Making daily life more interesting…

And you can find me here….

Ciao! 

I don’t really have time nor patience anymore to update this blog…at least not presently. Most of my life goes on Facebook now anyway, since they have this smart tagging feature that allows others to tag you in photos, making them show up on your profile. Much easier to share and keep others updated, for which I initially intended this blog. Anyway, a few picture updates:

Picnic in Vondelpark Amsterdam…

At Jonas & Angelika’s BBQ party, Agnes (my surfer from Macau), myself and good friend Katey

Reka and me during Queensday night festivities

The weekly Dutch Speakers corner at the Library in Amsterdam

Having fun with friends in the Red Light district on Liberation day

Me and Nina, our friend from Skopje (whom we visited some time ago)

My dad and Unlce Ted from Canada (left) who came to visit a few weeks ago

More clips on my YouTube account (link in right menu)

A few I just uploaded:

Darko, myself, Nina and Peter

Myself, Nina, Darko (our host) and Peter in a Winery in the Skopje Bazar in Macedonia

Betty, our CS tourguide in Ohrid, Macedonia

Rumiania, our CS host in Sofia

Time flies, it’s been like a month and a half since I have blogged anything. I guess you get bored of blogging as well. Lots of stuff that I do each week is similar to the week beofre, eventhough the parties maybe different as well as the company, it still sometimes feels pointless to make another blog entry. The last months have been spent in lots of snow and ice as it has been a long winter here. Went to lots of parties and met cool new people as well. The highlights:

Subtlemob; a sort of flashmob but then different, took place on Leidseplein Amsterdam after having been done in London and Tokio, very very cool to be a part of something like that. gave me goosebumps at times.

www.subtlemob.com

My bike breaking down…which means I took it apart before it really did. The driveshaft had given up and I had to replace it outside in the cold weather. Had to take off the whole back end of the bike from the gearbox and on. Anyway, it is running fine again :)

Roadtrip to the balkans  Peter, a good friend from Amsterdam and I were invited to Nina’s place in Skopje. Nina we met while she lived in Amsterdam, working for an NGO. We kinda took the decision to go in a spur of the moment. We took a plane to Sofia, Bulgaria, the rented a car and drove to Skopje, Macedonia where we surfed Darko’s couch (cool guy). From there to beautiful Ohrid, where Betty gave us the grand tour of the town. Then onto Thessaloniki in Greece, where we stayed with Niki, Maria, Anna and Karolina (excellent company) From there we drove back to Sofia (stayed with Rumiania) and took a plane back (which we missed and spent a day longer in Sofia) We stayed only in two Hotels for two nites, which luckily are riduclously cheap (25-30 euros per double room with shower). Food and drinks are equally ridiculously priced (apart from expensive Greece). A dinner for two on 7 euro’s. 0.5 ltrs of draft beer for 1 euro. It just hurts to be back home.

I posted all of the pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/eric.kalter/BLMCGR#

and the movie clips here:

www.youtube.com/erickalter

The main thing in between all of the usual parties and stuff going on in Amsterdam is still ice skating.
After the previous post, which took place on a Thursday afternoon, I went back to the same Vuntus plas a day later. This time I took my friend Lili. She had borrowed some skates and she made it to some thrid of the course and back, not bad for someone who just started out. After she was done, I did a few more laps during which she took some clips.

In the week after thaw set in. All of the ice in the middle and southern region of Holland vanished and a greener world reappeared. I was able to fire up my bike again, which did not happen without any hick ups. The oil and all the sludge in it seemed to have settled a bit too much in both my starter system and my oilfilter, resulting in not starting at times, and also no oil pressure below 1500 rpm.
I added some fdetergent stuff to the oil and let the motor run for some 15 mins. After this I replaced the oil and filter. All fixed.

About a week ago we had organised a skating trip from work. About 40 mins away from where I live, there is an outdoor ice skating track of 5 kilometers length. It runs through the fields. (www.flevonice.nl)
I attached a clip I took while skating there. The whole track is lit so you can also skate in the evening like we did on that Fridaynite.

Last weekend I went to dad’s. He called me on Friday, urging me to bring my skates. I wondered, as all ice here was gone. I took the skates anyway. As I arrived around mid afternoon, dad and I had coffe and then went out back. I drove the car to the other end of the field behind the house, which was now flooded in water, about 30 to 50 centimeters. We walked on the ice and tested it a bit before actually skating. See the clip I took below.

After this testwork, we went back to the house and put on our skating outfits. We walked to the back of the yard and hopped over the small fence. From here it was straight onto the ice. What a luxury.
Dad and I made a few clips during our laps on the ice. During one of them you can see me fall. I hurt my knee there, and it untill today (wednesday) it still hasnt really healed. It was twice the size after I fell, now it’s like half the size of that. Progress is slow but sure….Sunday is the next skating session on a rink in Haarlem…..

Finally! It’s skating time again! The north has been covered in so much snow the last weeks that the ice is not growing rapidly enough, however in the middle of The Netherlands there is much less snow, especially some 40 km south of where I live. Here the ice thickened fairly quick, which means iceskating, the national fever has started again, at least in this part of the country. I took the afternoon off work on Thursday and Friday to see if I was still capable of moving forward without falling face forward on the ice. On thursday I went on my own. On the Vuntus lake near Loosdrecht they had cleaned a 4 km lap around the lake, 3 stands there with soup, sausages and hot coco. Excellent Athmosphere, everyone was smiling! I was more then happy to pay a meager 2 euro’s to the guys of the local ice skating organisation who had been busy cleaning the track from all the snow. They did this with 2 Quads, and old Citoen 2CV (yes a car) that flew across the ice, probably because the driver was scared of going through it! Also they used an old Harley Liberator, which I thought was quite a waste of such a classic. I guess we all have different standards. A few clips and pics:

