The past few days have been quite cycle filled in fact. After mentioning to Andrew that I couldn't remember the last time I'd dreamt, I then had several dreams concerned the bike I had stolen in the first year of Uni (with it oddly turning out to be the bike I'm riding here - it's not). I then decided to transfer this into the waking world, and yesterday with the sun shining I decided to cycle south and see what was there. Three hours later I'd discovered a number of lovely little villages in amongst endless fields, and I'd also got nicely sunburnt.
Today I had intended to catch a train, with my bike, to de Hoge Veluwe, one of the Netherland's National Parks that is supposed to be especially good for cycling around. However, I had a change of heart while cycling to the train station, and instead, headed up the Oude Gracht and onto LF7b - the rather bland name for the 350km cycle route that links Maastricht in the south with Alkmaar in the north, via Utrecht and Amsterdam. Somehow the route managed to completely avoid the industrial outskirts of Utrecht by following the Vecht river which winds all the way to Amsterdam.
I passed through some more lovely villages, including Bruekelen, the township that the better known Brooklyn in New York was named after - but no jokes about accents here. I hadn't originally thought that I'd cycle all the way to Amsterdam. After yesterday's little excursion my knees were making their displeasure evident, but after getting so far, I thought I may as well carry on.
The above sign, from the province, not the city, of Utrecht wishing to see me again soon, strengthed my resolve to go all the way to Amsterdam. Now, depending on who you speak to, Amsterdam supposed to be about two or three hours cycling away. Admittedly I did make some wrong turns on the way, including a rather picturesque 10km detour around some marshes, and a lot of confusing when it came to crossing the huge Amsterdam-Rhijn Shipping Canal, but it took me 4 1/2 hours.
Not that I'm complaining mind, it was a lovely ride through the countryside, it just took a little longer until I saw an Amsterdam sign than I was expecting, and to be honest, it was a pretty sorry excuse for a sign after such a journey.
Unfortunately, it also turned out to be 'Amsterdam' in the same way that the M25 is 'London' and 45 minutes later I was still cycling through industrial estates towards the centrum, which eventually came rather suddenly and unexpectedly.
By the time I got there I really felt suitable for nothing, and I'd already discounted any thoughts I might have had about cycling back, I had to get straight on train. The Dutch rush hour apparently starts at 16:30, from when no bikes are allowed on the trains. So I had to buy my bike it's travelcard and get straight on the train back to Utrecht, which took about 30 minutes, but wasn't half as fun.
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