Inside The Perimeter

Saturday Morning:
I’ve come to the conclusion that Amsterdam is New Orleans, or New Orleans is Amsterdam. Both cities embrace excess, both are dirty, and both have side streets which are littered and smell of piss in the morning. When I am in good health I can handle either for about three days. On this trip I have unfortunately not been in good health, so my tolerance for the lifestyle conducted is much lower. I have either been fighting the Cruise Crud, allergies, or some other ailment which my body is finding difficult to defend. I sneezed a lot Friday, and woke Saturday morning with a runny nose and unsettled stomach.

I’ve also discovered Amsterdam to be a late-starting city on the weekends, finding it hard to locate a breakfast restaurant open before 9am. As I type this I am having coffee and apple pie in the shop in which I did the same thing a few weeks ago. This is also an attempt to kill the two hours I have before I board my train to Rheine, Germany. I will have left this destination by the time you read this heading back to Amsterdam where I will overnight before flying out tomorrow “afternoon”.

Destination: Rheine, Germany
Reason: none
Imposed Motto: “The Quiet City That Never Sleeps”

Saturday Post-Morning:
My train rolled into the small city of Rheine a little before 1:00pm. Luckily for me I caught the tail end of their Saturday market and bought some cheese and rolls for lunch. Score!

To add to my luck on Saturday afternoon there was some parade whose theme I didn’t understand. Something about shooting clubs coming together as explained to me by a young man whose English was marginally better than my German.

Because I didn’t follow my own rule to make sure every room you book has a goddamn air conditioner! I nearly purchased a 23cm desk fan for €15 to use in my hotel room. Were it slightly smaller I would have purchased it because it would then have fit into my backpack for the walk back to the hotel.

When I chose to come here I had no idea that little Rheine, Germany was also having a street party on Saturday night. Music stages were erected and bands played different styles of music. Of course I gravitated to the stage nearest Scum Bar (you know I had to drink there) which was rock music. I felt like a complete fish out of water as everyone else belted out lyrics in German and I could not; oddly I knew all of the music played behind the lead singer, but wondered if completely different lyrics were sung to the familiar tune.

Sadly my gimpy hip reared its ugly head and limited my mobility on Saturday. From the sounds I heard through my open window until 2am this quiet little city knows how to party.

Sunday:
Rheine in the 2020s reminds me of Queens in the 1970s.

Yesterday I discovered that the local soccer, um Fußball, team was playing a home match in the afternoon. A little research told me that FC Eintracht Rheine is currently in the fourth division of German Soccer and that the stadium in which they play is within walking distance (1.9km) from the town center. Guess what I did next! Spoiler: I went to the game. It was as much fun as could be expected for a fan with no rooting interest, even though I caused a bit of an incident as I tried to look around the seating area and was stopped by “security” and asked for my ticket. In broken German and English explained that I bought the ticket at the window this morning, two other “security” agents were consulted about my ticket and all was okay. Out of concern that I’d have to explain myself again I wound up sitting in a different area. The beer I bought was €3, the Coke €3.50.

After the game I walked back to town, went out to eat dinner, and bought two beers at a liquor store for my wild night in of packing and doing research. I fell asleep after finishing the first bottle, it may have been 9:00pm.

Wordle: four, my starter was CHASE
Connections: perfect, Blue > Green > Purple > Yellow

Yesterday outside of a church in Haarlem stood a statue honoring people who were killed by a bomb in 1944.

Across from the statue was a sign on which this poem was written. Here is how Google translated the girl’s poem.

Alone

I hear bangs and bombs
I wish they had never started this war

I wait all night
But for what?
For freedom, joy and equality

I feel more and more lonely
Without a mother and without a father

There is never any peace
And there is no one to comfort and kiss me

If only this had never happened
Then I would not have been sad now
If only my mother had stayed home
Then I would not have been sitting alone, in fear

Véronique Borgonjen
Choir School Haarlem, group 8

Spent a low key day in Amsterdam yesterday. The Gand of Four, now separated from the tour group, did a cheese and wine tasting which was arranged by ITP-Reader Barb. We wandered into three wine shops, identifying the “tourist trap” chain first, picking up cheeses which we took to a wine shop. We sampled four cheeses (identities to revealed when I find out exactly what we ate) while drinking pours of Dutch wine (which was surprisingly good). The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering and people watching, before I ate frites for dinner.

Oh, and I am now the proud owner of three new pair of underwear thanks to a purchase at TK Maxx (as it is called on this side of the Atlantic).

Today Haarlem? A brewery in Amsterdam? I’ll figure that out once my nose stops running this morning.

My next “plan”, to start tomorrow, was to spend two nights in a westernmost German town called Emmerich. That plan failed when I discovered they had no available hotels anywhere near the train station. “Plan B” fell through because I don’t want to spend over four hours (one way) on a journey to Bremen that will last only two days. Trying to make an alternative plan… Find out what I did when I return to Amsterdam on Monday in preparation for my return flight on Tuesday.

Wordle: two, my starter was CURVE
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Blue > Purple

Amsterdam: today we are doing a cheese and wine tour.

Still trying to plan my weekend. I will be staying until Tuesday because I’ve booked a non-refundable hotel for Monday night.

Wordle: five, my starter was CHAIR
Connections: perfect, Green > Blue > Yellow > Purple

Even though the weather wasn’t perfect yesterday we did get to ride on Kinderdijk and see the windmills built in the 1740s. It was very neat.

