Memories

The conference I, Erika, attended was a great event to recharge those nurse educator engines. The presenters were very interesting and it was quite validating to see how on track the faculty at Camosun are. It was also a real treat to have some time to develop deeper relationships with some of the other faculty and their partners. I now know that Marlene and Margie never lack for humor in their home!

Wednesday afternoon when all the sessions were completed, Marvin and I once again rented bikes and head off on some of Holland's wonderful bike paths. Our goal was to ride to Leiden and see what was both enroute and there. We had not gone too far down the path when a gentleman cycled by. He looked just like my Uncle Bill.

As a child of immigrant parents, I grew up in Canada with no direct relatives near by. However, we had some very close family friends who chose to be Aunts and Uncles where otherwise there would have been none. Bill and Wilma van Niekirk were two such people. I have many fond and wonderful memories of visiting them in their Calgary home. They were one of the first families I knew with two bathrooms. One for men and one, decorated in the most feminine manner, for women. With each visit Uncle Bill would make his little silver dollar pancakes. Theirs was also the only home I knew of where you would be offered chocolate sprinkles to put on your toast at breakfast. Truly a wonderous thing when you are a child. Uncle Bill and Aunt Wilma had a lovely well kept garden, a nod to their Dutch heritage. In the garden was a wishing well that, to this day, I am pretty sure worked! When I think of Wilma and Bill my memories are full of love, acceptance and generosity.

Uncle Bill greatly admired my parents and valued their friendship. Aunt Wilma referred to my mom as her best friend. On my parents 45th wedding anniversary, Bill and Wilma came to Victoria to help us celebrate. They had been there when my parents were married and did not want to miss out on
congratulating them on their 45th. On that occasion Uncle Bill said of my German born father, "The war would have made us enemies, but life has made us bestfriends."  Both Bill and my father are gone now but the love they gave and the example they set stay with me always. Wilma is slowly slipping into her own world and my mom soldiers on with determination. These are all very tender memories for me so it somehow seemed right that as I set off to explore Holland on bike that "Uncle Bill" would sail by and remind me of my first introduction to the Dutch people.

Since arriving in Holland we have been greeted with warmth and helpfulness. There are many things we have seen that have made a strong impression. Everything is beautiful, well kept and clean. Bikes govern the road and seeing a mom on a bike with a baby on the front of the bike and a toddle on the back while being followed by another child on its own little bike is the norm. It is also not too surprising if the mom is talking on her cellphone at the same time. Everyone of any age or size is on a bike. In fact, there are far more bikes around than cars. After a few days of cycling you even start to wonder who the people are that chose to drive instead of cycle!

Gardens in Holland are beautifully manicured and the scent of flowers greet you wherever you go. One of the joys of being on bike is that the paths take you along canals, through quaint little towns, past working windmills and each time we pause to look at a map, someone stops to see if we need assistance. We have met some wonderfully kind people who beam with pleasure as we express our delight in all we are seeing and experiencing.

Tuesday evening we walked into Nordwijkerhout with my colleagues for dinner. On the way back to the hotel we took a side path along a canal. Beautiful homes lined both sides of the canal. One home owner had lined the area next to the canal with a variety of roses. I, of course, had to pause to sniff each type. The home owner was by his gate working with some planters. We soon were enjoying a warm conversation about the area and his roses. He warmly wished us a great vacation. I wonder if he realized that welcomes like his are what make a great vacation.

I have also been impressed by how tall the people are. I have always thought of our friends the
Yzenbrandts as tall people. I now realize that they are really very average for people of Dutch heritage. On more than one occasion I have seen young men that could have been brothers to Dion and Kia-Tall - handsome and blond. The Yzenbrandts, like the van Niekirks, are great examples of the wonderful people we are meeting here.

We have also developed a great appreciation of the breakfasts that are served here. They make sure you are well fuelled for a day of cycling! Marvin and I enjoy having a nice breakfast, a meal mid afternoon and a light snack In the evening.  So,having a hearty breakfast serves us well.

Another thing that has impressed us is how often we are seeing horses. It is quite evident that horses are well loved and enjoyed in the area. The animals are beautiful and well cared for. They are also ridden regularly which is evident by the many "deposits" on the trails.

