Biking and Roermond

So today, I decided that since it has actually turned into summer here, 25 degrees and sunny, yes please!!!-,  I would go for a long postponed bike journey. So the first (or second) weekend here, I had nearly made it to Roermond on the east side of the river. So I decided to actually bike to Roermond on the West side, which has a plethora of small villages I had yet to see, and the Castle Ruins in Keesel I had only glanced at before.

So final tally of km is around 45. I started on the East side, along the Maas, through Tegelen and took the ferry at Steyl to Baarlo Where I stayed along the river so I could watch the locks for a bit.

Locks at Baarlo/Belfeld

The locks actually emptied surprisingly fast for the size. But I suppose it needs to be fast considering the amount of traffic they must get. Today was Saturday so there weren't many boats waiting (but there where a few) but during the week there are half a dozen boats on either side waiting to get through.

From Baarlo I continued along the river to the small town of Kessel. It really is a cute place, and has some castle ruins, a nice church and apparently a watermill (unverified by me :P). I had quickly seen the castle ruins before, but hadn't taken any pictures. The ruins are nice, and its nice to be able to walk around the grounds, because there is an excellent view of the river. The Netherlands has tons of Castles, the only sad part is that alot of them are privately owned, so you can't really go see them. But since these ones are ruins I guess it's not much use to someone else to own.

Kasteelruine De Keverberg in Kessel

View from in front of the Castle

The next town was Neer, 4.4 km's upstream from Kessel. I only skirted the outside of the town, but as you were approaching it, there were some really nice views of the river. 

From Neer to Haelen I rode through mostly fields. There was one part that was through a row of cute little brick houses, very picturesque, but no pictures, sorry. But there was this sweet smell in the air, and I was thinking, - why does it smell like cleaner?. Then I realized it smelled like flowers. That made me happy, when is the last time that you smelled flowers just in the air? I know it's been a while for me, since I thought it was scented soap.

From Haelen I followed the Fietsroute to Horn. That was probably the most uninspiring part of my journey, mostly industrial stuff, and a couple fields. But after Horn it got better. I biked through mostly forests and along the edge of water (lakes that shoot off the Maas). The forests (and the lakes too I suppose) reminded me of Canada. Unlike some of the other forests I've seen around the Netherlands, these ones where less green and had leafy floors like you see around central Canada.

This could be Canada -But it's not, which makes it much more interesting.

At this point, I took advantage of the presence of trees and stopped for lunch in the shade. I had bought some cheesy bread and carrots at the Albert Hejin this morning. And it was delicious. After lunch (around 2 pm) I was ready to head back home. My plan was to bike to Roermond and take the Veolia Train to Venlo, which is what I did. 

So I had to cross to the other side of the water, which I did in two steps (around Roermond and to the south  is just a jumble of water and land- Canals, lakes, islands, peninsulas, Rivers?) 

The first was at the lock at Osen. Which were pretty interesting, similar to the ones at Baarlo -and any locks for that matter- 

Locks at Osen

Then a bit further downstream, I took a short ferry to the East bank. This area was so cool, there were so many boats and marinas/harbours. Lots of pleasure boating and sailing happening. Reminded me of going to blockhouse island along the St-Lawerence back in Canada (except very different). But really great on a summer day like today.

It was only 4 km to Roermond. I had only been to the train station before, so Roermond was completely new to me. But I have to say first impressions were really nice. It has a very different feel from Venlo, I think it has to do with the Boating that has such a strong presence and there are a couple canals that run through the city. Very nice city, I wish I hadn't been so tired and sunburnt and spent more time looking around. There was a market in one of the main squares (it is Saturday after all) so I looked around there for a bit, and bought (and ate) a tray of raspberries. It is only 5 Euros to take the train one way, so perhaps I will go back and see a bit more. I know there are also a few interesting sights (churches and castle ruins) around the area too, so I might take my bike on the train and explore the area.

Ik hou van Holland!