“Home Automation, 1740s Style”

We also rode through some stunning farm land, stopped at a dairy farm for lunch, and even bought some strawberries from an automat at an orchard.

My hip hurts a little today. I did it no favors by running back to the ship when it started raining on my post-dinner walk.

Today is the last riding day of the tour. Were this a driving trip I’d be returning home a few days early, but since I don’t want to pay airline change fees I will stick it out until Tuesday. I’m ready to return to my routines, knowing that they will be interrupted again almost immediately after I return to the US.

Destination: Amsterdam

I’ve learned some valuable lessons on this trip. Apparently I can no longer slather sunscreen on my arms when I ride in heat because it blocks the pores and causes me to get heat rash. I’ll be trying more lightweight arm sleeves next year.

I’ve also learned that I am not like most of the others on this trip and this environment is very hard for an introvert. Actually I knew this previously, but I guess I thought the riding would break down some of my social hurdles but it hasn’t.

And finally I learned that I packed too many shirts and not enough underwear. The dream of washing clothes in sinks never materialized.

Though I’ve no one but myself to blame, I’m feeling a little like a hog ready for slaughter.

Wordle: three, my starter was WEIRD
Connections: one mistake, X > Purple > Blue > Yellow > Green

Yesterday was the first day we opened up and pedaled fast for a little while, averaging about 20mph for a few miles. Due to the fact that we lost about three hours waiting to get through a lock, and that our ship could only dock briefly where we stopped riding, we skipped one planned stop and plowed through the rest of the day.

Today we take our bikes onto a water us to see the historic windmills on Kinderdijk. Unfortunately it’s overcast, but at least I don’t think that it will rain.

Destination: Vianen, Netherlands

Wordle: four, my starter was STEAM
Connections: perfect, Blue > Yellow > Green > Purple

Fanatic readers, of which I have trained none of you to be, will have noticed that I posted on Saturday… by mistake.

So far the trip has been wonderful. I am drinking and eating more than I should, but fuck it, I am having fun. Included in the trip was a fancy dinner in Antwerp. However, I needed some time alone so I wound up in an Indian restaurant called “Curryosity”. Given that I would have paid for my drinks at the fancy restaurant, I *might* have saved a euro or two by dining alone and spending €31. OMFG my lamb vindaloo was one of the spiciest Indian dishes that I’ve eaten in a long time and was sublime! After dinner I started to wander to a pub for a nightcap, but was full and experiencing hip pain, so I beat the dinner participants back to the ship. Time will tell how the lamb vindaloo treats me today…

As I type this on Sunday evening my mental state is low. Hopefully when you read this there will have been at least a minor correction.

Today we cross the Netherlands border by ship, leaving Belgium behind.

Destination: Dordrecht, Netherlands (but not all travel by bike today)

I’m growing a bit weary of the traveling lifestyle; that might be the beer talking.

Wordle: four, my starter was AWARE
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Green > Blue > Purple

Yesterday we rode from Bruges to Ghent; mileage total about 39 miles. Essentially the large group split into two, intermingling more often than expected. The riding styles and capabilities vary far more than the average age of the participants. A few riders, like our own ITP-Reader Barb, were blessed with bicycles whose brakes dragged making it very hard to pedal.

We rode through some beautiful countryside and busy streets, stopping once for lunch at a lovely little cafe at which I ate my pack lunch as well as ice cream and beer I bought from the cafe.

Today’s Destination: Sint Armands

Connections and I are going through a rough patch…

Wordle: three, my starter was SMOKE
Connections: fail, X > X > Blue > X > X

Day 0 saw no bike riding. The Gang of Four did a little more sightseeing in Bruges, including having a beer at the brewery famous for having a 3.3 meter underground pipe to ship its beer from one facility to another.

With plenty of time we boarded a city bus to get to the BRAG boat. What we didn’t realize that we boarded the bus on its way out out the center town, so we wound up being late.

In one of those weird life coincides out hashing friends Andrea and Miles have been traveling in Europe too, so we said hello at the train station, and may run into them again in Amsterdam.

Today’s Destination: Ghent

Wordle: five, my starter was DAILY
Connections: one mistake, Yellow > X > Purple > Green > Blue

Yesterday was started with a sweet breakfast, followed by a very educational and entertaining journey around the Belgium World of Beer. While doing the tour we were able to go into the lower level which was a historical tour of the structures which occupied the area centuries ago, answering all of my questions I had about Brussels.

Dateline: Bruges (Brugge)
After a short delay in train travel, we arrived in Bruges in time to check into our hotel and go to an early dinner. I had Flemish stew, beef cooked in a beer, which was fine if not a bit boring. The only negative for the meal was the feeling of being taken advantage of by the waitress who played the peer pressure game be asking us if we wanted to add a 15%, or 20% tip. Unfortunately, we let her win the game even though we all knew the gratuity was included in the price of the meals.

Sal and Allan climbed the famous belfry as Barb and I (the painful hip club) sat and did some people watching.

It was an early night, I may have fallen asleep by 8:45pm.

The BRAG journey starts today. We don’t leave Bruges today, instead today is a meet and greet, walking tour, bike fitting, and canal boat check-in.

Wordle: four, my starter was FLOUR
Connections: perfect, Yellow > Blue > Green > Purple