Back to Amsterdam

So before the boys had to fly back to Canada, we decided on a trip to Amsterdam.  This was a lot of fun and I was excited to show the guys my favourite city.  They were both rookies and had never been!

I also took this opportunity to box up my bike and bring it back with me to the Netherlands.  The boys left their bikes in storage in Madrid as they were flying out from there.  My plan is to bike from the Netherlands and go South into Germany, Luxembourg, and finally Switzerland!

Camping, Den Haag, Rotterdam, and hospitality!

J'aime bien faire du camping, c'est bien plaisante et tranquille.  Ca nous donne la chance a reposer et penser a la route de l'avenir.

First time seeing the ocean!

This is where I met the German Family!  Those are the bike touring bags.

This is a great story.  So I'm checking out the beach and the ocean for the first time, and as you can see it is very windy.  I might add I was biking into a headwind for 4 days.  Yowza.

Anyway, I see this older gentleman with bike touring bags next to mine.  So we get to talking and he's very interested in my trip.  It seems he also has a son that is very interested in mountain biking.  We're going on an on about my bike and the equipment I'm using when his family shows up!  So he introduces me to his son, all of 16 years old, and he is SUPER into biking.  So much so that his father asks me to have lunch with them!  I've learned now that whenever someone offers you something, you just accept it.  It's hard, I'm not used to living off others, but the generosity I have seen in Europe has been nothing short of extraordinary!  Micha Eich and Niklas Berg were great company, and I loved hearing how stoked he was on mountain biking!

So I agree to sit down for lunch, I'd been biking all morning, and I was hungry anyway.  So I sit with his son and he starts firing questions at me about BC.  First he wants to know if I know of Whistler.  Yes, I know of Whistler.  Do I know of CrankWorx?  Yes of course!  Then he asks if I've ever been to KAMLOOPS!  He drops names like Matt Hunter, Graham Agassiz, and Brandon Semenuk.  All local riders from where I live!  What a small world.  I tell him that Graham Agassiz actually helped with our Bike to Work Week campaign, and that Matt Hunter also donated to my GranFondo event.  I thought it was just amazing that this 16 year old kid from Germany just loves these guys!  I agree, what they're doing is nothing short of incredible and we both agreed the videos on PinkBike from Kamloops are sick!  Anyway, just a fun lunch meeting with the family.  We talked a lot about Germany's  progress on solar energy expansion and we talked about the fracking that the Dutch want to do right on the border.  They were not too pleased about this.  All in all, I let the son know that he should continue to practice his English and then come visit me in Kamloops when he's done high school.  He could get a job at Sun Peaks, or work at a local bike shop.  His dad was very pleased that I was encouraging his English, and I hope to meet them again soon, come see me when you have graduated and we'll go shred the slopes in Kamloops!

Typical Dutch bikes

Nuff said

Rotterdam, biggest harbour in Europe!

Den Haag on the coast

Great capture by the GoPro, I just like the shadow

I will miss the Netherlands.  The Dutch were so friendly and welcoming.  After visiting in 2007 I promised myself that I would return.  Now after having a greater visit of the people and the country, I long to return already...

This one is for my sister, these blonde horses were everywhere.  Maybe you know the breed Dom?