Holland Windmills

I found shakers! The 'XXX' doesn't stand for what you might think, especially in Amsterdam. It stands for: X - Heroic, X - Determined, X - Merciful. And they use the three St. Andrew's crosses because he is the patron saint of fisherman.
Here is the triple decker bike parking deck next to the Central Station. Can you say there are a lot of bikes here? They also pull hundreds of bikes out of the canals because people who don't lock their bikes properly could get the bikes thrown over by a passerby.
You can see a few of the modern windmills while on the way out to see the older ones.
Yesterday Becky and I rode out to Zaanse Schans where 11 out of thousands of windmills still stand. Back in the day on the Zaan River, you would see these windmills practically stacked on top of each other harnessing the wind. There were many uses of the windmills, but unfortunately they didn't have a guided tour to tell us all about it. I was able to figure out how some of the internal parts worked together, which was very cool considering that these are ALL wooden structures. Even the "nails" were quarter diameter size pegs made of wood. But this was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Holland, so I can check that off the list!

Mrs. Becky Grant! And, some old windmill.

Old Brian, and a windmill!

Becky was told that this statue originally held a shovel in his hand, but I'm not sure how you hold a shovel when you're hands are going in different directions! I, on the other hand, found the heavy lifting fairly easy!
Here you can see our buddy TomTom lodged in between the handlebars and the bag. This picture was taken on the ferry coming back from the windmills. Unfortunately, ole' Tommy Boy doesn't know that there are not bike paths on all of the roads it directs us on. So we had to improvise a little, but in the end he redeems himself! I think I will send in a recommendation to TomTom to add these Regional & National bike routes to their maps. I know that all of the countries I am going to have these routes on paper maps, so it would seem they could add them as well.
After a late dinner we past this sign for directions to the bike locker at the Leidse Plein. Jeff and Becky doing their best Wheel of Fortune impression!

So far today we have done some shopping and walking around, now we're just watching Le Tour. Jeff is out on a 6 hour ride through the country with maps and a train ticket to get back! We are going to 'mebike', an artsy cycling exhibit. They will show inovations in art with bicycles and also live music, videos and other attractions for 3 days. So we'll head down there later and check it out. Tomorrow I head for Dusseldorf, Germany to begin my ride along the Rhine. Check out some of the older posts, I have added pictures that I downloaded from the past week. Thanks for the comments from everyone! Cheers!

Amsterdamaged

"Livin' on Space Cake, watchin' my friend get baked, all of those tourists covered in hash!" Ok, so it wasn't sponge cake, but it was good! As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do! Pretty harmless fun, but these "coffee shops"are everywhere. As well as the Red Light District. Pretty funny sights there, but no sampling! :)

I found a job! Here I am working the counter at Jeff and Becky's local shop. It wasn't CycleWorks, but it was pretty cool place and we got to watch the final 3k's of today's Tour Stage with Bennati taking the sprint, of course. But you have to root for Jens any time he's in a breakaway. Actually I'm sending Sid an email. Thanks for the info man, Jeff appreciates it!

Looks like Venice, "smells" like Amsterdam.

We took the tour of this tower to get a bird's eye view of the city. All 187 steps to the top. It was used as an observation post for incoming ships, watch post for fires and anything else that they needed to do looking down from above. They had a system of bells that would sound the appropriate alarm depending on what they observed.

Howdy from Amsterdam

Well yesterday's train rides went ok, only a couple glitches. The tickets are NOT clear at all about what train car and compartment you are supposed to be on. And, there is a separate car for your bike. I learned from the conductor on the platform in Copenhagen which car was which and I was able to get a seat after getting my bike onboard. So I'm cruising along enjoying my single cabin compartment when we get to the next stop about an hour into the ride. A very nice couple, and child, were supposed to be in the cabin I was in! They had not come around to check my ticket yet, so they conductor had not told me to move to my ASSIGNED cabin. I'm telling you, there is NOTHING that says what car much less what cabin you are in on these tickets. So I end up sharing a room with an older, nice, Danish gentlemen. I awoke at 4:30 to get off in Hamm at 5:00. I met a guy that had lost his bike because at some point in the night the bike train separated from the train car! He didn't have any Euros, so I bought him a crossiant and myself one and coffee. Thanks for the Euros from Sven and Catherine before I took off, otherwise I wouldn't have had a bite to eat! So I waited on the train to go to my next stop, but it didn't come. Another cycle touring couple, who spoke German, informed me the train was 70 minutes late. When the train showed up, I was then informed by the conductor that the NEXT train was the one I needed. I got on it and ended up in Bad Bentheim where EVERYONE got off the train. The train driver came down and told me I was the only person on the train, and this was the end of the line, he was "turning" around! The next train to Amsterdam came through 2.5 hours later!! So I saw a beautiful castle and had a cheap bite to eat in town. I made it to Amsterdam and let TomTom take me to Stuey's apartment to help get my bearings. I rode around sight seeing until I called him later and he said to me at the HRC, as mentioned previously. TomTom came to the rescue again! Now I'm off to meet Becky Grant for lunch and sight seeing, this time without my panniers, so it will be easier to get around or we'll just walk and ride the tram! C-ya!