Between Christmas and New Years I was working as usual. Short weeks, but still work weeks. I don’t mind really, it kinda keeps you in the normal rhythm of things which is good. No hard start for me after New Years. For New Years I was invited by Peter, a friend of mine from Amsterdam, to attend a party at his house. I gladly accepted the offer. On December 31st, public transport comes to a halt at around 8 PM, which meant I had to make sure to get to Peter’s before that. I left for Amsterdam at 18:30 and as I arrived at Central station I realised just how busy Amsterdam was on NYE. It was just amazing. The tram stop was moved to the main road near Damrak, at least that’s what I was told by some officials. As I crossed the road and walked past a waiting tram I saw it was the one I needed to catch. The driver kindly opened the door and I asked him for a fair. He threw his hands in the air and exclaimed:"what the hell were my bosses thinking!" The tram was packed…and so was the one in front of us, and so was Damrak…pederstrians all over the place, inlcuding the road. It took us 20 minutes to get from Damrak to Dam square, which is a 5 minute walk. I was the first to arrive at Peter’s. I brought 2 bottles of wine but we started of with one of his excellent expresso’s. After that I started on a good bottle of red. As I was going to surf Peter’s couch (he is a fellow CS host) I could finally get a taste of all the different wines Peter usually offers. We had a perfect evening and nite and had a blast watching the fireworks in the street, after which a small fire was made to burn the paper left overs from all the fireworks…some christmas trees also found their way to the fire…

Me with Lola, the Couchsurfing dog, on my lap

Peter and Diana

Leonoor, Diana and Femke, aka Peter’s Angels

 The plan was to ride home for christmas (sorta like the song). However the damn snow just wouldn’t melt, so riding was not really an option anymore. The fact that I had limited itmobility with public transport started to bother me after a few days. I could get to work by train and ask someone to pick me up from the station, and I could get to Amsterdam, eventhough the last train leaves at 1:30 AM. But I couldn’t get to the gym for instance. On Tuesday, I aksed a collegue to drive me over to a local dealership, well…dealership..this was more of a junkyard with running cars. I had my eye on an old Honda Civic, not too much rust, still had the dutch DMV approval until May 2010 and was a whopping 850 euro’s. My collegue and I took it for a quick spin and afterwards I told the owner to wrap it up and put a bow around it. And thus I drove over to Groningen on Thursday afternoon, warm, dry and on 4 wheels.

We had planned to spend Christmas with the 5 of us, Dad, Alie, sister Marije my cousin Ayden and yours truly. I spent christmas day partly in front of the tv/pc and partly making stuff in dad’s workshop. There’s always something cozy about a workshop in the wintertime, wood burning stove on and all, snow outside, you get the idea. Around 5 PM we went out for dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant after which we spent the rest of the evening enjoying a nice movie on tv.

On Fridaymorning we all had breakfast together after which I drove over to my mom’s place for coffee and lunch. I helped her out with lights that needed to be mounted on the ceiling and dug up some old stuff that I could now take with me since I had a car.
I had agreed to take a fellow CS’er called Inge (whom I’d met at the Fondue party) back with me to Almere. She lives in Amsterdam but her folks don’t live too far from my mom’s place, so it was on route for me. I picked her up around 6:30 PM and we drove off.I dropped her off at the Almere trainstation around 9:30. I spent the rest of the saturday nite at home, first time in ages. Very unusual.

On Saturday before xmas I went to the last CS party of the year. I had asked Ramon (www.ramonstoppelenburg.com) if I could surf his couch that nite, as the last train was leaving at 1:30 AM, which is way too early. Luckily he had his couch available. The party was nice and we called it quits when the bar closed around 4:30 AM. We took a taxi to Ramon’s place,talked for a bit and I then crashed his couch around 6 AM. As I woke up around 11, it had started snowing again. Not just a little, but really big friggin flakes. After Ramon and I had breakfast (Ramon almost burning down the kitchen while making rolls in the oven) I decided I really needed to get the hell out of there if I didn’t want to get snowed in. I thanked Ramon for his hospitality and wrote a message on the wall of his toilet like all his surfers do. Ramon thanked me by throwing snowballs at me while I left ;).
A quickly walked over to the Metro station nearby. It was snowing so heavily I couldn’t keep my eyes open. When the hell would I ever need snowgoggles in Holland? I was gald I had put on my big waterproof insulated hiking boots. I saw lots of people walking around in thin sneakers and it was freezing cold.
I got on the Metro to station Amsterdam-Zuid. I arrived there as planned and the Metro was still running on schedule (bravo). At -Zuid, I hopped onto the train to Almere. After about 15 mins of just sitting there on a non moving train, the driver announced that he would back the train up a bit to go around the station, as the rail switch in front of us was frozen and thus not moving. After about another 15 minutes, he announced that also the switch behind us was frozen and that we were officially stranded.

With the metro that was still running, I quickly made my way to Amsterdam Central, to see if the northern line to Almere was still running. AMS Central was chaotic, as I walked in all trains were cancelled. Unbelieable, a few inches of snow and our public transport system shuts down. Where are the times when the switches were moved by hand by real men with a crowbar when frozen? (or as we say in Holland:" when the men were still made of steel and the boats of wood"). Holland has raised 2 generations of sissies and we are paying the price for it every day. It frankly makes me sick and makes me feel ashamed of this country. Try explaining a russian that trains stop running in these conditions….
So I stood there in the hall of AMS central…all of a sudden two trains were listed as possibly running. One of them was to Almere. I rushed to the right track and hopped on. After 45 mins, the train had not moved an inch. I figured the longer they waited, the slimmer our chances, as it was still snowing. Indecisiveness is another sissy character flaw.
The driver announced that the train to Almere was also going to be cancelled now. Go figure! I got off and figured I would get some coffee before making my survival of the nite plan. As I walked away from the train I saw some railway people talking in a small group. I positioned myself next to them and listened in on the conversation. I quickly realised these were all people from Almere or Lelystad and they needed to get on the same train I did to get home. One of them said; "screw it, let’s go", we’re going home!". I quickly rushed back to the train, and behold, within 2 minutes a whistle went and the damn train started running! That’s what I call decisiveness!

The week before Christmas winter started in Holland. At first a bit of snow, some frost, and then it really started snowing and snowing. We had 30 cm’s at places, which is quite a bit for our little country. The result was that after snow started on Tuesday, by Thursday eve, I had no choice but to leave my motorcycle in the backyard.
On Wednesday eve, I a small dinner get together was scheduled with a few guys from our Order Management group from work. Mischa, the catalyst of the group had planned and organised this. The nice thing was that also two former collgues, Jan-Willem and Mark were joining us. I hadn’t seen them in quite a while and it was nice to do some catching up. I caught an unfortunate cold that evening, one that I still can’t quite seem to get rid of. The problem with riding a motorcycle with a heated jacket, is that once you get off the bike and the heating is off, it starts to get quite cold quickly,(I only wear a t-shirt underneath) and it did so when searching for a nice place to eat that evening…I should have known better.

