Master this Technology.

Craig and I went to the bars. We went to a place where there were copious euro-mullets. Craig touched one. Here is a picture of a euro-mullet in its natural environment:

The weather was once again spectacular. It was bright and sunny and in the 60's. Perfect. We started the day off by getting the delicious uitsmijter breakfast. It's ham and eggs and cheese over warm, fresh bread. Then we wandered around the city looking for a useful bike store where I purchased some fenders and giant bike map holder. My bike is looking more and more like the Bianchenstien we all know it is.

Craig and I then took our bikes up to the town of Scheveningen where the North Sea beaches are. (Apparently, the Dutch used the word "Scheveningen" during World War II to tell if a German spy was posing as a Dutchman - only those born and raised in teh Netherlands can properly pronounce it. I would most certainly fail the test.) It's really quite beautiful although I'm pretty sure the water is freezing. We rode along the beach and then through the vegetated dunes near Wassenaar and then back to the Hague. It was around 20 miles. Hopefully I'll be able to upload and display the GPS track of these bike trips, but that will be for later.

Now for some of the days photos:


Craig's apartment is the white building, right across from...


the Dutch Parliament.


Bicycling in the dunes.


Again, the glorious Dutch Parliament which you can ride your bike through...


And, the picturesque American Embassy. A little overkill, no?

So I arrived in Amsterdam today. The flight was pretty uneventful although I did sit next to a very talkative Indian man who thought that Barack Obama would not make a good president because 90% of America's prisons are black (the actual figure is closer to 50%). Anyway, I arrived here around 7:30AM and took the train to The Hague. I discovered pretty quickly that a 50lb bike bag on one shoulder and 45lb duffle on the other is rather uncomfortable. Rather than taking the trams to Craig's place I just made a 10 minute bike ride from the station. It was pretty easy.

We said hello and Craig took off for work. I then showered and took a much-needed nap (said Indian man didn't seem to mind talking to someone who was "asleep"). I then went for a ride for a few hours to check out the city. It's an interesting place and very flat which makes for great riding. It's also about 7 feet above sea level which makes for great danger of slipping off the road into a dike (dijk). I got lost in the dunes to the north of the city and barely found my bike before dark. Came back, showered, and went for dinner with Craig. Certainly a nice welcome and it's not even raining!

Tomorrow I'll take more pictures of the area, but here are two choice pics from today:


Bike all packed up and ready to ride to Craig's from the train station.


Yep, Lookout!

The proposed route - Interactive Google Map. This is more or less what the route would be if you were driving, but I will be following the Rhine so it will be a little different. However, I will be stopping in each of those towns for the night.



Something like: Rotterdam, Netherlands->Zaltbommel->Nijmegen->Xanten, Germany->Duisburg->Dusseldorf->Cologne->
Bonn/Bad Honnef->Koblenz->Mainz->Worms->Karlsruhe->Strasbourg, France->Breisach->Basel, Switzerland. It should be around 600 miles in all.

After this I'm meeting my uncle north of Milan for a couple of weeks in Italy (including Sicily).

I haven't posted here in ages, but I'm going on a bit of a bike tour and I'm going to use the blog for updates on my trip. I will be starting near Rotterdam (in the Netherlands) and then following the Rhine through Germany and France all the way to Basel, Switzerland. After that I'll be spending some time in Italy with my uncle. Stay tuned for updates.