DAY 1O
Tuesday MAY 10 2005
After breakfast I walked my bike box down to the post office. 49 Euros for shipping an empty suitcase to Alaska. For some reason, even though yesterday was a rest day, I woke up completely exhausted. I just don't get that!
I then dropped my bike off to the shop, once again. The wiring needs fixing on the handle bars. The shop said I could pick up my bike late tomorrow afternoon, which will be my Wednesday.
While at the bike shop I saw the cutest stroller. If you look to the far right you can see where the parent would grip it. Meanwhile the child thinks he is riding his own bicycle.
Then that's it. I anticipate starting the cycle portion of my trip on Friday, if all goes well at the shop today. That is one day earlier than my original planning, so far at it goes, that makes me ahead of my schedule. We will see if it works out at the bike shop.
So this entry will be kept quite short as the rest of the day will be filled with my last sight seeing item, which is the church, and of course the ever present laundry. Somehow I think even my family wouldn't be interested in the intricate details of a laundry day. :-)
Although I will say this, when I did finally get to the laundry mat (it took half and hour to find and I was really proud of myself) there was an old woman there who was gracious enough to help me. When it was realized that I didn't have enough coinage on hand, only paper Euros, she made some poor Dutch guy (who was just sitting there minding his own business) give me his change in exchange for 5 Euros. The old woman didn't feel that was enough so we exchanged a 10 Euro instead. The whole incident was quite funny especially because she watched him like a hawk while exchanging the money. She helped me do my laundry and throughout it all not one word of English was spoken.
While doing my laundry another foreigner came in and the poor Dutch guy had to do it all over again. What was really funny was that right before I had entered the scene two Seattleites had come in and the poor Dutch guy had to help them too. Needles to say the man carried a lot of change. Poor guy couldn't even do his laundry in peace. :-) Never deny and old woman, it's bad form, to say the least! When she left the laundry mat I wanted to say thank you to her, but the Dutch word totally escaped my memory! So I said it in English instead.
So, I guess that's my laundry story after all, oh well.
A picture of the interior of the church. To give you and idea of the size, do you see the person in the far back wearing a white striped jacket?
I saw a huge, hulking man driving an even smaller car than this. When I saw that man drive by it seemed like it came straight out of the movie The Incredibles. No picture of that though, so this will have to suffice. To give you an idea of the size, my bike is almost the length of this car.
By the way the weather was warm this morning for about an hour, then the rest of the day the wind was blowing horribly. People are starting to recognize me. For breakfast my host had out my favorite yogurt and at the internet cafe the owner says "Ah, the laptop lady".
Favorite Moment of the Day: This is my very first warm day in Holland only due to the fact that I sat by the dryers in the laundry mat for an hour.
Least favorite moment of the Day: Said to the bike shop - do you really have to keep my bike for 24 more hours?
Note: To all those who have emailed me well wishes and inquiries, Thank you very much! I really, really, appreciate all the emails that have been sent cheering me on! If I nave not responded it is because 3 out of 5 days my email server has been down. Please be patient, I will respond. It is just a matter of time before it is up and running again. Thanks.