Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Tikits naar het land van fietsers

Returning to the Netherlands -- where bikes really do have the right of way! -- for two weeks of cycling this summer.

Last trip, in 2010, was a 6-week unstructured odyssey exploring a few of the many thousands of kilometers of bicycle paths in the Netherlands.  Primary bike was my trusty Bike Friday 'Tikit', a folding bike used mainly for commuting.  Turned out to be a terrific bike for lightly loaded touring.

The Tikit and I are a couple years older, with a few more scratches, nicks and dings -- but eager to get back on the path where we left off in 2010 (Nijmegen) and ride another stretch of the LF3 cycle route.

Katie will be riding with me this time, on a Tikit of her own -- shiny and still nearly new after a few hundred miles riding cycle paths along the San Francisco Bay.

We'll break the trip into two parts.  First, a week of bike/barge cycling with others, then a week of cycling on our own.

'Barge' is misleading -- Anna Antal is really a converted canal boat, shared with a handful of other cyclists.  Leave boat in the morning... cycle all day... meet boat in the evening... eat / sleep / ride / repeat.  What a life! 

A week into the trip we'll pick up our own bikes from storage at the airport, and head off on a series of rides, mostly along the LF3, from near Nijmegen to somewhere past Zwolle... in the best spirit of "Footloose Fietser(ing)", the exact details are TBD.

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you are back on the bikes in the Netherlands and biking with your sweetheart is even better. You will be like newlyweds on the canal and young marrieds on the paths. Eat well, laugh often, drink good wine, have amazing conversations and blog often.

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  2. Hi Katrina! Thank you, and love the thought... though Katie points out that at my age and after a long day of biking, pillow talk is likely to revolve around "Hey darling, pass me the Advil!"

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  3. We can relate to that pillow talk.

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