March 31, 2018
Day 5: Apeldoorn to Nijmegen
We must have been a bit of sight rolling down the corridor and to the front desk of the Bastion Hotel with our bikes fully loaded, and with us wearing our yellow gear and DaBrim visors on the helmets. There we said goodbye to the staff, who were interested to see us with bikes different from what they remembered from 6 months ago. Then we were off for our first real day of cycling.
The quiet outskirts of Apeldoorn are about the most restful place for cycling you can imagine. And in fact for the whole day we were on either bike specific paths or well marked bike lanes on quiet roads. If you just want to pedal your bike and not be bugged by anything, Netherlands is surely the place.
The main feature between Apeldoorn and Nijmegen is the mostly forested Hoge Veluwe national park. We didn't go through the park but took a slightly more direct route that paralleled a motorway. But that did not mean we were on road or even near road. It was just that the bike way and the car road were sharing the same route.
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Since this was a Saturday, the bike paths were full of lycra clad club riders. As they zoomed by us, or toward us, the peletons invariably waved and called out. There was often something nice said about Canada in this, and one fellow started to sing our national anthem. It was really fun having all these riders around, and interesting looking at their road bikes, to the extent that you could make out what was usually passing in a blur of speed.
Eventually we entered the northern reaches of Arnhem, where the Rijnstate hospital is located, in the vicinity of a large park. This is where Dodie spent a week last year, and I became quite familiar with the surroundings. The familiarity increased as we rolled into the centre of Arnhem, and then across Rhine bridge.
The bridge at Arnhem is historic as the "Bridge Too Far", the name of the 1977 movie based on "Operation Market Garden". This was the attempt by the British in WWII to capture the bridge and head for Berlin, while isolating German troops in western Netherlands. The opposing armies fought each other back and forth across the bridge, and in the end the Germans were victorious. It was another 8 months before the allies finally prevailed in this area.
One of the consequences of the British offensive was that it created a stream of refugees from Arnhem toward the north - that is , Apeldoorn. This intensified when the Germans actually evicted the population. Our route from Apeldoorn to Arnhem was the same one taken by the refugees, only in the other direction. We came upon a memorial for this migration and took some photos of where they tell the story. If your screen large enough you might like to read it for yourself:
Beyond Arnhem we continued on just the loveliest bikeways, through small farms and suburban housing. The bikeways linked everything in such a quiet and civilised way. Sometimes as a tourist you may look at the lives and lands of the locals and think it's interesting to look at but of course we would never want to live this way. But more often than not we think we do want to live this way (and maybe we should buy that house over there.) This is certainly true when we look at the Dutch bike culture. If only we could have a bikeway even a little like these between our place and the nearest town, we could do all our shopping by bike and our car usage would all but evaporate. Oh well.
Nijmegen is a little like all those towns on the Loire, where the town mostly occupies one side of the river and you cross a bridge to be dropped right into the middle of it. In this case the river is the Waal, and once you cross on a bike/railway bridge the whole town is available to you. Available is really the word, because the entire centre of town is given over to car free commercial walking. Not only were there throngs passing by all the usual types of shops, but in the Grote Markt area in front of city hall there was an even more active outdoor market. We passed through all this, taking in the energy of the Saturday afternoon crowd, but we were on a different mission.
We were headed for the National Cycle Museum, which we think has the largest display anywhere of 19th century bicycles, over 200 of them. The bicycles have been amazingly well restored and are fascinating to look at. You can see the earliest concept, in which the bicycle was (like the car) a horseless carriage. The wheels are wood, much like wagon wheels, and the idea was to propel and steer the thing from sitting inside. Four wheeled versions were not so common, but for a time three wheeled - trikes - dominated the scene. These machines were amazing in their display of tricky mechanical arrangements for pedaling and steering. It struck me how refined these really were, with clever designs and excellent execution of the metal parts and connections.
Two wheelers were there too, of course, and featured some unique drive trains, often with chains on both the left and right sides.
A weak spot, at least until Dunlop came up with the pneumatic tire around 1890, was in the wheels - which could be wood or steel and maybe edged with hard rubber.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 2 | Link |
6 years ago
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Almost all the bikes on display were from before 1900, but there were some exceptions. One was a touring bike used by Frank Von Rijn in travelling all over the world. This was a 1995 Gazelle Randonneur, and it looks like that original image of a touring bike - that is before the sport got contaminated by low step through, kid on the back, credit card in the pocket, models.
