A Yankee in William of Orange's court

Bike of the day

We got Ethan a new bike.  The landlord had left a kid's bike, but it was abit too big.  Ethan could and did manage it, but the awkwardness of it took the fun out of it.  So for 40 euros we got a whole lot of little-boy happiness in the form the The Fox, our new/used bike.  He's been making good use of it.  

Gratuitous bike pics

While we're posting bike pics, here are some gratuitous pics of mine from last week on the ride to Delft.

 

A construction zone too far

The ride to Amsterdam last friday was meant to be 39km according to Google maps.  There is much construction along the way and it wound up at 60 km.  On the way back, I figured out my mistakes, but still came in at 45 km.  I don't think it can be made shorter.  This makes it really time consuming to do regularly.  With all the stops for little towns and construction, I can only average about 24 or 25 kph, so it's almost two hours each way.  I can go by train, including the travel at each end by bike and foot, in about 45 or 50 minutes.  The ride to Delft in contrast doesn;t cost me any more time than the train.   It's a straight shot down clear path and I can manage 27 kph with little trouble and actually punched out  a 30 kph ride, fully loaded, the other night when I was needed at home. 

Cultural observation

There are helpful, courteous, outgoing Dutch people.  Lots of them. 

Living in a city, one can easily be left with the impression that the Dutch are a people with the anatomically surprising ability to actually turn their eyes to look completely and only into themselves.  They tend to ignore others in clear distress. They will push their way past a slow moving oma in a line without seeming to even notice. They generally give the impression that they cannot cope with the notion that the other objects moving in the world around them are actually people like themselves.   They are, in a word, inward-looking.   This, I am convinced is entirely a city thing. 

Thomas commented to me how nice it is when in the US to be standing on the street trying to decipher a map and have a total stranger offer to help unsolicited.  He also noted with some chagrin that this doesn't happen in Holland.   He's wrong.

Three times on my ride Friday people offered help to me completely unsolicited.  Once, a jogger on the path offered help while I looked at a map.  Again, while looking at the map, a small pack of older ladies offered help and patiently worked through my broken Dutch to confirm that , yes, I was on the right path, no I should not cross the A4 at the next opportunity, but wait till Nieuwe Wetering.  And finally, two very friendly construction workers, again in a patois of my broken Dutch and their broken English, were very helpful at a construction impasse.   

These were all clearly country folk.  I had been warned prior to my visit that the Dutch country people might be a bit insular, but aside from the lack of English, which is no bad thing in my view, the country Dutch have been much more pleasant to deal with than the supposedly cosmopolitan city Dutch.  They smile, offer aid, and seem happy to interact with other people.  I really really like the rural Dutch.  

Perhaps I am just a multicultural hayseed.