First Amsterdam Outing

The first night was horrible, as expected. A nine hour time difference will do that…

In bed for 13 hours, asleep for 9. Honestly not bad.

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In bed for 13 hours, asleep for 9. Honestly not bad.

I knew I couldn’t do anything adventurous. Just getting through the day and falling asleep at the right time would be a victory. But I had to look around a bit, so… Time go find a series of bakeries!

The first one I hit was a recommendation from Zach, only a few blocks from their house.

First bakery experience of the trip.

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First bakery experience of the trip.

As I was parking my bike outside, a woman about half my age said “good morning” in bright English. This impressed me for two reasons: First, it was obvious I was a weird foreign tourist; yep. Time to use English. And second, back home, young women just plain never greet older men out on the street.

I told Zach about it and he said “Oh yeah, people out here love greeting strangers.”

I emerged from the bakery with a delightful ham and cheese croissant. This actually set a high standard and it was hard to find a bakery that would top it.

Nom nom nom nom

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Nom nom nom nom

The birds are very optimistic around here.

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The birds are very optimistic around here.

The birds appreciated quality too. Perhaps they knew it’s impossible to eat a croissant without little pieces falling all over the place…

Just waiting for you to drop a snack…

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Just waiting for you to drop a snack…

I found it interesting that the birds were so used to parked bicycles that they’d use them as furniture.

Am I seeing this correctly? Is this a kiosk where you can buy a bike helmet … or a lawn gnome??

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Am I seeing this correctly? Is this a kiosk where you can buy a bike helmet … or a lawn gnome??

A welcome sight.

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A welcome sight.

The next place I found did coffee and pastries, so I bought some of each. I didn’t see any “no laptop” signs and there were people working on them around me, so I imported photos for a while. My brain was in no shape to do anything else.

Soon the coffee was gone and it was time for the next bakery.

Note the extra windshield on top for protecting the hands!

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Note the extra windshield on top for protecting the hands!

On the way to my bike, I spotted this cool contraption!

These biking directions are really dang good.

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These biking directions are really dang good.

I was quickly learning that no particular maps application had all the best routes. To make sure I found the bike lanes but didn’t get sent onto a footpath or a busy sidewalk, I had to compare routes between Google and Apple maps, and then switch to Map Plus, where I could follow the route while viewing the OpenCycle Map.

In due time I found bakery number three of the day:

So many breads in fun shapes!

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So many breads in fun shapes!

I bought two things, including another croissant, which I chomped while standing around outside. A nice and easy itinerary for a massively jet-lagged cycle tourist.

On the way back to Zach’s place I decided to take a detour through the nearby parkland:

Quite the avenue of trees.

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Quite the avenue of trees.

Great weather, nice separated paths, very flat … It makes sense that this country has so many bikes!

Here, learn about the construction happening around the park:

Here, learn about this project.

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Here, learn about this project.

As I was riding through, I saw some separated paths that were covered in sand instead of paved. I couldn’t figure out what those were for until two women on horseback rode by. Of course! Special paths for critters with hooves!

Trail signposts blend in better when they lean!

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Trail signposts blend in better when they lean!

Nice day for a four-legged walk!

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Nice day for a four-legged walk!

These fellows are everywhere.

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These fellows are everywhere.

Every now and then I see a couple of these chillin’ by the side of the road.

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Every now and then I see a couple of these chillin’ by the side of the road.

“Oy oy!” said one of the riders, in a loud, boisterous voice.

I was all filled up with baked goods, but I wanted a drink to push through the rest of the day. I rolled closer to Zach’s house and found what he later told me was “the bougie part of Amstelveen, though it’s hard to tell because most of Amstelveen looks like that.” A café at a corner sold me a latte-like thing and I slowly drank it and poked around at maps, passing another couple of hours.

It wasn’t a mocha, but it was very foamy.

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It wasn’t a mocha, but it was very foamy.

I dragged myself back to the house. Zach and Michael invited me out on a short walk, and I had just enough energy for it.

Ready for a dogscursion!

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Ready for a dogscursion!

I dig this little red video game man.

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I dig this little red video game man.