The architecture in the area is quite lovely. Even the newer homes are built to fit in with the more traditional look. On our ride to Leiden we enjoyed cruising through several very pretty towns. We
also were thrilled to see sailboats sailing along the larger canals and rivers. Once we got into Leiden we were hoping to find the tourist information bureau. We had seen in the distance a very old building. We cycled that way and discovered an open market next to what turned out to be the oldest building in town and in front of the canal. It was so lively, colourful and interesting. It didn't take long before we were drawn into the excitement that is Dutch cheese. At an amazing cheese stall the young sales man silver talked us into treating ourselves to some wonderful cheeses. Now what we need to find is a bakery so we can get some bread to go with our, cheese.

The cycle paths are well maintained and, on the whole, well marked. The odd time the signs were not where they were supposed to be it was not long before another sign, or helpful person, would pop up to guide our way.

Yesterday we enjoyed a cycle up to Haarlem. I am sure Marvin will provide greater details about the cycling itself. Haarlem has a beautiful old Centre that, as with most European cities, is centred around the cathedral, if it is a cathedral town, or, if not, the church. The cathedral in Haarlem, the Bavokerk, founded in 1370, is breath taking. Prior to going in for a tour we stopped for lunch on the square. Our 26 km cycle along the dunes had resulted in a need for refuelling! As we entered the square we were treated by the musical performance from a Norwegian school band. There were super so we chose our cafe based on being able to hear the music.  Over the past few years I have noted that the best tasting food is often served after a bike ride. Coincidence?

We spent some time poking around the square, toured the church, cycled down to the drawbridge and the windmill and, maybe, found a nice piece of jewelry for Marvin to give me for our 35th wedding anniversary!

Before leaving town Marvin discovered an Italian Ice Cafe. Following the advice of Steve and Dodie Miller, we sauntered in and ..... Mmmmm. Yummy! (Picture to follow)

The ride back was delightful and we even found a nice picnic table on a canal where we had the last of our water and a piece of fruit. After we returned the bikes we then huffed it backed to our hotel (2.5km). So, by the end of the day we had walked 5 km, plus the walking we did in Haarlem, and cycled 56 km. yes, we slept well last night!

Today we pack up our gear and move on to Rotterdam. We will be traveling by train and are looking forward to seeing the sights.

Further exploration of Noordwijk

Monday, June 23rd, 27.1km Total 47.1km so far

(If you get bored by my long texts, don't despair, there are lots of pictures at the end of this blog that I forgot to put in the story from the day before.  Also, don't miss the live links I have added to the text of this blog.  They should open in a separate window when you click on them)

Well, Erika was involved in her conference for the entire day, so after having a nice big breakfast with her at 7:30 AM, I went back up to the room and did some research on where I would find bike shops and electronics stores since I was in need of a way to download pictures from our camera.
At 11:30 I checked out a bike and headed off for Nordwijk and the ocean again.  
Now let me say that Steve Miller, good friend and inspiration (as one of the "Grampies" currently logging way more miles that we ever will in Grampies Go By the Books )  uses a phrase in his blogs that I am going to steal and use also: "noodling about".  It is just such a perfect description of the kind of cycling they and we often do,  kind of an exploratory wandering around, either because one doesn't have anywhere particular to go or more often, because one is not sure where one IS going, even if one has somewhere one wants to go :)
So on this day I spent a lot of time noodling about, sometimes for the one reason and sometimes for the other.  There were 3 tracks logged by my GPS during the day and if you look at them closely you will see just how much wandering around I was doing.  The first hour was spent noodling about here, around Noordwijk

First, I explored a little up the coast from the main beach area to see the trail that leads off into the dunes.  This whole area along the coast is dunes and brown sand beaches for miles and miles in both directions.  And good bike paths follow the coast for miles through these dunes.  After going just a little way up the dunes trail, I turned around and went back into the village to look for a bike shop.  There I found the shop open and that they did in fact rent e-bikes that I was considering renting later in the week when Erika had more time to explore.

While in the bike shop I had turned the GPS off, so when I started up again, the next hour was logged as another separate route, Route # 2 for the day 
During this hour I searched for another bike shop that doesn't exist any more, apparently, then cycled down to another part of town where there was another bike shop that was closed on Mondays.  For a while I chatted with a young woman who saw me looking at my map and stopped to ask if I needed directions.  She recommended I look at an area that I found later in the day.  But first I found myself back where Erika and I had been the day before in the shopping area of Noordwijk-Binnen.  Here I turned my GPS off again, so the end of the second route of the day.  I found that the electronics shop was closed on Mondays.  But there were lots of stores open that I could get good things to eat from.

