Half Way

I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday afternoon after two long days of riding from Enschede. The sun has finally come out it seems, and I was greeted by blue skies and little to no wind on both days of cycling which really brought up my mood. Yesterday was my longest day of cycling yet (over 100 km), which wore me out a great deal, so I ended up going to bed rather early last night. I'm coushsurfing with Jaap, who is an old retired school teacher who has lived in Holland all of his life. He's incredibly hospitable and a joy to talk to (he's interested in photography and sailing as well). His sense of humor is right on, and he had some good advice about what to see in Amsterdam. This morning I woke up at around 8, got a wonderful cup of coffee, and took the ferry into the city center. I hate to spread the stereotypical image of Amsterdam, but as I type in this internet cafe, several people around me are smoking joints, and reggae is playing loudly over the sound system. It seems like a little too much of a tourist trap so far, with some luck I'll find some nice areas today.

Unfortunately, the couchsurfer I had planned on staying with in Arnhem bailed at the last minute. I wandered into an internet cafe in town, and luckily another couchsurfer had gotten back to me. I called up Ronald and biked over to his apartment in the northern part of the city. He lives in a shared house and has a nice room with a balcony on the top floor of the building. He took me on a tour of the city and then we went to a couple of his favorite bars where we shared a few beers. Unfortunately I have to confirm the rumors, the beer here is heavenly, much better than anything I've ever had in the states. They say it's even better in Belgium, which I find hard to imagine, so I'm looking forward to visiting some breweries there. Also, with the weather looking better everyday, I'm thinking of camping through Belgium instead of couchsurfing. We'll see how it goes.

Now that I'm in Amsterdam, I'm officially more than half way done with my bike trip. It's not too much farther now to Paris it seems, and the Tour de France is inching closer by the day. That reminds me to mention a neat interaction i had while cycling the other day. While i was navigating through a small town, another older cyclist came up next to me to ask how much weight i was carrying on the back of my bike and then starting up a conversation, i found out that he actually used to be a professional cyclist and had participated in several tour de france races. He said he was 76, which means it must have been quite a while ago, and after we had finished our conversation about touring, San Francisco and the Netherlands, I drafted behind him for a while(he was quite fast, despite his age). It was one of the many chance encounters which I've really appreciated this trip. Well, I should get exploring before it gets too late in the morning and thins get busy here.

Goodbye from Amsterdam,
-i