The best thing about my hotel in Nunspeet: The animals next door

A typical city section of bike path in Ermelo

A typical country section of bike path between Ermelo and Putten
The city image is blurred by the bumpy brick path

It started raining about 10:30 and rained for about two and a half hours. After that it it cleared up and then light rain started again at about 4 PM. I put away my camera at 10:30 and never took it out again. The rain, as well the lack of anything special to photograph (I should have taken a picture of the Ferraris!), meant that I didn't even think about using it again.

In Nijkerk, where it was raining pretty heavily, I stopped at a bakery that already had eight or ten tourist's bikes around it. I was laughing about the folks sheltering from the weather as I pulled up, and several of them spoke with me. This evening, in Hilversum, I met some of the same folks. I also visited with a Dutch tourist on a recumbent on the road. I've seen a few with a very laid back riding position - almost horizontal, and under seat steering. I asked him where it was made - in Holland - and we talked, among other things, about how well suited Holland was for recumbents. Where hills are almost non-existent and wind is alway a a factor, a recumbent works well. His also had both front and rear suspension, a good idea on these bumpy bike paths! As in Germany, the paths are pretty good between cities, but bumpy in most citites and towns.

Speaking of bikes, I just heard a train going by and that reminded me of the bike parking lot at the train station only two blocks from me. It had at least 1,000 bicycles parked in it! And this is not an especially large town, I'd guess 30 to 40 thousand people live here. I saw similarly large bike lots in several other towns today. Lots of folks are riding their bikes to the station and then taking the train to work in the bigger cities. I also saw lots of utility riders in the towns. Since it rains a lot here, folks, all kinds of folks from kids to little old ladies, ride their bikes rain or shine.

I stopped for lunch in Amersfoort at Subway. I couldn't resist the chance to eat at a Subway and it was in a building where I could park my bike out of the rain. It was good, if a bit expensive. McDs prices are pretty close to the same as in the US, but the two Subway I've visited had higher than US prices. Shortly after I left the Subway, I ran out of bike path, so I headed over into the old part of town looking for a way to Utrecht. I wandered around a bit and finally found an open Bike Shop where I asked for help. Since the were busy and I was in no hurry, I browsed their stock and, if they took Visa, I would have bought some new bike shorts. The ones I have with me have just about had it. The pads are fine, but the fabric is decomposing. I think this is a UV exposure problem and it has affected all of the shorts I've bought in the last two or three years. I have some older shorts which don't have the problem despite lots of use. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to try some Dutch shorts, but the shop didn't do credit cards so I couldn't buy the shorts. Come to think of it, UV resistance would not be a really important feature for shorts worn here!

The shop did provide me with detailed instructions as well as printed maps so that I could ride either through Utrecht or more or less straight west. I had the time and I would have like to have routed through Utrecht, but the bike route to Utrecht disappeared, so I choose to follow the other route. even on that route I had back track a bit to find the route and, in at least one case, it took me several extra miles which, on the road, I could have easily avoided. at the shop I talked with the fellow who was helping me about the problems I had with the bike routes. Both he and the owner were amazed that I would ride on roads. He claimed to have been hit too many times on roads in other countries, including France, but conceded that that had only happened while riding in big cities. I agreed that riding in big cities in any country was likely to be much more dangerous than riding in rural areas on in small towns, and he agreed.

Tomorrow will be my last riding on bike paths in Holland. I plan to ride to Uithoor in the morning - it is a tourist town with "authentic folk" and all that sort of thing, then into Amsterdam for the afternoon, and then to the Airport. I will probably spend the night at a very overpriced airport hotel room since I expect to have to check it at about 5:30 on Monday morning. The weather forecast is good for tomorrow - the guy at the bike store in Amersfoort said the recent pattern was rain every other day - and I'm looking forward to being a tourist.