We finally made our way around to the hotel we had found for the night. They claimed no place for bike storage. But across the street was a large bike parking facility. You park and lock your bike and get a receipt for it. You need to show the receipt in order to take the bike out of the enclosed space. Only thing, the facility is closed from 5 a.m to 10 a.m.
10 a.m. is way late for us to be leaving so we investigated our room in the hotel. It was easily large enough for the bikes, but was up two flights of stairs. So we took off all the bags and I dragged the machines up there. Even if today's cycle may have been a dawdle, those steps were not. They allowed me to be able to claim having gotten some exercise.
Before there could be any rest today, there was one further thing to try to attend to. On past trips I could be guaranteed to destroy either a Bluetooth keyboard or a camera, or both, resulting in a search for either the French electronics store FNAC, or the German - Media Markt. As of yesterday, both keyboard and camera were ok, but the Bluetooth on my ASUS Transformer Mini just suddenly disappeared. At first I confidently went through usual steps, like downloading and installing new drivers, but in the end nothing could make this computer admit it had or had ever had Bluetooth. Now that was bad news, because my Bluetooth mouse is the key to much of the fine work you see here on this blog.
My answer was to get a USB plug in Bluetooth module, and given that this computer lacks USB ports, a USB hub to go with it. These are not exactly rare parts, but where to find them? I checked with the hotel front desk and they sent me on a hike back to the centre of downtown to a store that had a few bits of computer accessories, but not stuff like what I was talking about. Fortunately another customer heard me asking store staff about where a real computer store might be, and he steered me to the right place, which was called MyCom. I arrived there 5 minutes before closing, but it took the geeks there only 30 seconds to understand my request and to come up with the pieces. 30 euros later, I had successfully patched up my ability to effectively write the blog. A further hike back to the hotel, and here I am relaxing at last by writing this!
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We are looking forward to tomorrow, when we have to go longer to reach a suitable stop. But cycling here is lots of fun and if the weather holds up it will be great. Today started at 4 degrees but ended at at least 15. Unless it rains, that is just fine. 🚲☺
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 75 km (47 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 12 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 9 |
Looks like you are having a blast. You are such pros now riding in Europe, especially France! Holland looks so nice. We will be there soon. Right now we are in San Luis Obispo with everyone from Silverdale, WA. We rode to Avila Beach today and Pismo Beach. What a pretty loop. So much fun on our electric bikes. Three out of 20 of us have the ebikes! Poor souls still laboring away. We take it easy on them though.
If you think of it - take a few pictures of the bikes fully loaded but separate. It's too difficult to tell them apart when you take shots of them together with everything on them and I can't see how you have things set up! They are gorgeous bikes. How will you ever be able to leave them in Europe when you return? But that is for another day.
Just caught up with the reading tonight. Tomorrow we ride from Ragged Point to Morro Bay all along Route 1 on the Pacific Coast. I hope to see whales. Today we watched an otter rolling and playing in the kelp. He was big and very cute.
Janet Anspach-Rickey
6 years ago
6 years ago
The bikes have been working like a dream too. They are so quiet! And today they really helped us traverse 100 km looking for a place out of the rain!
6 years ago
6 years ago
I was wondering how you imported the map into your journal. We start our trip in two more weeks.
All the best,
Barry Bartlett
6 years ago
6 years ago
Can you refresh us on the trip planned to begin in two weeks?
6 years ago
This year we are flying to Frankfurt and then we will be staying with our our German friends for a few days. Our bike is waiting for us with our friends.
We are riding from Koblenz south along the Rhine. We are very excited because this year we are going to attend the annual Spezi bike show in Germersheim, Every year in April thousands of velo fanatics get together to share their passion for bikes at the Spezi bike show. This is the world's largest bike show celebrating recumbents, trikes, folding bikes, tandems, velomobiles, cargo bikes, electric bikes and hand built human powered vehicles. We are looking forward to test riding a variety of bikes . We have never been in Germany this early to attend the Spezi ( special) bike show. After the show we are riding south to Strasbourg, Mulhouse,Besancon, Lyon, Arles,and on to Barcelona. We will take a ferry from Barcelona to Sardinia. After riding in Sardinia we will take a ferry to Livorno and ride through Northern Italy to Grado or Udine. From there we will ride the Alpe Adria route over the Alps to Salzburg and then back to our friend's farm near Limburg on the Lahn.
All of our journals from Crazy Guy have been transferred to Cycle Blaze. However, our most recent journal that was posted on Bicycle Life( Topic Wise) could not be transferred by Jeff . We have had to move the whole journal manually to Cycle Blaze. It has been a massive job.
We have been enjoying reading your most recent journal.
All the best,
Barry and Mary Ellen
6 years ago