Honden

Utrecht

Another beautiful day Saturday, so we went to Utrecht. First, because I had never been there and had heard it was cool. And second, because we wanted to test ride a folding tandem at Kok Fietsen.

There was a lot to see and do, and we only saw and did a little bit of it. After our test ride, we had lunch at a recommended café (Restaurant de Zakkendrager, pictured above) with a garden view right in the middle of the city.

After lunch we visited "the most cheerful museum in the Netherlands", the Speelklok Museum, which features "automatically playing musical instruments from the 15th century to the present day". We learned that the first mechanical musical devices were created for municipal or church clocks, to alert residents that the clock in the tower was about to strike the hour. Kind of an early version of "synchronize your watches",  before personal timepieces existed. We saw (and heard) several exquisite early drawing room musical clocks and curiosities, a Steinway pianola, and an amazing player piano with mechanical violin trio, the Hupfeld Phonoliszt Violina. Their collection also includes belly organs (played by organ grinders of old) and an array of street organs, a sort of national instrument of the Netherlands. Spoiler alert, don't watch this if you might visit this excellent museum:

It was time for a pick me up, so we stopped for coffee (and beer and Chocomel) at a cafe on a bridge that crosses the Oude Gracht ("Old Canal"). That gave us the energy we needed to ascend more than 400 steps to the top of the Dom Tower, the tallest church tower in the Netherlands. The view was great, and it was fun to look waaaaaaaaay down and see where we had been.

No discussion of Utrecht is complete unless it touches on Miffy, Dick Bruna's whimsical rabbit character. She appears everywhere, including the shop at the Speelklok Museum:

Not sure I even knew there were folding tandems before we came to the Netherlands - it just crossed my radar when we started to investigate bike touring with our tandem, which is too big to go on the train. The tandem we tried out is made by Multicycle, and folds quite simply with a hinge just before the front seat. It was awesome - comfortable and easy to ride.

Aside from the great things we saw in Utrecht, it was a good follow up to my Happy Biking post - Utrecht's city planners have really figured out a great carrot-and-stick approach to the problem of cars taking over a city's streets.

First the stick - parking in the city is expensive and hard to find, and the streets are narrow or often simply closed to car traffic. We saw some cars in town, but more buses, and a lot of bikes. The carrot is cheap and plentiful parking just outside the city centers. We drove to Utrecht, about 90 minutes from home, and left the car in a parking garage just off the motorway. For four euros we were able to validate our parking ticket, which doubled as a transit pass for up to five people. We walked across the street to a bus stop, waited just a few minutes, and found ourselves in the city center in about 10 minutes. Painless!

We've seen videos of hordes of cyclists in Utrecht; now we know why there are a remarkable number of folks in that city who choose to get around by bike. Can't resist including one of the videos here:

A note to my friends in the U.S.: yes, there are no helmets. Bicycle-auto crashes are uncommon in the Netherlands, and crashes resulting in injuries even rarer. Consider: because of the forces involved, neck injuries are common in automobile crashes. Do you or your passengers wear neck braces when driving or riding in a car, to prevent injury in case of a crash?

Happy Biking!

May is Bike Month in the United States, and today, the third Friday in May, is Bike to Work Day. For the past 14 years, my home town of Bellingham has celebrated this day as "Bike to Work and School Day". I've participated as a parent volunteer at my kids' elementary school, as a member of the county-wide organizing committee, and on the job at Western Washington University.

Why have a month dedicated to biking, and a day celebrating bike commuting? According to the League of American Bicyclists, Bike Month and Bike to Work Day are about educating cyclists and other road users about safe cycling and cycling safety, and to promote cycling as a healthy and environmentally friendly form of transportation.

Bellingham is recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a Silver Level Bicycle Friendly Community and by North American standards it's a great place to be a bike commuter (if you don't mind getting wet once in a while). But like most North American cities, Bellingham could take a few tips on bike-friendliness from comparably sized cities in the Netherlands. Here are a handful of observations gleaned from my (admittedly short) experience:

1. Biking is appealing when it's quicker, cheaper, and more pleasant than driving a car.
2. Roads and paths must be be designed so that bicycles are prioritized. Cars and trucks need roads too - but roads (with only a few exceptions) must accommodate cyclists if a community wants to encourage cycling. See #1 above.
3. Roads and pathways must be designed for the most vulnerable users - moms hauling a small child or two, young kids riding alongside their parents, and the elderly.
4. Motorized vehicle speeds must be low (18 mph) on shared roads or where bikes are not physically separated from motorized vehicles. See #3 above.
5. Driving a car must be a privilege, not a right. Drivers licenses should granted only after demonstrating true driving proficiency, not just the ability to pass an short and easy road test. The penalty for a moving violation or for driving under the influence should be stiff enough to provide a real deterrent.
6. The true cost of motorized transportation must be borne by its users. That means higher fuel and other taxes. Unfortunately, this is the third rail of American (and here I refer specifically to the U.S.) politics. Cheap gas is like a drug, highly addictive and detrimental to a country's long term financial, environmental, and physical health.
7. Every destination must be accessible by bike, without long detours, and wherever possible by pleasant, well signed roads and paths. Ideally, the shortest path for any trip will be by bicycle.
8. Bike parking should be ubiquitous, ample, safe, and close to every destination. Car parking should be available but expensive and out of sight. See #6 above.