You should probably check out this TV show, Ik Hou Van Holland

If you are ever in need of some corny songs, typical dutch blondes, or the colour orange, this is the show for you. A quiz show that has a lovely array of mini games and quizzes, all related this great country. 

But in all seriousness, I didn't need a (sorry) silly TV show to tell me that I love Holland, it's something that has slowly been developing over the past couple of months. I think the real reflection came this weekend. I went to go a visit my cousin (or mother's cousin rather) Andy, and his wonderful family. They were my first point of contact when I first came to the Netherlands, so visiting them this weekend sort of made me realize how different I am (or how much I've learnt about and experienced of this country). So for my post today I will name some fantastic things I like about it here. 

1) Bike Paths and Bike Network

Pretty much the entire country is successfully connected by a bike network. It is FABULOUS, I have just used the ones in Limburg, and I've only gotten (minorly) lost a handful of times -which is good considering I rarely actually take a map with me. Basically there are intersections throughout the country. Then there is a route marked out from intersection to intersection, so you follow the signs to the next intersection, where you will find a network map, so you can decide the next intersection to go to, and then follow the sign there. Some of routes bring you on bike-only paths, and some on roads, but there are always good bike lanes, and only once was I unimpressed by the sub-par maintenance of a particular dirt path. Another handy thing is that the Netherlands is awesomely flat.

2) Train Network. 

I know that the Netherlands probably is far from ranking high in the list of overall rail networks in the world. But coming from Ottawa, where our city train system consists of a 15 minute ride and 5 stops, and the city rail station is out of town, and has the choice of Toronto or Montreal, the Netherland's system looks pretty great. Also, one really fun thing, the OV-chipkaart is a bus fare card that works throughout the whole country, even across different transit systems, so yes, that means that in Canada your Opus card (MTL) would work on the new Ottawa Chip-card system. oh, and it would work for the Train from MTL to Ottawa as well! 

3) Pancakes. Salami, Onion and Cheese. Nuff Said

4) OLD STUFF. Another thing about Canada, we are pretty new. Castles dating back to 1200, forget it. Around here there are tons of Medieval Buildings (and a few Roman ones too!) I think that the old buildings and towns are enchanting. I think the age of the towns around Europe also make for a much more natural layout of the cities, you don't get the same Urban Sprawl found in North American Cities. 

5) And last but not least. The Dutch people here are pretty awesome :P They are so friendly, and never make you feel bad about switching to English :) 

Nine to Five

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. So I guess I'll just write a bit about what I have been up to the past couple weeks. Well work has turned into actual work, since all the holiday's are over (I  had 4 days off in the 1st month), I've been blessed with 5 day weeks. It makes me kinda dread the idea of having a 9-5 job in the future. A lot of people here actually work reduced full time, which is only 4 days a week. I think if I had kids and couldn't pull off being a totally stay at home mom, or at least part-time, having two parents with reduced full time would be alright, and I guess there would be more equality in the childcare as well (the mom and dad get alone time with the kid).

But this isn't my career and I don't have children to take care of, so I have a 5 day week. So last weekend I was very tired from all my hard work :P and it was mostly dedicated to errands, chores and reading. In the past two weeks I've read the Hunger Games trilogy. It was a pretty decent bundle of books, considering it is teen fiction and about children killing each other (it's less about kids killing each other in the later books)

Euro 2012 is something else exciting that has been going on. I'm not the biggest soccer fan, but I guess when you get free holland stickers at the supermarkt and your neighbors have decorated their house in orange, it's time to give in and start caring. Whadda mistake, because we didn't win either of our matches so far, and unless we win tonight we will be eliminated without even winning a game (and even if we do win, we will still be eliminated but maybe have some dignity). Well at least it was fun while it lasted, maybe I'll randomly pick a new team to support and watch all their games.

The rain has also left my room smelly musty, a couple days ago it started, and I pulled off all my bedding, couch cushions and mattress looking for the source. But it was just the room, in general. After a couple days of that, yesterday, I finally - and I'm not sure why I wasn't doing this the whole time- put the fan (or a/c not sure what it is, but its a small box in my room with 3 settings and blows air from the wall into my room) on full blast. I was happy that this afternoon when I came home my room actually smelt fresh, or at least not moldy or musty or damp.

