DAY 8
Sunday MAY 8 2005
What a wonderful day this has been! It started out just the opposite but ended up like this...
I woke up this morning and went to the breakfast. Hans and the new guest was there. Hans entertained us with all the different accents of English that he could speak, Accents from places like Florida, Arkansas, New York and others. He had us giggling in our seats. There was one particular joke that I even remember. Hans and his wife were in the states visiting an officer friend who explained American colloquialism to him. It went like this (I am recalling this from memory and had to paraphrase, this is not verbatim):
If you are speeding and a cop pulls you over say "Oh shit".
When the cop points out to you that you were speeding you say "No shit."
If the cop gives you a ticket you tell him "Bullshit".
When the cop says you have to come to the station say "Tough shit".
I thought that was pretty funny, especially with Hans' delivery of how the joke was said. After breakfast and of course the daily internet session, I looked at my finances and of course was quite bummed. I did not take into account the weakness of the dollar. Last time I was in Europe it was dollar for Euro straight rate. That is how I planned my budget. WHOOPS! It looks like my trip my be shorter than I expected. For every $1000.00 American dollars I withdraw I roughly loose $250.00 dollars in the exchange rate. That is rather drastic. I left the internet session rather bummed indeed.
So I took off on my bike and just explored Haarlem. My goodness, what a wonderful city! I went farther than I could ever go on foot and let me tell you it was a joy to ride. The only negative factor was the fierce wind and attendant wind-chill factor. I can tell you each and every air vent on my helmet just by the frozen spots on my head. Nevertheless, I had great fun. What joy it is to finally, finally, start riding in Europe. I still need adjustments done to my bike, though. I will have to take it in tomorrow. This was a practice ride to the real practice ride later during the week.
My bike, one among many.
I also rode my bike the Fran Hals Museum. That and the Tyler Museum are totally worth the time and effort. I am no museum lover in any way, but the Fran museum was absolutely astounding! It totally amazes me that people could do so much intricate, artistic design work, by hand no less, back in the 17th century. If humans were capable of that level of achievement in the 17th century then why aren't we colonizing Mars today?
As I approached the museum it was just one big block of building among others.
Here is a picture the interior floor of the museum.
At the time I did not know there was a gem hidden in the center. It was a lovely interior courtyard hidden away in the midst of the city. So peaceful and beautiful.
After leaving there I cut through on my bike through the main square saw two other cycle tourists. I went up and introduced myself to them and we chatted for a bit. I then set off to get lost and wondered among canals, grass parks, and ancient history of Haarlem. What a ride!
I had to take a picture of this: my two favorite vehicles of all time!
Later on I was looking for this restaurant that I went to on one of Rick Steves tours. I had been searching off an on all day for it. I had really good memories of a large T-bone steak there. While looking I saw the restaurant and the other two cycle tourists again.
Their names were Mary and Linda. We stopped there on the street to talk and ended up having dinner together and chatting for two in a half hours, eating steak, trading travel stories, and in general having great fun.
What was also interesting for me was that Mary is a graphic designer. I mentioned that eventually, after I have paid off all my loans, I would like to go to school at night and switch career fields to become a graphic designer. How I became interested in it was designing this web site. It obviously gives me a real sense of pleasure, enough so that I want to hop fields when I come back to the working world.
Mary said I could quote her on this "The wind is worse than Chicago!" That is so true, and the wind-chill factor! Gosh, we all talked about how we didn't bring enough winter gear. I glad I wasn't the only one and very GLAD I bought my coat when I did. Linda told me stories about when she traveled to Yugoslavia. All in all it was a very entertaining and relaxing night.
If my trip ended today, I would be quite content, simply because I have accomplished in one day everything that I will do over and over in the months to come. That is: travel, have fun, sightsee, explore, meet new people, and of course I cycled for hours on end. Life is good.
Favorite Moment of the Day: Finding the restaurant by memory alone and having a tender, juicy, T-bone steak that filled the plate. It was the best steak of the year.
Least favorite moment of the Day: Cycling around Haarlem all day feeling pretty graceful with myself, then cutting through the Main Square and easily making a sharp turn around a sign post. Unfortunately my helmet didn't clear the bottom of the sign itself. My helmet hit the sign and quite literally swept me off my bike seat. I picked up my damaged pride and high tailed it out there. I am a charging elephant among Gazelles. :-)