In the US about 1% of all trips are made by bicycle; in the Netherlands it's about 30%. You'd think the Dutch would be satisfied with that number (after all, it's the highest rate in the world) but they believe bicycling is important for environmental and social reasons, and the Dutch government actively encourages cycling with the goal of increasing bike mode share.

The Postcode Lottery is one way cycling is encouraged in the Netherlands. Since 1989, the lottery has been raising funds to support organisations working for a fairer, greener world. The picture above is a Postcode Loterij bike; these are awarded to each entrant in the winning district. We frequently see these bikes around town and in our travels around the Netherlands. They give me hope. After all, the cycling share in the Netherlands was once lower than it is today. But with encouragement - like Bike Month in the U.S. - progress has been made. If it can be done here (and in Boulder, CO, Portland, OR, and New York, NY) it can be done elsewhere.

Happy Bike Day!

Germany

We made our first foray into Germany last week, thanks to a school vacation that coincided with a family birthday. The trip was by train; first to Cologne (Köln in German) for a day and a half, then Düsseldorf for another night and a day.

Our impressions: unlike some other places*, in Germany the train schedule is serious business. Stops at smaller stations are quick, sometimes less than a minute, and more than once we saw luckless travelers sprinting for a train that started pulling away from the station 20 seconds early. On the other hand, we found that Germans are sympathetic and helpful to visitors. Once, when we got on a tram going the wrong direction and foolishly stayed on it to the end of the line, a very kind Oma (grandmother) instructed us on where to find a tram back to the city center, and which tram we needed - all in German but perfectly comprehensible to monoglot me.

In Cologne we visited the Schokoladen Museum (Chocolate Museum) then worked off the rich desserts by ascending more than 500 steps to the top of the belfrey at the Dom (cathedral). The view was wonderful but the interior of the cathedral was simply spectacular. I hope to return someday to enjoy one of the many choral or organ concerts at the Dom.

We happened onto a fun international event - Düsseldorf is the host city for Eurovision 2011 (a song contest) and we enjoyed watching hopefuls in the junior division dance their hearts out on stage. While walking around Düsseldorf's old town we were treated to a glimpse of last year's winner, Lena Meyer-Landrut, as she was intercepted by a TV camera crew.

Other highlights of our trip: Köln's riverwalk and many beautiful churches, most of which were rebuilt in their original styles after the war, meeting other travelers at the Pathpoint Cologne hostel; Dusseldorf's Kunst im Tunnel (Art in the Tunnel) gallery, rich-in-history Stadtmuseum and local Altbier.

On the whole, a successful foray. Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland! We'll be back!

*namely the Netherlands and Belgium, more on this later.

Have Fiets, Can Travel

Fiet is Dutch for bicycle, and since our less-than-completely-successful experience with a rental car, we've mainly been fietsers (bicyclists). Meaning that except for an occasional train trip, we've been biking (and less frequently walking) everywhere. We have yet to acquire a car.

Much has been written about how wonderful it is to be a cyclist in the Netherlands, and most of it falls short. Fietsers are "king of the road" here. Small streets are calmed (with bumps and narrowing) to make them safer for cyclists; medium streets have marked bike paths (red pavement denotes a bike lane);  arterials have separated bike paths. Even better, in many areas there is a completely separate bike route which is much prettier than the auto route. Better signed, too.

Fiets were very nearly our first purchases here. We went to a workshop for the disabled, which sells reconditioned bikes. Two of us chose Dutch-style three speed imports from Asia, one chose a very traditional Dutch single speed bike with coaster brake, and Tim purchased a 10 year old Dutch made bike from a colleague. The bikes came with lights and bells (which are required on all bikes here) and we added inexpensive (about $12) pannier bags for school books and shopping, .

What is a Dutch-style bike? They have heavy steel frames, enclosed drive trains, generator powered lights (no batteries required), upright riding position, fenders, skirt guards, and a back rack with bungee cords. Most have comfortable seats, wide handlebars, step through frame (girly bike) and often one or two child seats. Most are single or at the most, three speeds. These bikes are used for commuting and errands, as well as weekend joyrides. The one piece of equipment we almost never see is a helmet, which only sport cyclists seem to wear here.

Everyone here seems to ride a bike. Most families have only one car, so a mom or dad riding kids to school or childcare is a frequent sight. By middle school, kids are riding to school on their own, and a 10 km (6 mile) ride to school is common. Because of this, there are fewer schools here than in America, even though bus transportation to school is not provided. Middle aged folks and the elderly ride in large numbers. When they aren't able to ride any more, people switch to three- or four-wheeled electric scooters, which they ride in the bike lane or in the street, just as though they are still riding a tweewieler (two wheeler).

