Sunday Aug. 25 thru Saturday Aug 31, 2024 One week Boat Bike Tour

I’ll try to summarize the entire week since each day had the same schedule of breakfast, riding the bikes all day, evening meeting about the next day's ride, dinner and sleep. And man did we sleep well!

Each evening before dinner, each of the three groups (English, German, Dutch) had a meeting to go over the next day's ride. The first day everything was new. The bikes, the traffic rules, etc. We got to meet the entire crew the first night. They do this week after week and they see a new batch of 50-60 people each week. Olga was our boss and if anything needed attention, Olga could help out. Every day we rode about 50km. Nancy added it all up and we rode the bikes 201 miles over the 6 days we rode, about 33.5 miles per day. The Netherlands treats bike riders with immense respect and bikes usually have the right of way. They have bike specific trails all over the country and most citizens really use their bikes. And year round especially with the climate warming. They all said there really was no snow any more and the canals no longer freeze for skating. So you can bike all year. The bike lanes are wide enough for bikes to whiz by each other and some allow cars and scooters if they are wide enough, with the bikes having priority and a low speed limit. And every age group could be seen riding their bikes. A lot of retired age folks ride their bikes everywhere. And ⅔ of the bikes you see are e-bikes with battery assist.

Each night after the three group meetings we all sit at tables with folks that speak the same language. Most everyone was pretty tired each night so after dinner (6-7pm) we went below and collapsed, except for the nights when we ventured in to explore the towns.

Each morning breakfast was at 7:30 and they left bread and sandwich fixings out so you could pack a lunch. Big buffet layout with several breads, cheeses, meat, eggs, sausage, fruit, yogurt, cereal and pots of coffee and tea water. After breakfast you get on the bikes and turn on the Ride with GPS app and it gives you turn by turn instructions and a map so it is very hard to get lost, although we did get misplaced on a few occasions. While we are biking, the boat gets moved to the next evening's stop where we will meet it.

There are several ferry crossings, many very old small towns where we stop for coffee, tea or the occasional herring. Some museums some days, or windmills or old pumping stations. Fortunately, most people here speak very good English. One fellow told us that their English is so good because “Dutch is not a very popular language”.

And everything is very old. Buildings from the 1600’s are not uncommon to find in the small towns we pedal through. Our cell phones work everywhere, and you use your credit card to pay for almost everything. They are very modern compared to the USA in that regard.

We would get to the boat around 3-4 pm, grab a coffee and a small cake treat of some kind and relax on the deck until the evening meeting. Eat dinner and collapse.

The last day we overlap with the incoming group and we put our bags on deck before breakfast so the crew can clean the rooms.

After breakfast we get our bags, say our goodbyes and then leave the boat.