Day Eleven: Apeldoorn: (Year 11: 1978)

October 1, 2017

In coming out to Vancouver Island we had a dream of getting at least a ten acre farm and with that to be able to raise animals and provide much of our own food.

Why? We had always enjoyed gardening, and something like this seemed like an obvious option in our society of the time. Students and those who had opposed the Vietnam war had branched out into urban and rural "communes", and we had a general "back to the land" movement. People wanted to return to cooperative and productive "old time" activities after the revulsion of the high tech attack on the agrarian societies of Southeast Asia. We were not deeply a part of any of it, but what we were doing was in tune with the times.

When we got to Vancouver Island we were rudely awakened to the fact that unlike near Winnipeg, that had hundreds of acres available cheaply, the best we could afford near Victoria was 3 acres, and that at triple the amount of money we actually had. So we downgraded our expectations, took out a huge mortgage, started counting pennies, and got on with it.

As soon as we could we bought a small farm, in Metchosin - near Victoria. This is where we intended to raise our family. The kids had life changing events like their pigs turning up at school. And that goat had a great romp in a neighbour's strawberries, chased by a pregnant Dodie.

Stan Rogers, a great Canadian folk singer, was one of our favourites. And "Watching the Apples Grow" was what we too were doing:

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Whether breakfast is included or not at a hotel is a bit of a shell game. Where we are now, a room is about 78 euros (it's a four star - the worst we could find on short notice!). That is without breakfast. You want breakfast? No problem, 14 euros x2. You want breakfast included? No problem, the room costs 78+28=116. Happy now?

Strangely, we are happy, because even though 14 euros is a big pile of money, the breakfast included most conceivable breakfast foods. For example, have a look at the cold cuts:

Just a part of the great breakfast selection.

They would also make you an omelette, and they had bacon, boiled eggs, lots of cheese types, fruits, yogurts, etc. etc.

Not that we need a power breakfast, until we start cycling again. Or actually, Dodie does need nutritious foods to make bodily repairs.

Since we landed here by taxi, I felt very disoriented and spent some time looking at Google maps to understand where we are in relation to the city. Then I headed out for a look at it. (Dodie is not up to walking yet).

First thing out of the hotel I crossed the street, and saw a moving car. That produced a familiar feeling of irrational fear, drawing on the last time we had a run in with a moving vehicle. But strangely this time a second emotion popped up and overcame the first one. I thought - if Dodie can get hit by one of these things and just fly gracefully over the top, it probably can't really hurt me either. Totally irrational - but it worked to send me happily off into the city.

Apeldoorn is just a medium sized place, and I could walk from the outskirts to the centre in about 30 minutes. My real objective was the bike shop, just to have a look at it. Everything here is shut tight today, Sunday, and the bike shops will also be closed tomorrow. The shop looked great, and will surely have something for Dodie. There was also a bakery next door!

The stores in the vicinity of the bike shop, in fact most of the stores in the town, are in free standing, cute, small buildings. It's all totally low key.

My major landmark for the stroll was the Grote Kerk, or great church. There are Grote Kerks all over the country, but this is Apeldoorn's version. It's cool, because it is tall, but inside - totally boring. I think Martin Luther took all the fun out of the religion. These guys need a few pink cherubs to liven things up!

The road back to the hotel, which is called Loolan, looks sort of like someplace in Vermont - leafy, with old and staid houses. I almost found an open café too, but no, not until after noon.

So that was my big effort to burn off 14 euros of breakfast. Tomorrow when our bikes come back from the country I will be able to have a deeper look at the town.

The worst hotel we could find on short notice! Now that we are stuck here, we are kind of glad for all the space and services.

A shopping street in Apeldoorn, but not downtown quite.

The bike shop we are pinning our hopes on.

Inside the church - not much excitement.

A father and little one cycle away from church. Kids ride two wheelers very early here.

One other trip today was taken with the little orange man from Google (Street View). We went out to the accident scene, trying to understand why Dodie had not seen the car coming. It turned out to be obvious. The road curves a medium distance beyond where our bike path crosses it, and bushes obscure what might be around the curve. When Dodie looked down that way there was no car, and she started off. But the car whipped around the corner at speed and arrived faster than she could clear the intersection. The distance to the curve should have provided a safe enough view, except for the car speed and the wet conditions. That's our story, anyway.

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