Around 6:00pm I collapsed for another long, jagged run of sleep. Not bad for a first day, really…

More Miraculous Air Travel

Like most of my previous bike tours, this one involves a huge pile of stuff. There’s the bicycle in a humungous box, but also two additional suitcases full of camping gear, parts, clothing, electronics, and so forth.

I worry about thieves grabbing my suitcases off the luggage carousels, so the more decorated and weird and eye-catching they are, the better. Luckily I had a fine artist on hand!

Custom luggage art by Rachel!

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Custom luggage art by Rachel!

Jon arrived right on schedule and gave me a ride to the airport in his groovy truck, and helped me unload the gear when we got there. We had fun telling war stories about old software upgrades gone wrong, and the changing nature of our industry.

Thanks to this handy SFO Security Time Estimate web page, I could relax about the time it would take to pass through all the checkpoints when I got to the airport.

Jon got everything to the airport safely. Love that guy!

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Jon got everything to the airport safely. Love that guy!

I stuck the little wheels on the bottom of the box, hooked one suitcase onto the handle of the other, and rolled everything to the check-in desk.

Two tenths of a pound below the cutoff. Whew!

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Two tenths of a pound below the cutoff. Whew!

Well that was close! I had to pay the over-weight fee, but I didn’t have to pry open the box and shuffle things around like last time.

As I roamed around and located my gate, then settled in to do some paperwork, I checked the state of my luggage on my phone. The two suitcases and the bicycle slowly migrated across the airport, and by the time I was on the plane, the Airtags told me my luggage probably was too. Airtags are just wonderful for this sort of thing.

Airtags sure do give me peace of mind.

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Airtags sure do give me peace of mind.

Waiting on the tarmac…

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Waiting on the tarmac…

Here’s another reason I’m a lucky bastard: I can spend enough money to get a nonstop flight. Why does this matter to me? The dang luggage. A bicycle box is awkward, and relatively fragile. If it has to be moved between airplanes it will be messed with by airport personnel at least twice as much. And it’s quite possible one of them will damage the box or the contents while they’re mucking around inside looking for nuclear weapons or five thousand tiny snakes or whatever.

So, to ease my paranoia, I’m going non-stop. I could have potentially started the trip much closer to Norway – or in Norway – and tacked Amsterdam onto the end, but everything non-stop over there was brutally expensive. Plus, seeing Zach in Amsterdam was important. I didn’t want to defer that and potentially miss it.

And so, we flew nearly over the top of the world, in a straight line to Amsterdam:

We went over the top of the world.

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We went over the top of the world.

As we passed over Greenland I looked down and saw an endless expanse of fog-shrouded snow, piled on top of itself and blown into long, curving valleys by the freezing wind. I thought of the jacket in my backpack, and the wee life vest that was supposedly somewhere beneath my chair.

Even if there was an actual airstrip down there, and the plane landed and rolled to a stop without any problems, we would all freeze solid long before any rescue could arrive. We wouldn’t even have time to resort to cannibalism.

On that note, time for dinner!

It’s harder to freak out about plane crashes when you’re constantly eating.

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It’s harder to freak out about plane crashes when you’re constantly eating.

As we passed over Iceland I looked down and recognized one of the finger-like appendages of the northwestern region.

Northwestern arm of Iceland. It sure does look different in the winter!

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Northwestern arm of Iceland. It sure does look different in the winter!

I’d bypassed this on my first trip in 1999. That had been late summer, after the tourist rush, and I navigated a fair amount of wind and rain, but there hadn’t been a scrap of snow on those mountains. In the winter they’re a whole lot less inviting.

You ever try pedaling a loaded bicycle on a snow-covered road? If so, good job: You did the best that anyone can do, which is try.

I drifted in and out of consciousness a bunch, wearing noise-canceling headphones and an eye mask and using my inflatable pillow and the patch of blanket they give you for the flight. About all I could handle for input was episodes of The Goon Show, and when that was too complicated I just went with ambient music by Alio Die.

At long last we flew over land that wasn’t covered in snow, and as we spun around the airport I could see fields of flowers in long rectangles all around us.

Tulip fields!

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Tulip fields!

Something tells me this is the Netherlands!