Left to right: Mark, Mischa, Jan-Willem & a guy who doesn’t want to be found on the big internet ;)

On Thursday eve I had planned to go into Amsterdam with Lili to a get together of CS’ers and collegues, but I had to turn around. My bike had already skidded a few times within the first 3 minutes when I left home, so I decided to turn around and take the train.
Lili and I met at the station and headed out to Amsterdam where we walked over to The Tara, an Irish pub on Rokin. We met friends and quite a few of my collegues who were all in town for a company meeting the next day.

Left to right:

Lili, Laura, Andrew,Joe and Peter.

On thursday I got a message from Barry, my UK friend. He was organising another fondue, meaning, he bought a second one and it needed a testrun (sounds like a plausible excuse).
That Sunday evening, I rode over to Barry’s, where I met up with the rest of the guests. I knew a number of them from other parties and CS meet ups. There was Lyse, a french girl studying in Amsterdam, Inge, a dutch girl who had just moved back from Spain to Amsterdam and was still looking for housing. Anja, also dutch, who has been in Amsterdam a few months now after returning from living in Moscow, Then there was Rose, a portugues girl, Nacho, a Spanish guy, Kaylee, a girl from Australia, Kevin, a friend of Barry’s, also from down under, Emiel, a ducth CS’er and teacher at the speakers corner, and then there was Lili, a really nice, extremly clever, witty, tomboy-girlygirl-princessy Hungarian from Budapest (her own words).

Barry,Lili,Rose,Nacho,Anja,Kaylee and Inge

We fired up both fondues and started our meals. Always fun to have a good bunch of people together with lots of interesting stories and viewpoints. Never ceases to amaze me how well groups get along if you randomly take people from different countries, all people seem to want is learn about the other person’s country. Very nice to see, eventhough these things sometimes turn into a cacofony of different sounds and intonations as generally more then one language is spoken at the same time.
At around 11, Barry suggested we move the party to a nearby bar for drinks, and so we did. We spent about another hour there and then all left. I walked back with Barry to his place as my gear was still in his kitchen.

I got dressed and headed for the afterparty in Diemen, home of Eszter, a CS’er from Hungary, who had invited me over for her birthday party. We had a few drinks and we chatted a bit. I left for home around 1:30 AM.

Monday, after work, I sent Lili a text message. I had briefly talked to her during the fondue and what stuck in my mind was the fact that she did not have many friends yet in Almere, where she worked as an Au pair. So I texted her that if she ever got bored we could maybe hang out. I got a reply within 2 minutes, asking if we could meet up downtown. I was a bit taken aback as I just arrived home, but I told her yes. (I was the one offering right?). I quickly had dinner and a shower and rode to the center where we met up at Cafe Bordeaux. Lili turned out to be quite fun to talk to. Being a psychologist, she has a slightly different take on many things which makes for intersting conversation.
I told her about the dutch sepakers corner I go to every Tuesday, and she told me she was eager to practise her dutch. I offered her to ride there with me the next day.

Tuesday after work, I picked up Lili and we rode to the public library in Amsterdam. We had coffee on the top floor at the La Place restaurant and enjoyed practising dutch. Her level of ducth was such that she did not really fit into the beginner group, so she had to make do with only myself as a practice person. I was quite impressed to be honest, she had picked up quite a bit, having been in the Netherlands for a year before, and a few months this year. At 21:30, we all headed out to the Deugniet bar in the center, the designated CS speakers corner bar so to say. I had fun talking to everyone there and we made it a great evening. I said bye to Barry and a few others, who were all leaving for the christmas holidays. The downside of having many foreign and expat friends is that they all tend to leave for a few weeks over Christmas.

A week and a half ago I received a message from Ramon, who organises the CS meet ups. He had plannend on a Sinterklaas party for the CS’ers (couch surfers) and had no zwarte piet to help him.
Who can say no to an offer like that? Ramon and I excused ourselves that saturdaynite from the party and told people we would leave to pick up Sinterklaas ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas)
We took the tram over to our friend Peter’s house and changed into our costumes, enjoying one of Peter’s good expressos in the process. We then took off towards the Oude Herbergh, the designated CS meet up spot. We walked in the street and randomly banged on windows and rung doorbells, while handing out candy and pepernoten. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepernoten)
We took tram one towards Leidseplein and within a minute we had the whole tram singing "Sinterklaas Kapoentje"…I was of course still handing out and throwing candy :). We switched trams at Leidseplein and did the same routine again just for the fun of it.
As we arrived at the Oude Herbergh, we peeked through the windows untill people noticed us. The crowd cheered as we entered. We walked around a bit shaking hands and having our picture taken. After this Sinterklaas and I started hadning out presents. Everyone had brought a small 5 euro present and put it in a big bag at the front door. Sinterklaas now called out names and I would give that person a present from the bag. After we did the presents, Sinterklaas decided we would walk across Spui square and just walk into some bars for a free drink (neutje, shots , whatever). And so we did…since Klaas had a  beard, he drank shots with a straw…two shots each time…since Piet (me) doesn’t drink…..at the last bar, we hit the dancefloor. I almost died when a few girls started using Sinterklaas’ crosier (gold coloured staff) as a dancing pole…you know what that looks like….

Damn, time flies! I have not had any surfers over. I am taking a break from that untill new years at least. So what have I been doing lately? Getting some work on my bike done is one. I had some issues with it lately as the temps have been dropping. I replaced the battery, checked the alternator, redid some wiring, repaired my electrical windshield, mounted additional LED lights, and behold…I had a flat tire last week…this meant getting it plugged as a temporary solution, but I had to order a new tire still. Sets a man back 200 euro’s. Luckily the tire was at the end of its life anyways. I usually keep them on untill I reach around 23K kilometers, this one had some 19K.  Ow well, shit happens. To be honest, this was the first since I started riding at age 18, so can’t really complain can I?

Is this all I do? yeah right…
Last weekend started Friday at 6:30 with a fab Thanksgiving dinner. An Arizona couchsurfer named Joy had requested the use of someone’s kitchen as she was willing to prep a complete thanksgiving dinner. There were about 15 people there and I met lots of new people.
Turkeys were a bit expensive we found, but damn did the chickens taste good…and the pies, all sorts were made, excellent food! I left around 10 PM to head out to Amsterdam as I agreed to meet up with some friends in the Jordaan (corner Brouwersgracht- Prinsengracht). There were around 15 people there as well and we had a blast in this cozy little Jordan Cafe so typical for this part of Amsterdam. At around 2 AM we left for cafe/bar Dulac to continue the fun. We had some youngsters among us. Two California girls age 21. Boy did they so not keep up with the old crowd! When we left Dulac at around 4 AM, they were dropped off at home by taxi, too tired to carry on. We continued at friend Mehmet’s house. I got home around 6 AM.

