Sunday April 18...How far are we???

(Darien writing here with a little help from Mary)


Our first full day of biking – 36 miles – a record for more than one of our party! We started in Utrecht, on the death ride thru town (as Darien calls it, but not so bad on Sunday morning) ended up in Gorinchen. How did we get here? We aren’t sure, ourselves. We had two crashes, didn’t see a castle, went on a cool ferry, over a very very long dike, had a beer (thank god for civilization). Our leader had a crash in a cute little town square – wish we could tell you the name…we seem to be asking a lot of directions. I am convincing people that these are memories for life…we will certainly be laughing about this trip for years to come. And it is only day 2!

Our boat has a great great crew. Els is the cook of the century, has fresh homemade soup waiting for us every evening and finds ways to use fresh herbs from the boat in ways we only wish we could dream of. Winfred is our captain (Els partner), and Patricia makes the third of a great support crew. They have two great pets – our newly adopted mascots. Iggy (for Iggy Pop) is a cranky, cantankerous parrot that we all pay attention to. What Iggy wants, Iggy gets. Lila is a dear sweet older dog that only perks up when we take the bikes off of the boat. Beautiful black and white spaniel mix.

Tomorrow will be a short ride, we are told. We don’t believe it! I am in the “trust but verify” mode now. We will end up in a city called Dordrecht. Follow us on a trip that will be retold in many different ways, depending on the refreshments! Tomorrow we will be having thai chicken soup and curry for dinner. Yummmm…and few windmills in between.

Vanessa, if you are reading this. THANK YOU! I could not have made it thru today without you.