Wednesday, March 26, 2008

snow, sleet, hail and sideways rain...a sure sign of spring in Holland

Well as KP stated in his new site- "when God gives you oranges make orange juice."

Its been a crazy past 2 week here with the dutch weather changing every time I stick my head out the window. Snow...sun...clouds...rain....hail...sleet...sun...and more sideways rain!
Ive decided to put the winter storm sailing on hold till it warms up some and have found a old passion in road biking. I thought it would be a good way to keep up my fitness as well as explore some of the dutch country side north of Amsterdam where Im living.

To begin, the dutch are fanatical about biking.
Nearly everybody has a bike here and rides it regularly.
In the city there are bike paths everywhere making it a comfortable experience to to ride in an urban environment. Just when you think you are clipping along at a good pace, a dutch middle aged woman (with legs of steel like Micah Buzianis) with 3 kids on her bike passes you like you were standing still.Enough with the subtle insults, I think as I change from my city beater bike to my road bike and head to nord-holland where there are less crowds are more room to breath.
Just 5 minutes north of Amsterdam I find myself surrounded by farms and dykes.
I ride for seemingly hours with only the slightest incline when I ride over a bridge.
Holland is as flat as a pancake.

There are some fun surprises with towns like 'Broek in Waterland' and 'Holysloot' to keep a smile on my face.
So far I havent managed to get lost yet with the 'locate me now' button on my iphone.
Yesterdays ride to Marken got cut short in near white out conditions with a 10 minute snow and hail storm. Not to worry through- just 20 minutes later I had my own patch of sunshine near Durerdam.

3 comments:

PeconicPuffin said...

Sideways rain? Time to rig!

Actually while I've sailed in sleet, hail would be a new experience.

I'm curious about Dutch windsurfing, as all I know about it is meeting Dutch windsurfers in Bonaire and Aruba. Does a lot go on up there?

USA-4 Steve Bodner said...

Outside france and maybe brazil- the netherlands is one of the most windsurfing centric countries in the world- lots of clubs, schools and of course racing! Its very impressive to see the infrastructure they've set up to grow the sport

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