On Saturday I got up at 12:30 and started working on my bike. This finished at 5 when it got dark. Tme to get some dinner and shower. I went into Amsterdam around 9ish to the weekly Couchsurfing meet up. We had a fun time there and besides the Oude Herbergh we also dropped by de 3 gezusters at Rembrandtplein. quite a nice venue. I got home around 4 AM
On SUnday I headed to Amsterdam around 10 ish. I went to the comedy cafe as the show ended to meet up with friends. We then headed out to the bourbon street blues club to enjoy the live music they have there every nite. Quite a cool club where we tend to end up every Sunday nite.

Past Tuesday I headed to the Amsterdam library around 8. I had a molar surgically removed that afternoon at 4:30, but the pain wasn’t too bad so I figured what the hell and went into town. Every Tuesday there is a speakers corner at the library on the top floor. Besides the great view of Amsterdam centre, the speakers corner is much fun. It gives CS’ers and expats or foreign students a chance to practise their Dutch. I was asked to join as they could use some more native speakers. After this everyone goes out to the Deugniet, a bar bordering the RLD.

Past Thursday I was invited by Barry. A couchsurfing friend from Amsterdam. Barry, a UK expat, hosts frequently and had Julie over, a CS’er from Nice, France. They decided to have a fondue as a spur of the moment thing and invited me over.Barry was out shopping as I arrived so I had a tea with Julie. We both then walked over to the grocery store only to find that we had locked Barry out of his place in the rain :). We headed back and started the fondue experience. Barry actually just bought the fondue set and brought 2 more friends over in the process. A guy from Madrid and a girl from Barcelona (sorry, forgot your names). We had great fun chatting and eating a huge amount of cheese and bread. Around 11 PM we headed to Utrechtse straat and had a few drinks at a bar before heading home.

Friday, today. A day as usual. Around 10 PM however, after the morning meeting, some weirdly dressed dude ran into our office throwing candy around and shouting we should all go to the upstairs meeting room. Jarin, our service teamleader had dressed up as "zwarte piet" and our financial manager Stan had dressed up as Sinterklaas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas
We all had to step forward one at a time as Sinterklaas asked us about things we had done the past year. After this, some had to sing a song and we would get some candy. Quite good fun actually ;)

And now….I am off….the weekend starts Parck bar tonite with friends…in Amsterdam…of course ;)

I am reading Bill Bryson’s "life and times of the thunderbolt kid" rightnow. I haven’t quite finished (403 pages) but so far this is a really good book. It tells of Bryson’s early childhood, growing up in Des Moins, Iowa in the fifties of the last century, when life was still happy and without global sorrow. In the midst of the cold war, it also tells the story of America’s rise as consumer country no.1.

Bryson has a very humoristic way of writing, describing american oddities in the most serious of tones…"in the fifties", Bryson states, "everything was good for you, including DDT, fall out, and cigarettes". An he is right, none of these were perceived yet at hazardous to our health. No wonder according to Bryson, that the fifties were so happy, everyone was indestructable! A very nice read, lots of laughs and snickers as you go from page to page.

More here: Amazon.com customer reviews on Life and times…

This week was fairly quiet. I spent the weekend at dad and Alie’s again and also my sister Marije joined. I did some repairwork on my bike, not too much as it was fairly cold and I didn’t feel like doing a lot. I replaced the regulator and placed a new battery, and did some rerouting to a few cables. I’ll do the rest later, this was most important.

This Thursday I rode into town in the evening to meet up with Agnes, or "Pinsy" as she nicknamed herself. Her and two friends were going iceskating on Leidseplein and I figured I’d come and watch. Always nice to spend some time in Amsterdam on a thursday evening. The rink in the clip is of course an artificial one (sadly), but it was actual ice, not some sort of plastic with a lubricant for the skates. The athmosphere was kinda wintery, with snowblowers on the side and all. We had a few "oliebollen" afterwards after which I headed home early.

Not early was fridaynite, it was actually pretty late as I was home around 4:15 AM (which I didn’t expect to be honest).
Peter, a friend whom I had met through couchsurfing, was having 10-15 people over for a wine tasting session. As I rode my bike to his place in Amsterdam, I refrained from tasting wine, well…ok, I tasted one or two wines, but this was more like sipping for the taste. Who can refuse when a 40 euro bottle is opened?

As the nite progressed it was less and less likely that those tasting would even remember anything the next morning, let alone which wine tasted like what….entertaining it was though. I met some very  nice and people and had interesting conversations that nite. Well worth it!

Each year the Couchsurfing crew Amsterdam organises a Halloween party. I had never been to one so this had been on my agenda for a while. Due to circumstances I will not get into now, I was unfortunately unable to arrive early at the party. I rode my bike into Amsterdam around 9 PM and parked on the Prinsegracht as usual. I had bought an odd hat, glasses and a bow tie. I know it’s halloween, but I like something upbeat, shoot me. The party was amazing. At about 10 PM, my friends Joe and his GF Stephanie from Liverpool arrived at the bar. We had a great time there and the place was packed around 11PM. The costumes these people wore. I was so surprised, how do these surfers do this? do they carry disguises with them around the globe or something? All pics can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/smoel/

 Me & Caroline from Portugal

 Seemed like a good idea at the time

 Friend Mehmet and an Au pair from Spain.

 Friends Charlotte & Ramon

After Rosie left, Julie came over the same day (no intentional planning). She came all the way from Brussels on her bicycle. She carried a huge backpack that she actually wore when cycling! She had a mountainbike without any mudguards or carriers. Also she had camped most of the way over to Amsterdam. Camping…can you imagine in October? Respect is all I can say!
Before she arrived I got some quick groceries. I figured I would cook for a couchsurfer for a change (no not with the ping appliance). I made her potatoes, vegiies, and a nice piece of meat. OK, she did help with the cooking. She had a hard time not doing anything, I just about had to sit her down on the couch ;-)
I gave Julie my bicycling map of the Almere region. She came to Almere because she wanted to see an actual dutch "Polder". I guess she came to the right place since Flevoland is the youngest "polder" in Holland.
The second day I was in luck. Julie had gotten the groceries and she decided to make us spaghetti carbonara. It was really, really good (the secret was the sauce I think). We enjoyed dinner with a nice glass of wine.

