One thing I hate about visiting large cities is the amount
of people occupying that particular space.
They are always in a rush to get anywhere, whether they are
tourists visiting attractions or locals going about their daily lives. It’s
just a mass of impatient, inconsiderate human mass, moving from one place to
another.
And so it continued at our campsite, located in a beautiful
forest, at 3.10am on this gorgeous Monday morning. Now I can fairly accurately
presume that being here at that time, they are visitors.
I can also narrow their country of origin down to either
Dutch or German. But what kind of dumb git, comes and sits no more than 30 feet
from a tent at that time of the morning and holds a full volume conversation.
I’ll tell you what kind……….. the inconsiderate …….don’t give a crap about you,
as long as I’m alright kind.
‘ Can you guys give it a rest’ I yelled, shining my head
torch at them.
‘Sorry’ came the reply.
Sorry…… Sorry…..it’s 3.10am…… what the hell…!
After moving from Liverpool years ago, people used to ask me
if it wasn’t too quiet in a place like New Plymouth. You know what….. we may be
years behind other places and be off the tourist trail, but I’ll take that any
day over this human conveyor belt…….. roll on the open spaces in a couple more
days.
The morning looked very similar to how it had, so early this
morning.
Still…clear skies, except that now there was heat in a sun
that had risen around five.
Today was another catch up day with Michele, Curtis and
Jakobi. After hearing about their exploits living in Mumbai over the past year,
with still a year to go, I have a lot of admiration for what they have done and
how they have adapted and embraced their surroundings.
If people making a noise at three in the morning pisses me
off, imagine how I’d be if I saw someone crapping in the street…!
So we took off for the middle of Amsterdam about 9.15am and
encountered a couple of Australian ladies who were just starting off on a
cycling adventure of their own, planning to go to Austria.
We took a photo of the two of them on their
camera and they returned the favour as it’s not very often you can get both of
you in the photo. Arrived at Curtis and
Michele’s where Curtis introduced us to Starbucks French Roast espresso – very
nice! Neither of us thought we’d be
black coffee aficionados, but this coffee has definitely altered our
perception. Next we all walked to
Centraal train station to rent bikes for the three Davis’s. After living in India for the past year none
of them had ridden a bike for at least a year and they all just jumped into the
crazy Amsterdam cycling circus to head to the forest. Julia led the way on a bit of a tiki tour,
just sort of guessing the direction.
Ended up cycling right through the heart of the red light district, past
the Hard Rock Café and pretty much straight to Vondelpark gates where we could
all breathe a bit of a sigh of relief.
And there’s another thing. I’m pretty open to most things
and having heard about the Red Light district of this city when I was about 15, it was still strange to
see women standing topless with only a g string on flaunting their attributes.
Wonder what they’re thinking whilst they’re standing there fondling their
breasts? “Now what have I got in for dinner tonight….I’d
better pick up some milk.”
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| Don't worry about anything kids - Dad is super-chilled now! |
Rode out the other side of the park and into the Monday
traffic for a few kms and then we were in the Amsterdamse Bos, or forest, to
enjoy peaceful riding for the remainder of the outward leg. Showed them our apartment complete with
lakeside view but it was a little small for all of us so we then cycled about a
km up the road to have lunch at a bar/restaurant. Got a great outside table with a huge
umbrella to shield us from the sun.
All
enjoyed delicious meals and then began the return leg at a leisurely pace and
stopping for photographs when the moment appeared. We stopped at the museums
for a few photographs and then wound our way back to the train station. The Davis family did extremely well adjusting
to life on the bike for the day. We covered
thirty kms in a very busy city and they did it on rented bikes as well.
We all enjoyed our day but by the time we
handed the bikes back we were ready for another French Roast espresso hit. Watched most of the Holland – Chile game but
it was still 0-0 at 7.15 when we decided it was time to go and look for
somewhere to eat. As we began our search
a big cheer went up around the city, so we gather Holland must have scored.
The bars were packed but the streets were empty when we went
into the Pancake House for dinner, but when we came out it was busy again and
getting raucous. Plenty of smells of
weed on people going past too. Picked
our gear and our bikes up from Michele’s and arranged to meet tomorrow for
breakfast before we hit the road again.
Then we left at 9.30pm to cycle back to our little sanctuary in the
forest, arriving back at 10.15pm.
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