The 3rd route for the day was spent exploring, first leaving town going south and west but blocked from the ocean by high hills that were the dunes.  So I worked my way back north towards Noordwijk aam Zee and discovered where I could go up to the big old  Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin and the beach district around it that the local lady had told me was the place to go where the locals go instead of the tourist district.  From there I headed south for a ways to see the paved path that leads through the dunes going south all the way to The Hague, a largish city to the south.  I could see the sky scrapers of The Hague in the distance, about 25 km. away.

Just off the paved bike path, sand path leading down through the dunes to the North Sea

So before I send this to publish, here are some pictures from the day before when we were exploring and getting used to the whole biking experience here in the Netherlands.

This picture shows how even when on a busy street we have a protected bike path to ride down

We followed a canal with houseboats on it

Typical bike street signs in Netherlands

So pretty

Look, this one has a basement.  Erika claims it was floating, but I claim it was on a foundation behind a retaining wall for the canal

Across the canal, a train whizzed by every few minutes

Typical traffic when on a road that we share with cars

We've noticed there are lots of horse pastures in Holland

On the way home we were catching up to 2 young men and Erika said to me "Ring your bell" (because hers didn't work).  So I rang my bell and then as I went by them I said "I have a bell!" in my silly  I'm so excited voice.  This got them laughing and so, not to be outdone by two old foreigners, they speeded up and passed us.  In this picture, Erika has overtaken them again and is about to pass.

Cyclists on Vacation: Exploring Noordwijk and Noordwijkerhout

June 22nd , 20km cycled, 20km so far

After a good nights sleep we woke up ready to check out the breakfast offerings here at the NH Leeuwenhorst.  The hotel is fairly expensive and certainly the lunch we had on Saturday was pretty pricey for what little we ordered.  When we were on our long walk into Noordwijk aam Zee and back, we didn't see any place to shop for any kind of groceries, not even a convenience store to speak of.  The hotel is really out in the countryside, 3 or 4 kilometers from either Noordwijk or Noordwijkerhout, so the facilities here are what you depend on for food.  (By the way, the wijk part of those names is pronounced 'vike', the j is silent)  Which reminds me to comment on how pretty it is here, with farmland out front and a forested parkland behind the complex that is the hotel and conference center.  The first thing we noticed as we started our 'Longest Day' walk was the number of different song birds we were hearing.  Many of them were very melodic.  And you can hear them in the morning from our room, including one that squawks like the rare tropical bird in the movie 'UP'.  At least that is what it reminds me of.  But, back to breakfast.  We were pretty hungry and the included breakfast lived up to expectations, given that this is a higher end hotel.  Lots of breads, cheeses, fruit, yogurt, bacon, juices, milk, cereal, omelet made to order;  well, let's just say we had a good breakfast.

We went down to the front desk to rent bikes.  Now let me say this about bikes:  Bikes are everywhere, and everyone (meaning all ages) rides bikes.  All the main roads have dedicated bike paths, either a 2 way path on one side of the road or lanes on both sides of the road.  When there is no dedicated bike lane, it is only because the road is low traffic and the bike shares the road.  If it is a one-way street for cars it usually has a sign indicating that bikes can go both ways.  The only exception is the freeway and with the freeway there is always a road right next to it that has the bikeway included.  It's really easy to see where to go and when you are planning, you can pretty much expect to find a good bike path or shared road to go anywhere you want. 

Now here are the caveats:  Bikes and bikeways are as much a part of the system as cars and roads are.  There are lots of traffic circles with bike paths going around them and criss-crossing the entry and exit lanes for the cars.  Sometimes the bikes have the right of way, sometimes the cars.  There are signs and you have to pay attention, just like you would if you were in a car.  If you have right of way, you make eye contact and try not to hold up the cars that are stopping for you and waving you across :)  Likewise, you have to pay attention to the rest of the bike traffic.  Pretty well all the bikeways are either marked as 2 way or are still considered to be 2-way anyway.  If there are narrow bike lanes on both sides of a road then you can assume they are 1-way, but if they are separate from the car road itself (as in 'not just a shoulder lane') then you need to be aware of faster cyclists who may want to pass you on the left.  Which brings me to the thing that took the most getting used to:  Scooters (as in small motorcycles) are allowed on all but a very few specifically marked bike paths.  They travel at about 40 km/hr or maybe even faster, it's hard to tell,  let's just say that they are zipping around all over the place, especially up from behind.  Bells or horns are mandatory on bikes, but nobody uses them.  They do, however, use hand signals and expect us to as well.  So you have to get used to the fact that bikes are so much a part of the traffic system that, in fact, you ARE part of a traffic system and so you must ride according to general rules of the road/path like you would if you were in a car.