 She was hesitant about her plans for the next day. She really wanted to stay untill Sunday so she could join the Halloween party on saturdaynite. However the weather had different plans, as it was going to rain and storm on Sunday, and she really did not want to start her trip back to Brussels like that. Hence she made the decision to travel back the next morning. I gave her some pointers with regards to the route back, gave her a mudguard that was taking up valuable space in my workshop, and she went on her merry way. She sent me a text message later that day that she was camping out in a field. The scenery, she said, had been marvelous.

So….Mondaynite came, and so did Rosie. I picked her up from the trainstation and we walked home. Rosie was going to cook us dinner she said. Her "specialty" Allgauer Kaese Spaetzle. kinda compares a bit to mac and cheese, tastewise that is. She had brought me a special household appliance (don’t you love women) that could be used to make the Spaetzle (noodle) from scratch.

 I think we all know that I love only one household appliance to death, and that’s the one that can do "ping" when its ready. However, I respected Rosie’s effort to introduce me in the german school of cooking. We made dough and tried the noodles. Of course we miserably failed to prepare the dough correct, so it got all sticky and would not really let itself shape into noodles. We had fun trying though, and the endresult was not at all bad to be honest, the taste was there alright!

On Tuesday, Rosie and I decided we would meet up after I finished work. She was determined to have nachos at the hardrock Cafe in Amsterdam, so I figured I would buy her dinner that evening. 
The nachos were abundant, the homestyle burger was ok, but not considering the price. Ow well, been there done that I suppose.

What a calorie bomb that is…..

I think I was too tired for a big smile ;-)

After dinner we went over to Leidseplein and ended up in bar Mokum. I sent out a few text messages and so did Rosie. Lee from Toronto (but now an intergated ducth citizen) joined us together with Julie from Brussels. Also my collegue and friend Joe, from Liverpool came over, and last but not least, Gerry, one half of the hole in the boat comedy act, came over to have drinks. After Mokum, we walked to Rokin to The Tara, where we met Ramon. We played some pool, sat in front of the cool fireplace and generally had a good time. We didn’t make it late on this weekday. After The Tara, we quickly dropped by De Dampkring, a coffeshop, to get some "supplies" for some of the people in the group (see how I am not giving out any names hehe, wasn’t me). I rode back home with Rosie on the back of my Beemer. She seemed to enjoy it all. Cool girl.

OK OK, I have been slacking again, but only since I have been so friggin’ busy these weeks.

After Osnabrueck, I had a fairly slow week, that is, no surfers for a change. Those who did want to come cancelled at the last minute. It happens. On Tuesday I went to Bad Oeynhausen, just past Osnabrueck, to visit a customer. Left early, but also got home early, so not bad. Good meeting, good folks. Hope the job works out for them and us. Over the weekend, I went to my dad and Alie, where I met my sis Marije and my cousin Ayden also. We had some nice family time after having not seen eachother for awhile. Dad and Alie had been in Greece for some 2 months and I did not get a chance to get together with Marije either.

"look what grandad and I caught"

Anyway. While at dad’s, I figured I would mount a new piece of hose on my bike. just a small hose connecting the overflow of the cooling system to the reservoir. I had to however get the computer off, and the battery. And then stuff started to get stuck….bolts broke off, welding equipment had to be used, and after about 2 hours I finally got around to replacing the hose. Ow well. The computer disconnect I think caused for the bike to be extremely economical on the way back. I am still monitoring this. After the visit to Dad, I dropped by my mom on Sunday afternoon. Mom was 2 days away from retiring, quite a moment! She will now have to spend her time relaxing and enjoying life to its fullest, ow what a horrible prospect it must be :)

Last week was more hectic. After I got back from my mom on sunday evening (thanks for the soup mom, it was great) I went to the comedy cafe in amsterdam.
Rosie, a girl from the Stuttgart area, was going to surf my couch on Monday and she asked if we could meet beforehand at the weekly hole in the boat show. Sure, why the heck not. I got there around 10 PM, just in time to catch the last minutes of the show. As a regular, I have seen it more then once, so no harm there. I met Rosie there, and Ramon, a friend of mine and fellow host (www.ramonstoppelenburg.com) intorduced me to Julie, a girl from Brussels who was visiting Amsterdam on her bicycle(!!). Julie was looking for a place to stay in my neck of the woods and I gladly invited her over. We then all went over to the Bourbon Street blues club and had a nice time.

Thursday after work I rode to Osnabrueck. This 165.000 people city just north of the Teutoburger Wald region is about 2 hours away from Amsterdam, straight to the east. It was already quite cold in the evenings and I was glad I had my heated jacket liner keeping me warm. I arrived around 8 PM at Iris’ house. She live in a WG or "wohn gemeinschaft" literally, a "living community" Basically it means student living together in one house and sharing the costs of rent and what have you. Iris invited me in and got me settled in the livingroom. She made some coffee and talked about my recent holiday to Canada. She pointed to the couch and told me that was mine. Quite funny to be in the surfers’ shoes for a change, eventhough we were already friends, and I was maybe in that respect not the typical surfer, it was still fun to see things through the eyes of a surfer. Iris did her utmost to make me feel at home, which was not very difficult, as the athmosphere in her/their home was very laid back.
Later in the evening I met her room mates Tanja and Till, and also Mareike and Laura came over for drinks. We opened a bottle of wine and some beers and had some excellent conversations at their kitchen table. I spent my first night as a Couchsurfer on a real couch and slept like a baby.

Mareike (left) & Iris (right)

My Couch

In the morning, I woke up around 9:30. I ran into Iris in the hallway, who also had just woken up. We took our time that morning and had a lengthy breakfast and coffee. I was still suffering from an earinfection for which I had antibiotics, and I still had a bit of a cold. Not in top shape, so taking things slow was right up my alley. Around 11:30 we decided to head to the city center. Osnabrueck was found around 800 BC, which shows in the city center. There are many old buildings and churches, and lots of "fachwerk" houses.
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osnabrück

Fachwerk houses

We strolled around town a bit and Iris showed me some nice spots in the center. We had a coffee at "pollyesther" (love that name, what a great find), a resaturant which had a great lounge room on the top floor. Slowly we walked back and got a few sandwiches at Subway.

You were right about the leaf Iris….

I had a nap afterwards, and was really enjoying this laid back day. The rest of the afternoon we spent with having tea, chatting,and reading. More and more people started to show up in the house as the evening came. We stayed home untill around 11, watching TV and the comments from all those present (Germany’s mega talent crap something show, like in Holland….as generic as McDonalds). Afetr this, Mareike, Laura, Iris and myself enjoyed a few hours in town where they showed me around a few bars. Sadly my earinfection was still bothering me a bit and I was also still tired. We walked back home where the girls dropped me off. They hooked up with the rest of the gang and headed back into town. I had been lent Jacob’s room, one of the guys renting at the WG. He was home with his folks for the weekend and I could use his bed my second night. Excellent offer, I slept like 3 babies untill 11 AM.

After a breakfast together at Mareike’s place, some more coffee, and still some more coffee…I packed up my bags saturday afternoon. hugged Iris goodbye, and headed out to my bike, which was parked one block away. As I arrived there, I saw the mirror was missing…and then I saw it was placed on the seat. Then I spotted more damage, the pannier lock was ripped off, the fairing was cracked quite a bit at the top, and the whole of the fairing was pushed a few centimeters from left to right. Damn! looked liek some asshole had run into it while it was aprked on the side. The pannier was also scratched bigtime. I evaluated the damage and decided to walk back to Iris’ place so I could call the police. Iris was quite surprised and also a bit upset that someone would do such a thing. Of course this is not the impression she wanted her city to leave behind for me. She walked with me to a supermarket, looking for Ductape, and ended up at the bicycle shop, where we got some old innertubes that I cut in half to use as rope. After Iris was kind enough to give the police a call, I tied the damaged pannier firmly to the bike and packed my stuff. At that point a man walked up to us and said he had put my bike upright that morning together with the police. Appearantly it had toppled. He said it was probably from the heavy wind that nite. Must have been a tornado we missed, as my bike weighs almost 300 KG and was on the centerstand. Nope….it was pushed over on purpose, can’t think of any other way.
The police had asked I come by the station for a report (for my insurance). I did so and they were very helpful. The police officer on duty rode a bike himself and also concluded the bike had been thrown on its side by vandals. Ow well…all part of life I guess. Maybe this was my bit of bad luck in a streak of wonderful weeks? who knows.

I rode home in about 2 hours and figured I would still make it in time to join the saturday Couchsurfing meet up in Amsterdam that nite. I got home at seven and immediately took to the broken pannier lock. I reattached it with 4 new rivets, good as new. The big crack on the back of the pannier I ductaped, and the same with the mirror (which I already glued back together today). The only damage left now is the fairing, which is an optical issue more than a practical one. I’ll get this fixed at some point in time. Maybe I’ll just give the whole bike a new paintjob. Who knows.
Around 10PM I arrived in Amsterdam and parked my bike at the singel as usual. I walked to the meet up aand met a lot of old friends. At around 3:30 we decied to continue the party elswhere, and we went across town with a small group of people. The club we went to was called Winston Kingdom, right next to Winston Hostel. Man o man what a bad club this was. topless guys (drunk brits as usual) on the podium, a horrible DJ with all the wrong music for a dance club (Buck dich, Rammstein followed by Wunderbar, wunderbar, wunderbar…..). It was so horrible, I spent the first 10 minutes laughing my ass off. This was the best collection of bad taste I had seen in quite awhile. After some 20 mins I figured it’d be best to join in the bad taste. After all, I paid a 5 euro entrance fee. We spent the rest of the night on the dancefloor acting stupid, surrounded by drunk people acting even worse. We left around 5 ish and had some microwaved pizza slices at NYPizza near Spui. I got home around 6. Tired, but content. That was an excellent weekend. Thanks Iris, Mareike, Laura and the rest of the WG, and my friends in Amsterdam!

On Wednesday my exhaust broke, the flange that holds 1 of the four header pipes in place had broken. Actually it had rusted so badly, the flange came off completely. The bike now has 198,000 km on it so no shame there, it was allowed to break.  After doing some ebaying and calling around a bit I found a complete exhaust nearby Almere. Actually the guy lived a 15 minute walk away. Wednesday after I got home from work I started to take of the necessary parts so I could get to the header. The exhaust is a one piece type with catalyst converter, and 100% stainless steel. After I removed the exhaust I cleaned up a bit and picked up the replacement exhaust. When I got back I took out a floodlight and an magneto LED I use a lot for bikework. I mounted the replacement exhaust, which does not have a catalyst converter (so without lambda sensor) and remounted all the other parts. I fired her up and ow my did she purr as never before.  I guess I should have replaced it earlier.  After cleaning everything up a bit I packed my bags and took a shower. Tomorrow after work I was going to go straight to Osnabrueck, Germany, to visit 3 of my earlier Couchsurfers, Iris,Laura & Mareike.

After I got home on Sunday, two girls from Switzerland came over to surf my couch. Domaris and Rebecca arrived around 7 PM and I picked them up at the train station. They were easy to talk to and never short on questions, which always makes for good conversation. We talked about north america a bit as Domaris had been to Alberta, whereas Rebecca had been to Seattle. They had already been to Amsterdam in the previous days and planned to see Almere the next day. I gave them some pointers on things to see and then went to bed as I was pretty tired.
The next day when I came home I received a text message. They were going to have dinner in town. I figured I would join them. We had a nice pasta meal at a pretty decent Italian restaurant in the center. We went home, had drinks, listened to some music and had a lenghty conversation about the challenges of life so to say ;-).
I said goodbye as I went to bed, they would be catching the plane to Switzerland the next day.

