Day 114: Katwijk, Netherlands: A day with a master cyclist
You never know, when you meet people in life, what amazing skills or life experience they may have, when perhaps it is not immediately apparent. When we ran into Juul in a nondescript motel in a nondescript Canadian town, he mentioned that he had cycled in quite a few places. However it was not until we came to his home here in Holland, and saw the binders and binders of diaries from cycle trips in most corners of the world, that we realized that here was a truly master cyclist. He admits to only being a local celebrity, having written extensively for local newspapers. His photos have been displayed in the Katwijk town hall, and he has himself been the subject of newspaper reports.
Probably the most impressive thing (to us) was Juul's binder on the (1981, not 1976) Bikecentennial, including the original itinerary and his letters of application for leave of absence from the Dutch government to go and do the trip. For a touring cyclist, having been on any early Bikecentennial would be loosely equivalent to having played at Woodstock for a rock fan.
Juul reviews photos from trips in China, New Zealand, Australia, America, Malawi, Chile, Iceland, and other places.
An original Bikecentennial itinerary. Support was quite minimal - there are gaps of seven days or more in the schedule, during which cyclists were presumably stuggling any way they could to get to the next point.
Juul took us out for a walk around Katwijk. Since he made the mistake of asking us where we wanted to go, the itinerary was a bakery, a bike shop, and a beach restaurant! We also (reluctantly, or not) passed by the old church, and example of a wooden fishing boat, and some former fisherman's cottages in the town.
The bakery, as expected, was ok, but not wow. Also as expected, apple/cinnamon products are their strong suit. The bike shop (just one of five in the town) however was wow, with hundreds of bikes up and down the street around it. The shop was very busy, and we did not get to really talk to anybody.
We did have one purchase in mind - a replacement for Dodie's stand. The original stands for the Friday's had proved too teeny to support our heavily loaded bikes, and in Passau we had dumped them in favour of two legged models. Unfortunately, the cast housing on Dodie's had cracked, leaving her with no visible means of support! At the Dutch bike shop, though, all bikes are twice the size of ours, and even adjustable leg length stands were too large. Dodie will just have to keep leaning on posts until we get home. Her plan then is to fire up a long strut type support, following an idea she has seen on Crazyguy.
Katwijk is a beach town. At least it fronts on a beautiful beach that has lots of restaurants and services. The main town, though, seems insulated from the beach scene. As Juul put it, it's a town that has a beach, not a beach that has a town. On the other hand, the beach is important to us since our path to Belgium follows the coast. That coast, until we skirt around Rotterdam and head off southwest, is dunes and beach, and therefore beach towns or towns with beaches as the case may be.
One we returned home, we gobbled up the rather fluffy pastries we had brought from the bakery, reserving the apple/cinnamon products for some later serious coffee drinking. Then Juul brought out many maps of South Holland and Zeeland, and helped us think about our route out of here. Consequently, for maybe the first time we may have some idea of what we are getting in to. On the other hand, even Juul has not been to some of the parts we are heading to. So both he and we will be watching to see what happens next!
Juul explains about the old church, which is from the early 1600's. It is in Katwijk am Zee, which is the Protestant side of town. Katwijk am Rhin (the other side of town) has been predominately Catholic.
Dodie's little bike went looking for a new stand, but could barely get the attention of the giant e-bikes, or the store staff. In any event, all parts were far too large to be usable for it.