This is not to say that it isn't enjoyable, lots of the paths are wide enough that you can pedal 2 abreast and still pass or be passed by others.  And as you will see in the pictures, there are lots of beautiful stretches.  Lanes for cars are very narrow by north american standards and when shared with bikes on the minor roads cars tend to be patient and bikes tend to have right of way.  I have been really loving it.

Now finally, one more thing about bikes before I move on to the travels of the day:  When we first observed all the bikes left here and there and everywhere, we thought they were all being left unlocked.  But then we noticed that all bikes have a built in lock like the one on my rented bike shown here.  When the key is in, the rear wheel is unlocked and the key stays in while you are biking.  When you stop you lock the bike, taking the key out, and if it is rented, then you return the key.

So here is my bike, locked with the key out.

And here it is with the key in, ready to go


















Well cycling is one of the main things we intend to do on this trip.  So when we got through with breakfast, with this being the one day Erika would have before her conference got underway, we were anxious to get underway.  The hotel has a large inventory of bikes under the parking platform and they just give you a key at the desk and you go out and find the bike with the key number on it.

We decided to retrace our walking path from yesterday to get a good look at the ocean and the seaside town of Noordwijk.

Back on the sand at Noordwijk, it is always windy here, I think, so they rent space behind all those windbreaks

Marvin is saying "Hey look, sailboats!  I want to go there.

We were there at just the right time to see over a half dozen of these launch over the space of less than half an hour.  It was very interesting as it was quite tricky in the fairly strong wind and with good sized waves breaking.  Some knew exactly what they were doing and a couple had quite the struggle.

This guy knew what he was doing, kept his sail full while heading into the waves

Some would get broadside to the waves and the wind and each wave would really buck them up and wash them back toward shore and down the beach.  The one with the coloured sail is being lifted off the wheels that are used to roll them down to the water.

Once they got out past the surf, they could turn broadside to the wind and really boot it

Heading up the hill from the beach to the town

Farther down the beach, the main street of town opens up leading away from the beach

Now we discovered the real centre of Noordwijk aam Zee where there were lots of shops and lots of people.  Lots of fun and we found a cheese shop with samples of all their cheeses so we were able to try them and select our favourite plus some fruit breads.  Really yummy!

As we continued, we left town for a bit then found ourselves in the other part of Noordwijk, Noordwijk-Binnen.  Erika turned into the main alley with shops. Notice all the bikes.

Typical path on our ride back

As we ride, various towns or villages will pop up

In the afternoon we rode over toward Noordwijkerhout proper, looking for the downtown/shopping area. We missed it at first, riding out of town then turning around and wandering about for a while until we found the church and downtown area.

Downtown square, Noordwijkerhout

Bench of the day

We found a Dirk supermarket and picked up some fruit and bread

Main street with shops

More views of the square. 

The lovely road back to the conference center

We had really beautiful weather and picked up some nice supplies.  We found prices to be much cheaper than we expected.  Back at the hotel, we find we have cycled a total of about 20km.  

Longest Day of the Year

Friday-Saturday, June 20-21, 2014

In the Buffet for breakfast

Friday morning found us (Erika and me) up shortly after the crack of dawn, very excited with anticipation, of course.  Everything should be ready for our departure, I just needed to call our friend, Bob Gauthier, to make sure he was coming to pick us up to take us to the ferry.  Nope, didn't need to do that after all, Bob called us instead.  Thanks, Bob :)

Hey, We made the ferry, we are on our way!

So we're off to the ferry, schlepping our bags,  checking them with bus company that will take us to the airport from Tsaawassen, then a nice breakfast in the Pacific Buffet
where we have a great view of the crossing, then on the bus for the ride to the airport.  All of this is fairly familiar, even though I've only done it a couple of times before, still it's pretty standard Vancouver Island exit routine.

Ok, so now we're at the airport only 3 and a half hours before our flight, so certainly nothing seems rushed. We check our bags with Air Transat which is at the far end of the international airlines area.  Once through security we are the first to flop down in the waiting area outside the gate for our flight.  A couple of hours later the flight crew and front desk start to show up and eventually we are on the plane, which turns out to be not crowded at all, since at least a third of the passengers won't get on until Calgary.  Even as we leave Calgary the flight is still not too crowded, there is a row behind us that is empty and we have the seat between us empty, so a little more comfortable than usual.