Saturday & Sunday

My flight left at 5:15 pm. I woke up around 10:30 and got everything packed. Of course my bag was over 20 KG so I had to pack some more stuff in my handluggage. It worked out exactly to 20 + 10 kg. We left around 2 pm and Billy and two of his friends dropped me off. They headed to a soccer game straight after.
I checked in my bags and went to the gate to wait for the plane. Take off was around 17:30. I had an isle seat but some stupid kid was sitting in the chair in front of me. He was hopping up and down the chair preventing me from getting sleep. The fact that my throat was hurting and that I was getting a cold wasn’t helping either.
I had a 2 legged flight, meaning I was routed via Rome. After arriving there at 7:25 AM sunday morning, I had an hour lay over. Not too bad. I had a cappucino near the gate, and laughed as I saw a woman slip and slide right next to the “watch out! wet floor!” sign. She was soaked, as some watermain had broke inside a washroom, flooding part of the wing’s floor.
The last leg was beautiful, and was worth the wait. As we left Rome, we had clear skies and sunshine. At 10,000 feet, you could see Corsica and the Italian coast. As we flew further north, you could see the Alps come up. I saw Genova, Torino, Aosta, and the Passo de Gran Bernardino, which I rode a few years ago on motorcycle. Then Martigny came up, and Sion….and then there was Lake Geneva….simply amazing to see all this in between the white snowtops of the alps. Mesmerizing.
After Lake Geneva the clouds started to appear and all got white. about an hour later the descent started. We saw Zeeland, Pernis, then Ijmuiden and Alkmaar as the plane turned back just north of Amsterdam to land on the polderbaan. We taxied for 15 mins to get to the airport (the polderbaan sucks). I got off board last. No use in rushing, you have to wait for the luggage anyway. I walked the Schiphol marathon to the lugage belts. As I walked in, I saw my bag just coming around the corner. I grabbed it and headed for the exit. I bought a coke and then hopped on the train to Almere. I got home at 2:30. That’s 24 hrs. minus 6 hours of time difference. So 18 hours total. The nice part is, that at 7 pm two Swis couchsurfers were arriving. That’s for tomorrow though.

Friday

I figured this last day I would just stroll around town a bit. But when I woke up around 9:30 it was pouring rain. I updated my blog and sorted out some pictures. Spent some time talking to a few people on MSN, and waited for the weather to clear. However, it didn’t. Around 1 pm I left Heathrow drive and walked to Wilson for the bus. Of course my week pass had expired so I had to pay cash for the bus. They don’t give change, so I had to walk to a store and get some. I got off the bus at Wilson subway station and hopped on the subway again. I stopped at Yorkdale, figuring I’d get some coffee there. I strolled around for a few hours there, got a few canada decals, a shirt for my 4 year old cousin Ayden, and had coffee and cake. Just sitteing there watching people is fun too. I sat next to 3 older men in the coffee corner, who were having a hefty conversation on the differences between the UK, Canada and also Holland. Of course they had no clue a dutchman was sitting next to them. I figured I would keep my mouth shut for a change and just smile.
At around 5 I called Billy to see if he had dinnerplans. We decided to get some subs at Mr.Sub. Always a good choice. I left Yorkdale and made my way back. After dinner, we took a little nap and got dressed for a night out. Billy was bringing me to a party with some of his collegues. We had a nice eveing during which I met an interesting girl from Caracas with whom I spent most of the evening talking. She was a psychologist who had come to Toronto for a few months to brush up on her english.
I drove the car home from Bloor and Bathurst as Billy had had a few beers. We got home around 1:30 and hit the sack.

Thursday

Today was drop off day. Meaning I would be going back to Toronto to spend a last friday there before my flight left on Saturday. I got up early not to give uncle Ted a chance to pick on me ;-) . My room mate Bailey, the dog, had woken me up already as he wanted to leave the room. Bailey figured he would keep me company after the first night and there was no way I could get him to leave the room. I figured I would just let him sleep there. I let him out and qucikly got dressed. I heard voices from the kitchen. Turns out Nicole had dropped off Stephanie early in the morning. She had a bit of a cold and wasn’t up for daycare. Instead she now joined us for breakfast.

After breakfast I went outside as it was a beautiful morning and the sun was shining on the Muskoka river.

I figured I would walk around and take some pictures. After I had photograped a group of 4 deer on the front lawn, I saw uncle Ted and Stephanie walking outside.

Bailey was with them and off course took notice of the deer after just a sniff in the air. They quickly ran off to the neighbours plot behind the bushes.

After this walk we all got in the car and headed for Toronto.We had planned to stop just past Barrie at a mall. I wanted to drop by a Hilfiger outlet to see if they had any nice deals. Let’s just say I won’t have to buy any clothes for the next years. (or maybe just when I visit next time ;-) .

We carried on towards Toronto where we arrived at aunt Ellen’s and uncle Bill’s around halfway through the afternoon. Just before traffic gets bad anyway. We all said goodbye and I promised it wouldn’t be another 20 some years before I visit again. These were a great few days! After uncle Ted, Aunt Judy and Stephanie left, I had some tea and conversed a bit with John and aunt Ellen. Around 5 ish, Billy also came in and we all had a wonderful dinner together. Aunt Ellen had gotten some very good pumpkin pie for the occasion. Billy and I left for his house later that evening.

Wednesday

Today we took a drive to Orillia. Uncle Ted and aunt Judy were going to show me one of the Bulk Barn stores.
In this case, one of my cousin Kevin’s. Bulk Barn is a retail store that sells, like the name says, everything in bulk. From coffee, to tea, to candy, to dogfood, to grains and wheats. All in large containers and sold by weight.Interesting franchise concept, I don’t recall ever seeing something like this in Holland, or elsewhere for that matter. Afer uncle Ted explaining some things about the store, we went over to Home Depot.
Not really to lookfor anything, but just to have a look and compare it with Dutch stores like Praxis or Gamma.
Of course there is no comparison. Orillia, a relatively small town, has a Home Depot the size of 2 Praxis Megastores. What do these people build that they need huge Home Depots you wonder….
A downside to these stores is that you never leave emtpyhanded. I left with a pair of gloves and uncle ted with a vacuumcleaner.
After this, we went to have a look at Future shop, very comparable with the european Media Markt or Saturn. fairly large and nicely priced. We had a coffee at Harveys and then went over to the Rama, which is a casino in a nearby indian reservation (also called Rama). Only the natives are allowed to build casinos on their property, and they make good use of that rule. A huge hotel and an enormous playhall in front of an even bigger parkinglot. I had never been in a casino anyway, so this was a nice opportunity to have a look.
After this we drove back home for another great home cooked meal; cauliflower, potatoes, chicken and gravy ;-)

Tuesday

Tuesday I was told to sleep in by my Uncle Ted ;-).
After we had a breakfast of french toast which I hadn’t had in years (do I talk about food too much by the way?), The three of us headed up north towards the town of Dorset. This was about an hours drive and we hoped the leafs would be turned there, meaning they would be in full fall colors. After we arrived we had a coffee in town and looked around in the general store, a nice old fashioned "we have a little bit of everything" store. Next up, was the Dorset fire tower.
The tower was originally built in the 1800’s to keep an eye on possible fires. In the sixties, planes started to take over this job and the tower was turned into a viewpoint for tourists. I am not big on hights, especially not in a tower with open framework so you can look down and see the ground all the time. However, I was told my dad spurted to the top rightaway, so who am I to stay behind ;-).
I climbed up to the first platform and walked around a bit to take some shots.This was pretty high already, but hey, when in Rome….
So I climbed a little further and slowly got to the top of the tower, which gave me a wonderful view of the surroundings and the colorful canopy. Much to my suprise, when I turned around, aunt Judy was also just making her way to the top of the tower. We both took a picture as proof we had "faced our fears" and made our way down.