Pieterpad

I've been a marathon walker since 2004. Subsequently I became aware of long distance trail walking (sometimes called trekking or tramping) around the world and ever since have been intrigued by the possibility of combining travel and walking. Long distance trails vary widely - some are in remote and mountainous areas, others are more rural and run through farming areas to link villages, and some run right through major cities.

Early research into Venlo brought to my attention the Pieterpad, a 485 km (301 mile) trail that stretches from Pieterburen in the extreme north of the country to Sint Pietersberg in the far south. The trail happens to run right through Venlo, so it seemed like the perfect choice to begin my European walking adventures.

So on a sunny May Day, I set off north from home on foot armed with a light pack and my camera. My destination was the ferry at Grubbenworst, about 5 km north of our home. Normally a trail is walked in one direction (not round trip) but since this was primarily a scouting mission I decided to walk to the ferry, then walk home again - a pleasant 10 km (6 mile) walk on a sunny Sunday.

The trail guide is in two volumes each costing €25, and is available only in Dutch, so I have been reluctant to buy it. For the trial walk, I made notes from a map I found online and hoped for the best. Fortunately I found the trail is very well marked using an international trail marking system. One red and white stripe pair means "this way". There's an example of this in the picture at the top. They are mostly pretty easy to spot, but sometimes not:

A double pair of red and white stripes means "prepare to change direction":

The third (and last) trail mark means "wrong way":

I was relieved to know the trail is quite easy to follow. As my worries about being able to follow the trail faded, I started to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells along the way. In the section I walked on this day, the trail follows the river Maas for a while, then meanders along farm fields and animal paddocks. I saw a number of horses and ponies, which seem to be ubiquitous in this region:

It's still early spring here, but campers are already starting to appear. This is a "minicamping":

Most parts of the trail are shared with other vehicles, including signed bike routes:

Conveniences are provided for trail users:

In the 5 km section I walked, I saw just two labeled Pieterpad signs - the one at the top and this one:

At 31 km (19 miles), the Venlo to Roermond stage of the walk is the longest. Tim joined me (by bike) for the last 3 km of my return trip. We continued into downtown Venlo, where route markings became much more frequent. We also found this sign, for a different sort of trail:

Now I'm intrigued by the idea of walking to Santiago de Compostela. So many places to go!

Koninginnedag

According to Wikipedia, Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) was originally celebrated on the queen's birthday. But that's in February and since the weather is so much nicer in late April, it's now celebrated on April 30th. Although the big celebration is in Amsterdam, every town has their own festivities. So we stayed home this year for Queen's Day and enjoyed the local offerings.

April 30 fell on Saturday this year, so our Queen's Day started at the weekly Saturday market. The market includes produce, clothing and textiles, as well as flowers, sausage, fish (fresh, smoked and fried) and of course cheese. This week our purchases included a scarf, some sausages, 2 kilos of grape tomatoes and a 5 kilo bag of assorted fruit. We love these bags of fruit - for €5 (about US$7) we got a pineapple, a coconut, a bunch of bananas, and about a kilo each of apples, pears and oranges.

In the afternoon there was a fun fair for families in the park adjacent to the Saturday market. There were inflatable bounce houses for young children, as well as crown making and other crafts. Beer was on sale for the parents, and fruit was on sale for everyone. It looked like great family fun.

In the evening, there were two separate public celebrations in downtown Venlo. For the older generation, there was a tattoo featuring the Joeks-Jagers ("Joke Hunters") in the same square I mentioned in Thursday's post. In addition to the tables that fill one side of the square, there was a bandstand set up in front the the old city hall, and next to that were several WWII-era trucks brought out for the big day. Crowds of spectators (including us) lined up along both open sides of the square. Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of room for the performers!

Just before 8 o'clock, we heard a drum corps approaching. Spectators at one corner of the square parted like the Red Sea, and a drum major marched in, followed by about eight drummers. They drummed and precision marched their way around the square a couple times, and then marched out again. It sounded great but our kids weren't impressed - they took off for the other celebration immediately.

The crowd of mostly older folks continued to wait so Tim and I waited too, and our patience was rewarded. Within 5 minutes, the drum major was back, followed this time by a full marching band with reinforced drum corps of at least 15. They made an impressive noise in the cobblestone square surrounded on all sides by stone and brick buildings! Even more impressive was the way they were able to march in various formations around the square - which was about the size of a baseball diamond's infield. We enjoyed more than an hour of music before they marched out of the square. I recognized just one tune - Sentimental Journey - but enjoyed them all.

Heading home, we stopped by the other celebration, in the same park as the family celebration earlier in the day. The crowd was much younger than the tattoo audience, and security guards were searching bags on the way in. We listened to a few minutes of techno-pop while we watched the light show, but were happy to head home to watch a movie as our Queen's Day finale.

Enjoy a taste of the tattoo on YouTube: