Roland & Julianna: A Bicycle Tour Across Europe PART ONE: AMSTERDAM

A bicycle tour of Europe! Yes!! And it’s about time. It’s been a while since our last point to point bicycle tour. Flying into Amsterdam, we meet up with Victor and Nadia, and have the good fortune to stay with Nadia’s cousin and his wife, who show us a glimpse of the lovely Dutch way of life. We enjoy an overnight stay in Amsterdam, complete with a honeymoon suite and guided bike tour (thanks Victor and Nadia!). And then we’re off, cycling through the sweet and verdant countryside of Holland. Through the town of Leiden and on to the magical city of Delft, with it’s elegant towers and serene canals. Only the first day of many weeks, a spectacular introduction to our cross Europe journey.

Music

Ever Forward – Francis Wells
Epidemic Sound

Inconsciousness – Mini Vandals
YouTube Audio Library

Posing – Lofive
Epidemic Sound

Sunday Rain – Cheel
YouTube Audio Library

The Long Ride – Sam Will
Epidemic Sound

Tall Tale – Trevor Kowalski
Epidemic Sound

Threads – Ever So Blue
Epidemic Sound

All right, 3 miles down, 1392 to go. Something like that. That’s a pretty good guess. We’ll see how many miles we actually go. Here we go. Yes. Yes. And just like that, another epic bike tour was underway. Well, not just like that. This tour had a unique angle. It was our honeymoon tour after all. In March, I proposed to Juliana on Cap for men tour in Mayorca. She said yes, and 5 months later, we were married. 5 and 1/2 months later, we found ourselves stuffed into an Uber heading to the airport. It’s happening. It’s happening. Ubering to the airport with our bikes. We’re ready to go. There we go. Icelander. All right. Beautiful. We’re dropping off our bikes and all the baggage handlers stopped and said, “You got a YouTube channel?” We’re like, “Yeah, we got another subscriber. Uh, send us off with a really, really positive send off.” It was great. All right, baby. All right, here we go. Hey, we’re on the plane. Bomb. Bombage. Off we go. Everything went swimmingly and here we are in Amsterdam. Well, we got the band back together. I think we’re right across from the bike shop that’s right now putting our bikes together. So, in a couple days, we’ll be on our way. Cheers. Happy trails. Our tour was to begin just outside of Amsterdam. We would be joined once again for the first couple of weeks by Victor and Nadia and were warmly welcomed into Nadia’s cousin’s home in nearby Almir. Mo, his wife Yolanda, and his sister Yumna together provided us with a wonderful soft landing and many delicious meals like this traditional Egyptian breakfast. This is tamea made also out of fava beans with a lot of herbs, dill and celery. And this is pickled plant. So this you even have a good pita bread. This is a very traditional Egyptian how Egyptians have their breakfast. And this stays in the stomach like a fondue. Yes. It’s like a fu when you drink protein. Love it. That’s a great way to start the day. Bona beautiful bona petit. All right everybody say cheese. As it happens, one of the must dos when visiting Mo and Yolanda is to take a boat ride through the serene Vest Plaza, enjoying the lovely Dutch homes and floating through the green mazes of waterways. At some point, we came upon a wateride restaurant that for generations has been serving the same smoked eel recipe. The daughter was proud to give us a tour. They they be catch at the coastline of Spain. Yes. But then they are really small. They go to farms and they grow there. When it’s big enough, it all comes here alive and we put them in the big cages there in the water. Uhhuh. And then every morning we take out of the water what we going to smoke that day. First we clean it and salt it and then put them on the like stick and then there goes a lot of wood. Only oak wood. Yeah. It’s really important for the taste. Yeah. Then the cast closes and then really the smoking circulation begin like one and a half two hours. We uh smoke it like the old recipe of my grandfather and then my father and now we uh Yeah. Very nice. The smoke also the smoke. Yeah. Yeah. Look at them. Yeah. I give this the chef’s kiss. This is the best eel. It’s the best eel I’ve ever had in the world. So, we’re going to enjoy our eel sandwiches here by the water. EO sandwiches. This simple sandwich stands as one of the best meals of my life. I can still taste it now. Do you know do they marinate