"Stuck" in Hamm. Where's my train????

Not a bad "lay over" after all! This is Besichtigung Burg castle.

Stuart and I, good times!

Made it to Amsterdam!!

Made it to Amsterdam, finally! Not toooo long of a story, but I will post tomorrow. I'm at Stuart Parson's for two days. We met at the Hard Rock Cafe, where he used to work, then wen to The Watering Hole to play pool. Matt, you'll be proud, I beat a local!!! Proost! Ciao.

Rest/Travel day. Copenhagen to Amsterdam

Here is a picture from the 1st day riding by the Marble Church with the Amalienborg Royal Palaces (4 of them) surrounding the plaza.
The distant spire is the Church of Our Saviour and you can walk ALL the way to the top along the outside of the spire itself! Very cool!
Here is a picture from the next day when we actually climbed the spire (mentioned above). The modern looking flat roof building in the upper right is the Opera House. And the upper left is the Marble Church.
Here I am in front of Frederiksborg Castle in the town of Hillerød. This was along bike route 32 which we took from here to Vejby. Not a very shabby "hunting lodge", as it was referred to back then for King Christian the 4th. If it was built in Denmark, Christian the 4th probably had something to do with it. He put the country into debt, never won a war, but built some magnificent structures.
To give you all a glimpse at the summer cottage backyard which was recently completed. We ate dinner on this portion of the patio. Here I am playing with TomTom!
Jeff and I walked to the beach the following day. This is in the town of Vejby and the boulders you see out in the water were placed there recently so that the little bit of beach you see would exist. Otherwise the shoreline is falling into the ocean, kind of like California. My folks were here years ago while they were placing some of the boulders you see here. My dad's comment was that the piece of machinery wasn't going to last long driving INTO the ocean like it was. I can say today that I'm glad they did what they did, it's beautiful and a great setting. There were MANY sailboats traveling up and down the coast, wish I were on one of them! I'm sure I could have found a salt shaker on one of those and probably some Buffett tunes!

I finally got my reservation for the night train going to Hamm, Germany direct. I leave at 7:00 pm and get there around 5:00 am. I hope I can sleep on a train! I'll make one more connection and then arrive in Amsterdam around 11:00 tomorrow. I'm heading to the train station now!

Copenhagen - Vejby - Copenhagen (C-V-C)

Today we went to the train station to TRY and reserve my overnight train to Amsterdam. Dad uses www.sbb.ch for checking train station routes, times, etc. I printed out what I thought was the correct connecting trains, but they informed me otherwise. Because I am traveling with a bike I have to take a totally different route and one that will take even longer..... We were about to reserve it when their computers went down! ARRRGGHHH! So I will book it tomorrow morning and hope I get my reservation. Then we drove back to the cottage, had lunch, then I took off for Copenhagen via the coastal route. I stopped by the train station in Helsingør, but to make a long story short, they said they couldn't reserve me because of the bike...... Damn bike! It was a fairly scenic route with the coast and slight tail wind, I made good time. 87 km, 3 hour ride time, 29.5 kmh. I know it's slower than the Pro Tour guys do K-B-K, but I had a good time and didn't run into any problems. TomTom (GPS for those who didn't know (Mom!)) helped me out a little, but it was easy as long as you kept the coast on your left. I did need it once I got into Copenhagen to find Jeff's apartment, so I'm glad I had it and it was a good test. I found a little better way to rig it on my handlebar. Thanks again to Rich for the handlebar bag, if I didn't have this specific bag I would probably have a hard time using TomTom! We went to Mette's again for dinner, but this time we all took it easy on the booze! Skål!!!! Which means cheers in Danish! Soon I'll be saying proost to my friends in Amsterdam! Ciao

Hungover in Copenhagen

Jeff and I are hungover after a great dinner with Mette and a friend of hers. I think Bjarne was taking it easy, as I probably should have..... Oh well, I got it out of my system and we had a great time. Today it's very rainy so we didn't go to the museum as planned and it's 4:30 and we are just now going out for lunch. But that's what happens when you don't wake up until after 2:00! Today is a perfect day for watching Le Tour and recooperating. Hope everyone is enjoying themselves on a nice Sunday in the States. Ciao!