Day 106: Wageningen to Zeewolde, Netherlands

September 2, 2012

So we are experts now in the point to point bike route system. All we have to do is use the big map, write down the (many) points for our day’s trip to Flavoland, and off we go.

Oops, one slight glitch. The big map does not exactly have all the nodes shown on it. No problem, we can work with this – we will go, for example, to a node that is on the map, then consult the “station” map at that node, and find the missing nodes that get us to the next node that was on the big map. Got that?

Oops, one other glitch. There are only 99 numbers from 1 to 99. So the nodes reuse numbers. It means, as was in our case, you can find yourself going from node 75 to node 75. And if the nodes you had to fill in for in between those two are 76, 65, and 66, you better be following the signs to the right 76,65, and 66. Any reasonably careful person can do this, because there is enough information on the station maps and the facts of what other nodes are reachable from a given station (as indicated on the station map and visible on direction signs on the road). There is also usually a four sided mushroom sign sitting on the ground and telling what towns are in what directions and at what distances. It’s information galore!

Yeah, so how come we cycled for two hours before finding ourselves right back at a station we had left 20 km ago? Maybe it was those guys at that node that put their darn Lidl bag down in front of the direction arrows? Maybe that 65 over there was actually this 65 over here? Dunno.

At least it was not just us. At the station we finally returned to, there were actually eight couples all puzzling over their paper maps and studying the station map. Maybe this particular station was just some sort of black hole!

Anyway we were seeing a lot of Holland and getting nowhere, fast!

What we are seeing of Holland is interesting, in a dull boring stolid sort of way. First off, there are animals, everywhere. Cows rule, but there are horses, sheep, pigs, goats, and then a crazy menagerie of exotics. This includes very elegant spotted deer, wallabies, pot bellied pigs, miniature horses, emus, and more. These animals are mixed in between corn fields on farms that are more neat and orderly than my bedroom. The houses are plain brick, and the barns are the same brick. There are few flowers, but much shrubbery. The shrubbery is all neatly arranged and trimmed, some with topiary precision. What we saw of house interiors as we cruised by and peeked over, often looked like an Ikea showroom, spiced up with knick knacks, like eight white vases, mathematically spaced in four windows.

What we did not see was any of the kind of services that we sometimes crave: washroom, grocery store, bakery, and restaurant. It was very gentle and lovely, but you could “die” out there as effectively as in the chemical desert of Duisburg. We started babbling about Casino Royale – the place in a StarTrek episode that was fine, but that had no exit.

As we kept pedalling, the fact that we also never spotted a grocery yesterday began to have its effect. We busted out our packet of cookies, that we got in the bakery the day before yesterday. Then we started to look for food in earnest. Since we were at the time “lost” in the sense that we seemed to no longer even have a spurious node number to chase, we felt free to roam anywhere on the landscape in our search. We were almost successful. The almost is because while Holland is pretty liberal, we apparently were wandering in the “bible belt”. That meant that anything one might by some fluke actually find would be closed. We did actually find two groceries and two restaurants, all closed. Two women were sitting at the outdoor tables of one of the closed restaurants. We asked them about where to find any food at all. Well, that old image of steam coming out of someone’s ears almost came true. I could almost hear the circuits frying in their brains, Finally they said “Go this way 9 km, turn right, then left”. We rejected that, and just charged off, following a very general GPS heading.

Being a slow learner, I accosted a family walking in the street with the same question. I really felt sorry for them. Having your brain melt over an impossible puzzle can not be pleasant! So off we sailed.

We set a course for Barneveld, a town that seemed in our general path. When we arrived, as signified by a roadside sign, we found essentially nothing in terms of services. There were, however, some sheep!

This was apparently not quite downtown (not that many sheep downtown) so we turned and headed for “Zentrum”. There we found an open ice cream shop. No, two! But wait, one of them admitted to also having food! I sat Dodie down, as she now had the shakes. The menu was Dutch to us, but no problem, bring on the sate! This got to Dodie just in time to prevent a shut down, and she revived pretty quickly. Add half an apple geback, and she was powered up and ready to go.

But go where? How do we get out of this place? That’s when our two road angels appeared. Bert and Ans, a local couple about our age, were out for a ride on their (of course) Dutch bikes. They asked where we were trying to get to. Nijkerk, we replied. (We knew this to be the impossible distance of 10 km away,) No problem for them, of course. In fact, they took us in hand and lead us there. Once there, they invited us into a hotel, bought us hot drinks, and Bert sat with Dodie and some of the maps, plotting out our best next moves. Best of all, Bert knew of several nearby campgrounds.

With hopefully very grateful goodbyes, we went directly to the first of the campgrounds. Here we have a spot by the water and boats, in what is mainly a marina. We just got back from the on site restaurant. Dodie got … sate, but I got the house burger. This was an interesting burger patty of spiced beef, on a bed of melted cheese, bacon bits, and salad beneath it all. On top of it all was a large sunny side up egg.

So now we have had food, have a new set of directions, and tomorrow is Monday – giving six days to get out of the bible belt. We should be looking good. Of course, I seem to remember having written that before!

Actually our campsite did have a special tent place - and we were in it.

We could have easily gone into the Nude, to complement our report on Fucking, Austria.

We got the pavement while the cars got the dirt. Yeah!

We find these very funny to say. We like "Let Op" a lot too.

This is the actual wild rooster (cattle grate).

Thatched roofs are sometimes seen in this area

A Renault and a VW van, neither of which I an bring home. Also the peop[le from these vans had a shopping bag that we claim hid a sign and is our excuse for going in circles all morning.

Look Amelia, a bike route named for you.

All the sheep in the flock had white feet and noses and tails.

A rare church - and it is smallish and plain

This was a closed snack bar. The sign, we felt, urged us to go t'Hek.

Barneveld town square : so plain. Is this from war damage, general demolition, or was there always nothing here?

Barneveld used to be a chicken capital, and has a lot of residual chicken symbols

Getting to Nijkerk was a breeze with them as guides!

Ans showed us this little memorial for two fallen British soldiers. It is on private land and is still being carefully tended. A touching thing.

Bert and Dodie at the Golden Tulip hotel, go over our possible route.

Checking the crucial weather report, especially wind direction for our crossing of the dykes, on a computer screen.

Some LF routes suddenly make an appearance, but we are going with Bert's instructions.

We reached Zeewolde, at the south end of the (former) Zuiderzee area.

My burger. Were the explanations enough?

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 5,454 km (3,387 miles)

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