DAY 32
Wednesday, June 1 2005
I overslept and missed the allotted time for breakfast, so sneaked in and had a quick bowl of corn flakes. Hey, I got my corn flakes!
Now, for coffee? I asked the desk clerk where a Starbucks might be (I knew they didn't have a Starbucks, but I didn't want to say coffee house for obvious reasons) and he knows what I mean and gives me good directions to the supermarket. Cool.
I grab my bike and am off. My thinking was I would take pictures today since I didn't get to yesterday. After all I have all day till DHL shows up and the hostel sits at the end of a beautiful park, filled with greenery, that follows the flow of the nearby canal.
Immediately upon exiting the hostel I pass and older woman who, I can see from her body language, wants to chat but doesn't know how to approach me. I'm pretty proud of myself about picking up on this body language thing. I'm getting much better at it. So, I ask her directions to the super market (even though I know). Therein follows the most enjoyable morning and bike ride I have had so far! All with just the right question to the right person!
She speaks excellent English and promptly decides to bike with me to the supermarket while simultaneously quizzing me on my trip. But first I explain to her I have to mount my bike and so...
I push my bike to a nearby post and lean my right shoulder against it while balancing on my right leg and lift my left leg over the bike, push off and pedal. She tells me that was weird. I don't explain that I only have one good leg that can hold my weight. After all between one leg missing two inches of muscle mass, my lack of depth perception, and my ringing ears, my balance is hardly graceful.
We take off and she asks me if I am alone. I say yes. She says she is worried about me and I reply that I am worried about me too. This doesn't reassure her to much. Sorry, at least I am being honest.
We get to biking, talking, and laughing while riding through the early morning sunshine. Its a really lovely day. Pretty soon we have exchanged life stories from parents to jobs and so forth. She runs a B&B. This doesn't surprise me. She tells me about the time she went to Cuba and the people were so poor there that she gave them everything she had with her. Nice woman.
While we are biking she says to me I am worried about you. In this instance she is not referring to my trip but to my biking skills. Darn. Aw shucks, I do the best I can. For the rest of the trip she gives me tips. I watch, I learn, I listen. Good woman! For instance, instead of finding a high curb or post just use my pedal as a curb. I watch her demonstrate the idea and marvel at her gracefulness. Hours later did the actual technique percolate through my brain to the surface. I will have to practice that type of mounting.
As we continue biking I notice the directions the hostel gave me are crap. I wouldn't have found the supermarket if it wasn't for her. As a matter of fact I never made it to the supermarket. The cheese shop was near by and that was where she was headed, so too was I, apparently. I went in and found everything I needed. Including yogurt! Yes, I haven't had yogurt since Marjet's place. I buy much needed water.
We say goodbye and then she comes back by bike and says I will never find the train station because I am to far off the route. So she drops everything she is doing and we bike together across town. By the end of this lovely ride I feel like I know her so well, as if we were friends for years. Gosh. Sometimes its like that.
We say good bye for a second time and I drop my bike off in the security shed. Darn, I should have invited her for coffee and given her my website. Oh well, I am sure she is gone by now. I exit the shed and see her hovering off in the distance. This does not bother me at all. Her intentions are nothing but the best and I can understand that. I walk up to her laughing and happily invite her to coffee. She can't though, she has had so many cups already this morning, but she kindly directs me to a cafe with good coffee and wishes me luck with my passport. Gosh, I will actually miss her. Sometimes its like that.
I sit have coffee and then call the consulate. Yes! THEY HAVE MY PASSPORT! I start laughing with joy and the woman on the other end starts laughing too! Then I laugh again. Its contagious, what can I say? I tell her I will be there as soon as they re-open for lunch. She says we will keep the doors open for you no matter what time, jut to get there. Aw, what a nice thing to do. Sharing laughter can do that.
I get on a train and head for Amsterdam. I go to the consulate and all the security guards remember me and with nary a security check I am in. There is a new woman at the desk and I by pass all the lines and head straight for her. She starts looking for my passport and can't find it. I laughingly joke "Come on now, don't tease me." She just looks real worried. Damn.
The other woman who I have been dealing with all along comes up, and there begins an actual, intense, search. Gosh. Now I'm worried. But they find it! She gives it to me with her fist waving in the air with victory and I laugh. If there hadn't been a window between us we probably would have high fived!
I exit the consulate and open my passport to see the most butt ugly picture! Oh, well, can't have everything. Here are my final pictures of Amsterdam. Enjoy.
After leaving the consulate I immediately go by my ticket to Germany. I have 45 minutes to go back to Haarlem, get my bike, and board the pokey milk run train. I can't board the 2 hour high speed train with a bike. In route one of my trains is 15 minutes late. That's ok, on my next connection I have a 30 minute layover. I can still make it, I think.
The words in red say my train will be 15 minutes late and that we need to board the first half of the train as it splits off.
My train is actually delayed about thirty minutes and I race to meet my next connection. With this mornings bike ride already behind me and three other connections where I had to haul my bike on and off I am sweating and stinking like a pig and now I've got to run for all I am worth. Crikey! They wait patiently for me. How kind.
On a different train ride the conductor comes to sit by me five minutes before it stops. How nice, they are keeping an eye out for me and are going to help me get my bike off. The men have been like that. So decent and helpful. Thanks to all those that helped me this day.
Anyway, the conductor sits down, this blue eyed, straight postured young man and asks "Why do you wear your helmet on the train are you afraid of accidents or something?" I laugh, chagrined and say "No, I just get anything that might hinder my speed put away so that I can exit swiftly without tripping up." (i.e.: falling flat on my ass.)
"Oh, well, it looks beautiful on you." The cheeky bastard is teasing me and softens the joke with a punch to my arm. I immediately take off my helmet and show him my wet sweaty hair. He says "Oh, no leave it on." and we both laugh.
I arrive in Köln after a five hour train ride and am weary. It is 9:30 pm at night. I look everywhere for an elevator and there isn't one. I'm at a minor train station platform.
Two kind guys carry my heavily laden bike down a flight of a hundred stairs while I say heartfelt thanks and encouraging them all the way down. Chagrined that I stink like a wet pig. There are truly decent men in this world. Thanks guys, whoever you were. I will remember your kindness.
And with that lovely memory I say good night. It has been a long, long day.