Day Nine: Echtenerbrug to Zwolle: (Year 9: 1976)

September 29, 2017

Our family continued to grow with the arrival of Jeremy. The little kid was lucky to have two older sisters to love and watch him. With think that more kids may also be easier on parents, since they tend to watch and entertain each other.

Jeremy came early in the year making it automatically one of the most joyous for our family. We lived in Winnipeg then so it must have also been one of the chilliest.

We chose the name Jeremy not for any inherent reason but just because we liked it. The 1973 song "Zachary and Jennifer" by John Denver expresses our feeling then (and now) about having children.

I remember always having a general interest in bicycles, and somehow this evolved into owning a very fast French model, made by the no longer existing company Jeunet. But I am not sure what propelled me, in a year with a newborn on board, to set off of the first know Grampie long distance ride - Seattle to Victoria to Kamloops to Jasper. At 1000 km this was not long by our current standards, but for that day and age it was big. Also without modern Ortlieb bags I had to deal with soaking gear and/or wrapping stuff in garbage bags.

Here is Steve taking off on a long solo tour, Seattle to Jasper. Where is Dodie? - left home to watch 6 month old Jeremy and two other kids!

This was also the year we first met Ira, a gifted programmer who came from Toronto to work at the Mincome project. We later got him to follow us to Victoria. Ira has in various ways been part of our lives since.

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The farm lady carried breakfast out to us in our cabin behind the paddock, and it was a good one, with cheese and meat and yogurt and juice, etc. As with every morning of the past few days, things started with a heavy fog. But this day the fog lifted quickly enough and the day actually ended hot and sunny.

Part of our chalet on the farm. It looks kind of cluttery, but it was great.

Greeting "my" pony in the early morning. We took care not to lean our bikes on the fence overnight lest they get nibbled.

As we passed out of the little town of Echtenerbrug we of course admired the neat doll's house like homes. Again, it was evident that every place with any pride (i.e. most of them) needed to have pottery in the window. The window display, says us, needs to be symmetrical. So one like this is fine:

Windows with "acceptable" symmetrical pots

But what about this? Not quite right! We were of course incensed.

"Unacceptable" window - but nice brick work!

Before long we entered a marshy area that is a national park. The bike way then followed a canal, that had ultra cute houses on either side. For much of the way it appeared there were no roads, and each house had a parking inlet for its boat. The boats did not seem very big, and we wondered how people would bring in substantial items, like furniture. That question was answered when we came upon a house that was being renovated, and that had a big barge like boat parked in front.

We left the canal as our path struck off through a wooded area. Even in a place like that that feels secluded, you can not easily relieve yourself because there is always someone gliding noiselessly up on a bike. In Netherlands, you can never really be alone when outside.

Our route went right through the middle of this marshy area

The town of Kalenberg is centred on the national park canal

This is how you would get heavier items to your canal side house

This forest is not as remote as it seems. Even here, someone comes by every few minutes.

At the farm we had been given plenty of food that could be packed along for lunch. But we came to a small town that had a nice canal harbour, surrounded by cafes, and they seemed very inviting. We chose the first one, locking our bikes with our ridiculous little cables and toy padlocks. We decided this was no longer Amsterdam, and we could get away with it.

While in Germany the goto lunch (or anytime) treat is schnitzel, or bratwurst, here it is schnitzel or sate. So that's what we ordered. That resulted in huge plates, only one of which would have been enough for us. We ate it all up, knowing that even the sandwiches we had stashed away from the morning would then be more than enough to have in the evening.

Really big lunch plates - schnitzel on one, satay on the other

Feeling stuffed and sluggish at first, we carried on south. Despite the truly rotten internet we have been coping with we picked up a message from Jonathan Hecht on the Guestbook advising that Kampen would be a good place to visit, though we were targeting nearby Zwolle. So we looked for places to stay in either town, and happened to hit on one in Zwolle first. So we will keep Kampen in our back pocket as a place to visit next time around.

As Jonathan had also observed, Zwolle is an interesting place. Like other towns, its old section is surrounded by a star shaped canal. Inside there are narrow streets with a wide selection of shops. We just quickly scoped these out as we searched out our B&B. Tomorrow we will have a closer look, and also hope to find a market.

Bucking headwinds for four days has tired us out a bit, and we are glad that tomorrow will be a shorter run, to Apeldoorn. And breakfast here isn't 'till 8. Getting up "late" and going "short" tomorrow will feel like a vacation. Oh wait, this whole thing is a vacation, right?

These mowers by Electrolux were a common sight. They bumble about the properties showing an impressive knowledge of the boundaries - not sure how they do it. On the other hand their mowing action is gentle to non-existent.

The scene in downtown Zwolle. On other streets, with the warm day we had, lots of people are sitting out at cafes.

Where we are at- the small blue dot is at Zwolle. Next stop Apeldoorn.

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 373 km (232 miles)

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