it? No, they smoke. Cheers. Cheers. Got to be Captain Yolanda. Captain Yolanda. Hello. From your favorite honeymoon crashers, Victor and N. Yeah, we’re the crashers. We’re the crashers. But after all this, we still weren’t quite ready to start on our tour. Victor and Nadia had planned an evening in nearby Amsterdam. So the next morning, we caught a bus into the bustling city without the burden of our loaded touring bikes. There are bulks that are cleared to go to the US. I’ll let you figure out what this sign’s all about. When we checked into our room, Victor and Nadia had a surprise waiting for us. I want to see the view. Nice. What a beautiful room. So, check out this room that Nadia and Victor got us. This is our little honeymoon suite. Our wedding gift. Part of our wedding gift out. Yes. I mean, is that incredible? that front row seat of the whole vibe of Amsterdam right there. Absolutely gorgeous. Could not have done it better, you guys. Thank you. And then we took off to enjoy part two of their wedding gift, a guided bicycle tour through this beautiful city. No helmet in jeans on a creaky old 3-speed just the way the Amsterdammers do it. what it costs, right? It’s very strange, you know, getting on one of these rental bikes. It’s so upright, so slow and kind of creaky, but this is what everyone rides, you know. Well, greetings from the cycling capital of the world, Amsterdam. You guys you guys got married like two weeks ago or something because this bridge is the most romantic bridge in Amsterdam. The the the little story that says that the hookies are going to miss this this bridge and the lover will will last forever. So I do advise it. Here we go. The love will last forever. So there are a few stories. I mean there are a few reasons I guess where these brakes are here to the metal. Hey Juliana. Yes my how how you liking this upright ride? I’m liking it. Does it feel good on the back? It does. Yeah. Feels good on the whole body. I’m thinking it could be a comfortable ride all the way to Venice, you know. Yeah. What a great idea for a present, Nadia. Victor, I’m all about memory gifts. Memory gifts. I’ll always remember this. And you’re right. We got enough enough stuff. Thank you, Victor and Nadia. Heat. Heat. N. straight. No. What a great way to see Amsterdam. We capped off the day with a lovely Chilean meal. Victor got lamb shank. Lamb shank. A Chilean dish with beef, chicken, olives with a corn and basil crust on top. It’s like a pot pie. sandwiches. Traditional Chilean sandwich and that’s what I got and it’s amazing. I already dived into it. So, thank you very much. Hello. And I’m bringing the bottle of wine. The most important part of the meeting. Yes, of course. Such a nice day. Life is good. As evening fell, we strolled the canals, enjoying the play of light on the water and reveling in the vibe of this amazing city. And we’re getting ready for another bicycle tour. Herman’s mounted up. Bikes are packed. Pier’s on. We’re at a bike shop. Nadia’s taking care of a few more details. And we are ready to go. It’s a nice bike shop. They’ve been very good to us. That’s That’s much better. Be careful. Mine’s We have a YouTube channel. Yeah. So, yeah. I didn’t get your name. What was your name? Oh, Renee. Okay. Hey, Renee. Renee put our bikes together. So, he sold me my touring bike. Yeah. Years ago, he sold me my touring bike. Many years ago. Yeah. Enjoy your trip. Thank you so much. Okay. But finally, finally, the morning of our actual departure arrived. All right. Here we come. Netherlands coming to get you. Gorgeous day. This must be the lake that we were just uh boating on the other day. Hey, look. It’s our eel place. Boy, it feels so good to be back on these loaded bikes. You know, bags all loaded, got the weight on, got it well distributed. It’s a heavy load that you’re carrying, but it feels so good when you’re doing it. And uh I just love it. Our route would take us from Amsterdam to Belgium, south through Luxembourg, into Germany, down the Mosul, up the Rine and the Mine, then onto the Romantic Road, crossing the Alps on the Via Claudia Augusta, then into Italy along the Adaji, making our way to Venice. If we could pull it off, a true transcontinental journey. It had been nearly 3 years since our last serious bike tour, and to say we were excited would be an understatement, and cycling in a new country. We were eager to see what the