leiden around 10:30, which is typical Dutch coffee break time.  

Rapenburg Canal, Leiden

So in Dutch fashion, we stopped at Bocca, a small coffee shop located on Leiden's most beautiful canal, Rapenburg Canal and enjoyed our coffee.

Known as the birthplace of Rembrandt in 1606, and the location of the first and oldest University in the Netherlands, Leiden is a charmingly picturesque Dutch town.  Similar 

to Amsterdam, there are many canals here.  

The Rhine River, which flows through Leiden, is home to many large boats that are docked and used as homes.  

Appearing to be fishing boats, these are actually expensive homes on the Rhine.

They look like commercial boats or fishing boats, but are in fact, lovely floating homes.

No way to eat this whole pancake!!

Our lunch today in Leiden was at the Oudt Leyden, a local pancake restaurant.  Not a typical "short stack," the pancakes at Oudt Leyden were thin, but HUGE.  

They are topped with various toppings from the more savory, bacon
 and cheese to sweeter versions of bananas and powdered sugar.  They actually resembled a large pizza using a crepe as a crust.  Delicious and filling, just what we bikers needed to refuel and prepare for the trek back to our hotel in Den Haag.  

Young Rembrandt admiring his self portrait near his birthplace.

Before our ride back to the hotel, we did a city tour visiting Rembrandt's birthplace, and several Alms Homes.  

One of the courtyards of Alms Homes

These homes have been converted to regular apartments for students today, but back in the day, they were quite special.  And free to the poor, mostly women.

The Queen's Residence.  The flag is not flying, which means she is not home now.

Our ride back took us through the estate route, traveling past beautiful homes where high level civil servants, diplomats and ambassadors reside.  

Jenever Tasting

Later, after we returned to Den Haag, the Butterfield and Robinson crew arranged a special Gin tasting.  Jenever, or Dutch Gin, was developed by a renowned chemist and professor at Leiden University in the mid 1600's. 

We are quick studies!!

His recipe reduced the alcohol level of grain gin by adding juniper berries, giving the drink it's distinctive flavor.  It was originally sold as a remedy against muscular pains ... well hello!!  Isn't that what most alcoholic beverages are used for??  Any way, Alice and Abby gave us a lesson in how to drink Jenever.  First, we toast with a rousing salute saying "Proost."  (Pronounced Proast like toast.)  Next pound the glass on the table and finally, drink the whole glass.  We tried three major types of Jenever, Jonge Jenever, which is colorless, Oude Jenever, which tasted like tequila,  and Koorenwijn.  

Robert and Gerard, Proprietors of t'Ogenblik

They also served typical hors d'oeuvres of cheese with mustard dip, Bittr bal, which is a veal ragout mixed with potatoes, coated in bread crumbs and deep fried, also served with a mustard dip.  And finally, "Dutch Sushi," Herring, which was definitely NOT my favorite!  It was a lovely tasting with Robert and Gerard.  They opened their restaurant, t'Ogenblik Brasserie, only three years ago, but already have received several awards for best service and food.  King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima visit the restaurant frequently as well.  

After our Jenever tasting, we had dinner at Les Ombrelles.  The wine was good, the food was good and the company was excellent. The mishaps of Ellen and Susie have traveled throughout the land.  The Hotel Manager, personally called both ladies to check on them, inquiring about their injuries.  You may remember from a previous post, Ellen fell out of the bathtub at the Hotel Des Indes and Susie fell off her bike and into a canal while en route to the hotel.  Thank goodness neither of them were seriously hurt.  But we've certainly shared some laughs over them.

I'm back at the hotel, nestled in my bed and so tired, I can barely hold my eyes open.  Tomorrow is our longest ride of over 30 miles, so I'd better rest up.  More later.

Amsterdam - Saturday, April 18, 2015

Our new hotel

We're changing hotels today within Amsterdam.  Moving from the Waldorf Astoria to The Pulitzer.  Since we depart on our bike trip from The Pulitzer, the Butterfield & Robinson Bike tour  people suggested we stay there.  None of us were happy with the change of venue, but it was for only one night.  How bad can it be?  Right?  Well, turns out ... pretty bad.   The lobby is dark and depressing.  My room was on the top floor and after taking the elevator up, I had to walk through 4 different houses going up and down several flights of stairs, over a roof top, and finally took a turn to the left to find my room beside a hidden staircase that was blocked off with plexiglass.  The room was clean, but well worn.  I couldn't open the bathroom door because the bed was in the way and the noise from the busy canal below was intense.  But other than that, it was ok.   And as I thought of Ann Frank's accommodations just a few doors down, I felt ashamed for all my complaining.

Floating Flower Market

We shopped on the 9 streets today.  We began at the floating flower market where one can buy tulip bulbs for most of the 1100 varieties of tulips in Holland.  

Cannabis Starter Kits

But our guide told us this is not the time of year to buy the bulbs and that they wouldn't do well because they are old.  We needed to buy in the fall.  They also had Cannabis Starter Kits.   Interesting!

From there,  we continued on to the 9 streets, passing cute boutiques and cafes.  But I didn't find a single thing to buy.  Sorry all of you at home waiting for gifts from Holland.  I was going to order cheese for you until I found out it is warehoused in New Jersey and they ship from there.  Kind of took some of the thrill out of buying Dutch cheese for my friends.  

Dam Square Carnival

We found ourselves in the middle of the Dam Square where a carnival was in full swing.  Thousands of people were there weaving in and out of the trams, trains, buses, cars and bike traffic.  It was a hair-raising experience, but necessary to work our way over to de Bijenkorf, the department store, for more shopping.  Sorry y'all.  Still nothing special to buy.

XXX = Water, Fire and Black Plague

All over Holland, we found signs, plaques and flags that carried "XXX."  At first, I thought they were advertising the Red Light District.  But they actually serve as a reminder to the Dutch people of the three disasters that have greatly affected Holland, Water, Fire and The Black Plague.  

One way to get run over.

The longer I'm here, I'm convinced the X's REALLY stand for Trains, Cars and Bikes, the three ways to get run over in Amsterdam!  

The Bar on a Car traveling beer cart.

Oh yes, the peddle beer cart is another easy way to get run over.  Looks to me like they are too busy drinking and peddling to see where they are going!

Happy Hour at The Pulitzer.

After cocktails in the lobby bar, we had a fabulous dinner at L'Invite, where we were served six incredible courses.  After a gracious welcome to the restaurant, the server asked if anyone had food allergies and then he just started bringing out plate after plate of delicious, gourmet food.  Susan and 

Lovely Dinner at L'Invite

Karen didn't join the group tonight as they were just too exhausted.  They sure missed a good one.

We wandered back to the hotel to rest up and prepare for the first day of our big bike ride tomorrow morning.  This is what we came here for folks.  Can't wait.

It just occurred to me that some of you may think this blog is a bit pretentious and boastful.  My friend, Jess told me that when he talked to his buddies about his adventures, they told him they wished he had syphilis.  (That's a little harsh, don't you think???)  At any rate.  I hope you don't feel that I'm bragging.  This is simply a way for me to keep my friends and family informed as to my whereabouts and to let you know I'm still alive and well, and  mostly to let you know that I miss you all terribly and look forward to seeing you again very soon.  So for my critics ... please read something else.  For all the rest of you.  I love you.