Today I tried -in vain- to bike into a park that is just on the other side of the border into Germany. I figured that I would avoid my regular route along the river, it's been quite windy lately. However, I mostly biked along fields, and they were windy enough. So for the first half I skirted the German border, through farmers fields and forests (which was a welcome change of scenery, except that it included hills!) and then after discovering it was just as windy, I cut back into the Netherlands and around Bessel I biked back home along the river, which was very nice. I also stopped for a milkshake and water, which I enjoyed by the Maas!

Farmer's Fields and Forests

Short post today to try and get into the habit of writing more often again. There are also no pictures which makes things less interesting.

So the Netherlands is pretty rainy as I've discovered, Edward Cullen would probably be pretty happy here (twilight reference..eek). So yesterday, after spending most of the evening in my room reading, to notice the sun disappearing at about 10 and thinking to myself, oh that's right, I wanted to go for a walk today. I then though, oh I'll go tomorrow morning, or afternoon. Then I remembered that the forecast for the week was a bunch of little clouds of doom. From that moment forward I vowed, if it's not rainy you should be outside (and light of course, I'm pretty afraid of the dark)

So, as per the forecast, it was rainy this morning. I had to wear my rain jacket and a scarf over my hair. Worst so far that I've needed to bike in (but AWESOME fun fyi). But at 5:30, it was cloudy yes, but I could see little bits of blue in the sky, and no storm clouds in sight.

So I decided to go for a bike ride, a round about way home (well biking in the opposite direction of home really). It was beautiful, I mean, no New Zealand here, but I'm impressed with farmer's fields and forests. For most of my ride I didn't see a single other person. I should really make sure to bring my camera on my bike rides, but to be honest I think it's nicer to just take it all in without getting a picture. And how can you get a picture of the solitude of riding your bike on a dirt road past fields and fields -probably growing asparagus- (see earlier post). I also went through one of the only legit forests I've seen here (most of the netherlands seems like flat farmland) and a nice sized lake.


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One Month

So I have been here a bit over a month now, it is pretty crazy how time flies. I suppose I have gotten quite settled into work, and even gotten used to the horrid amount of rain. I am also starting to think of Venlo as my home :)

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't been writing very much.  This past week my sister, Sarah, who is spending a couple months in Paris, came to visit me. It was fun to have her around, but it reminded me that I like having my space (we were sharing a bed).

Amsterdam-
I went to go meet Sarah in Amsterdam last Saturday, and we spent Saturday and Sunday night at her friends house. It was interesting because pretty much exactly 2 years and one month before I had spent about a week with her in Amsterdam.
It had been almost a year and half since I had last seen her (approx Jan 2011) so we spent alot of time just talking and catching up instead of sight-seeing. But it was still awesome. And the weather was great!
I also think that, after seeing a bit more of the Netherlands, I'm not a huge fan of Amsterdam, I much prefer Venlo I think. (Venlo is pretty great, I've decided). Amsterdam is a little(or a lot) too touristy.

Venlo
So Sarah also came and stayed in Venlo with me, which was pretty cool.  And, with me at work tues-friday, she probably has seen more of Venlo than me, because she walked around a lot while I was gone. She was fortunate enough to come during the first week that was totally rain free!

After Sarah headed back to Paris, I enjoyed a bike ride (I didn't do much biking when she was here) I biked about 20 k along the Maas from Blerick to Neer, then back again and crossed the river at Baarlo to get back to my house. It was the first time I took the ferry, and it cost 60 cents. I was sad because my camera ran out of battery power, and there is an awesome view of a Mission house from across the river(in Steyl), I guess that means I will need to bike there again. There is also a castle in Keesel that I wish I could of explored and taken pictures of. It was my first time exploring that side of the river, and I think it's a bit more interesting, you go past a set of locks, and they are absolutely huge because they are for huge ships :P That was pretty cool.