Netherlands had in store for us. It wasn’t long before we begin to see the windmills. They were everywhere on a route. and all those green houses. Maybe flowers. I don’t know. It’s a glamping place. Check that out. Just a ton of these really nice yurts where you can stay here on the canal. Maybe dock your boat. Lots of picnic tables. Lovely. So, so far these Dutch bike paths are kind of everything you’d expect. Absolutely flat as can be. Beautiful scenery. Nice little towns and a lot of windmills, too. I don’t think we’re going to have any shortage of Dutch vibes on our trip to Belgium. Coming into the city of Leiden on a a series of bike paths. Very welldesigned here. I mean, we have not had to leave the bike path, I think, maybe a couple times for very short stretches of very quiet road. It’s been absolutely spectacular infrastructure here, just as you’d expect. A rare working windmill for your viewing pleasure. We entered Leiden, a busy city laced with canals and beautiful Dutch houses. We stopped for a quick takeout lunch, which we ate by the water. And then we meandered through the city streets before continuing on our way. Little crowded biking through the streets of Leiden. Lot nicer than biking through the streets of Amsterdam, the lovely town of Leiden. We got through the main part of the city. It was a lot more crowded, a lot more people, but now it’s just nice, easy neighborhood bikeways, beautiful homes. It looks like a little story book land. Every house and every roof, it’s different. Absolutely gorgeous. It’s a beautiful day. Oh, this this forest just feels so good to be in here. So nice and cool. Our route carved a fine line between the Hag and Roderdam. And with few exceptions, we were mostly riding through city or suburbs. No wonder this country is one of the more densely populated on Earth. And especially in this part, you’re seldom far away from people. But the riding was pleasant and the bike paths were of course topnotch. It’s a blessing no less because we found ourselves dealing with a lot of traffic and bicycles as well as cars especially as we entered into the city of Delft. Coming into Delft Oh, gorgeous town. Delft has always captured my imagination. And as we headed through the streets to our Airbnb for the night, the town’s charms embraced us. canals and pretty bridges everywhere. Smooth brick streets and those clean, sturdy Dutch homes. Right or left, Roland? Left. We were utterly charmed by this lovely city and we slipped through the port to our stay on the edge of the old town. Our place for the night was an authentically Dutch affair with a ridiculously steep staircase and with only enough storage in the entryway for two of our bikes. Get the bikes up there. Do you think we can get them up the curve there up the stairs? Let’s try with at least one or two. The smallest might be Juliana. Here. Check out these stairs. Only your toes can really, but they are the color of delfted. A nice space. Yep. Probably didn’t want to crowd a lot of people in here. There’s mine with my uh underwear drying out from last night. And kind of a busy little intersection down there, but we’re really close to a very famous landmark here in Delft. This town is like a painting and is indeed the subject of a famous masterwork by Vermeer. We met and had dinner with a friend of Nadia’s who lived here and who showed us around the town and introduced us to one of the weirdest exhibits I’ve ever seen. What I remember from this guy telling us is that this this person actually traveled to Papa New Guinea in those areas and then visited these rural rural villages there and then he would he would be offered it to him or he bought them. He brought it to the NS. What is that over there? Is that a shrunken head? He’s like, “Hey, look at that.” the beautiful old. When we finally retired to our home, we were met with more than one complication. In the background, so we got this room. Very charming. But look what’s out here. They’re repaving the roads. Just in time for a good night’s sleep. Woohoo. So, tonight I’m sleeping in the kids bed and I get to be lollipop sleeper that day. So, good night sleep. Well, my little uh kidsiz bed didn’t make it through the night crashed right through and left me hanging in the bed frame. So, I took my blanket and made the treacherous journey downstairs to the couch where I squeezed in whatever sleep I could. Always an adventure.