Now about that longest day thing:  I had been thinking "Hey, it's an overnight flight, maybe the darkness will make it easier to sleep on the flight.  Trouble was half way through the flight, we're over Greenland and I do a calculation that tells me it's somewhere between midnight and 1 AM local time and the sun is still streaming in the porthole window on the north facing side of the plane and suddenly it occurs to me:  "Holy cow!  It's the summer solstice and we are up over Greenland during the middle of the night.  We are NOT going to see the sun go down today!"  Well we didn't :)

We landed in Amsterdam a little ahead of schedule which turned out really well for Erika and me because it made our timing for catching the shuttle bus to the conference centre in Noordwijkerhout work out perfectly.  Customs was a complete non event, even before we got to the carousel that would have our bags, there was a series of gates and we lined up in the "everyone else" line (as in EU passports or everyone else)  and they took a quick look at our passports, stamped them and even with the line up it only took about 5 minutes.  Then after about another 5 or 10 minutes the bags started to arrive on the carousel.  So thus it was that even though our flight was scheduled to get in at 11:45 AM we still caught the noon shuttle that had been set up for conference participants and didn't have to wait for the one at 3 PM.

Now the thing about noon in Amsterdam is that it really was only 3 AM back home, so with all the excitement and how well it all went, I wasn't doing so bad at all.

Now the real part of the holiday was beginning, a bus ride, unlike a plane ride, is much more like a tour because you can really see things:

First thing I noted was that at the airport it looked like I could still be in Vancouver.  Vegetation is pretty much the same, Big screen TV towering over the bus queue, lots of big corporate ads and billboards, many of them familiar, about the only thing that looked a little different was the smaller service vans that were more of a European shape.  Then into the country, and from the pictures, you will see that things start to look different:

On the bus, nothing looks very different out there

Nice fields and crops, just like the lower mainland

Wait a minute, what's this, a boat in a canal?

Aha!  Now this is really starting to look like Holland!

And there you have it!  How iconic is this?

So the bus ride was great!  It was like being on a tour, I can always provide my own commentary, ha!  There are more pictures but I have discovered that I forgot to bring something to extract pictures from the camera with.  Electronics shops around here seem to be closed on Monday as well as Sunday, so the remaining pictures will have to be added later. (Actually, I now have the necessary hardware and so am finally posting this blog entry a few days late )

Once we had arrived at the conference center, checked in, had some lunch at the onsite bar/cafe and waited for our room to be ready, it was about 3 PM and we crashed for a while.  Then around 8 PM we thought we would like to go for a walk because it was such a beautiful day and so we asked at the desk for a map showing us how to walk to the ocean.  "But" they said, "it will take 45 minutes to walk one way"  Actually, I figured what with the way we would dilly dally along, it would probably be more like an hour each way.

But, what the heck, for us it was still the longest day of the year, after all the sun still had not gone down.  So we set off for Noordwijk aam zee, which was about 4 km away, plus the 10 minute detour we took when we turned too soon on to a dead end street. 

A field where the tulips have already been harvested.  The conference center is behind the trees to the left.  The tower is part of it.

Such a lovely walk down a quiet lane.  We see more bicycles than cars.  This is after 8 PM

Erika noticed the snails crossing the road.  This was on the section of "detour" we made down a dead end.

This house has a tile roof

this one,

A Thatched Roof

We did see some lilies still growing

I get pretty excited about these signs that show all the different bicycle routes you can take

The bench picture.

The road is over on the left, next to it is the bike path, then the pedestrian path, then the canal.
Look how long our shadows are getting.  It's going on 9 PM

Oh my! A hill!  Didn't think we would see any of these

Actually, the hills are because we are now close to the ocean and they are dunes

Look, we reached the North Sea

At the top of the walkway down to the beach

So we discover that Noordwijk has miles of broad sand beach.  We walk around looking at the beach restaurant/resort area and then kind of reluctantly head back, so as to arrive before dark.  Just a few minutes before arriving back at the hotel we see the gorgeous sunset looking back the way we came from the sea.  It is 10 PM and the longest day has finally come to an end for us.  Some 33 hours of broad daylight have finally ended the longest day of my life!   And that's a very positive thing :-)