On the ground, a busload of Chinese tourists had meanwhile arrived. All were flocking around the bus having cups of noodles and other food they brought.
Uncle Ted, with a straight face as ever, asked us if we were ready for lunch, He would get us some food at the bus. We had a look around in the small souvenir shop and uncle Ted and Aunt Judy bought me a nice calendar and some booklets about the area.
We went on our merry way, further north to Algonquin park. We passed a few spots we decided would be good to stop at on the way back. We stopped at the entrance of the park, which is a visitor centre more then an entrance.  The park is open without admittance, only if you cross it on highway 60 which runs right through it.  As soon as you wish to use any of the parks facilities, such as the trails or campgrounds, you need to get a pass.
We kept driving and turned at a sign that pointed to a viewpoint. The sign in the parking area said to walk 0.8 km.  Uncle Ted jokingly kept asked me if I was okay and if I was able to keep up the pace,
of course refering to the "survival tour" my dad did last year with my cousin’s group of friends. We had a nice walk up to the viewpoint and enjoyed the scenery.

We turned back and headed south on highway 60. We stopped at a place we had seen earlier, the sign said Ragged Falls, which had a nice ring to it. The walk was 225 mtrs according to the sign. I hoped I would be able to keep up the pace here ;-)
The waterfall proved to be an excellent choice. The view was beautiful and you could get right to the water’s edge.

We walked back and drove back home via Huntsville. After we got back we again had an excellent dinner of roastbeef, potatoes and corn on the cob. A day well spent!

Monday

This morning I was taken out by my aunt and uncle to Gravenhurst, where we would board a boat on Muskoka lake. They had arranged for a lunch cruise on a restored former Royal Mail Service boat. We left in rain and cold wind, but the weather soon cleared up and we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery on lake Muskoka. This well sized lake houses thousands of cottages as they are called (some are actually more like mansions) with the most beautiful boathouses on the water. This of course means lots of tourism in the summer months, which shows in the population. The town of Gravenhurst normally holds some 15,000 people, whereas in the summer months, when people flock to their cottages, this number goes up to 50,000.

After we got back to the house, aunt Judy started dinner while uncle Ted took me out for a ride around Bracebridge. We walked around the falls near the center, and he took me a few kilometers upstream where I made some beautifull shots. Nature really is amazingly beautiful here and the leaves have started to turn, giving it an extra dimension. The surroundings are somewhat compareable to mid Sweden, hills, rocky surfaces, rivers and lakes, but all with a very north american feel to it, which can be seen best by the pittoresque town centers. (ok, maybe the occasional mall has something to do with it too)

After this intermezzo, I got to meet some more family back at the house. My niece Nicole and her husband Dave came over for dinner and they brought the latest addition to the family, 2 year old Stephanie. Also there were my cousin Kevin and his girlfriend Melissa. Dinner was wonderful, pasta with meatloaf, salad and great garlic bread. To top it off, we had coffee and a slice of home made apple pie. We had fun for a while watching Stepanie play and watched some football after that. It was great seeing all my (new) family again!

Sunday

Sunday was pick up day, meaning I was going to be picked up by my Uncle Ted and Aunt Judy to spend
some time at their place in Bracebridge, some 2 hours north of Toronto. We met at Aunt Ellen and uncle Bill’s place around two and left after a cup of tea.
We got reaquainted in the car on the way to Bracebridge as I hadn’t seen either of them since 1986 when I was last over with my family.
We quickly swung by my cousin Kevin’s house, who now lives in Barrie. I met him and his girlfriend Melissa we had a short talk and then went on to Bracebridge where we had a nice dinner at Harveys. (Baked potato, Chicken and spare ribs…yummy).

Saturday

On Saturday, Billy, Daryn, John and I went to Kensington Market again.
We left at 2PM as the guys were watching the Man UTD-Liverpool game first.(both are soccerfans)
We strolled around the market again and had a nice dinner at Sneeky Dee’s. After this we went home as the guys were pretty tired of the workweek. Around 19:00 I figured I would go into town as it was Nuite Blanche in Toronto, which is an open air arts exhibition all throughout the downtown area. I logged onto couchsurfing and noticed a meet up at 19:30. I wasn’t going to make that so I called Rod who organised it and told him I was joining but was going to be later. After waiting too long for the bus on Wilson, I got on the subway and got off at Osgoode, a 5 minute walk from city hall where they were meeting up. A party of about 20 people was there and I saw some nice new faces. We all followed a tour that Rod had set out, but after about an hour and 3 exhibits, I had seen enough. 2 girls, from Germany and Poland, had the same idea and we split to head for a bar. We walked via Dundas Square to see the crowd and the lights at night, and then found a nice irish pub on College just across from the university. We had a few drinks and shared a basket of Poutine. The three of us walked over to Spadina around midnite and got on the subway home.

Friday

Today Daryn, Billy’s friend and housemate (he lives in the basement) drove me to Niagara Falls.
The weather was quite bad, it had been drizzling all day. We left around 10:30 and headed for Niagara. Once there, the weather would still not clear. We parked as close to the falls as possible and put our jackets on.
I had luckily bought a hooded neoprene type jacket on Wednesday, which kept me dry.
Daryn was wearing a red Partij van de Arbeid raincover that my dad had handed the guys last year during their Holland trip. It kept us dry….the top part that is. As we appraoched the falls, we entered the mist that was swept over the edge onto the walkabout. Within 50 mtrs we were soaked to the bone. I mean shoes, socks, pants….all wet, wet, wet.

I quickly glanced over the edge and took some pics.We then walked back to have a look at the strip. I was complaining to Daryn about us being wet, he said with a big smile:”I don’t really feel sorry for you, that’s just payback for what you dad did to us last year”.
(dad put them through some “challenges” such as a 38 km bikeride after dinner, a rainy canoe trip, and wadlopen) We had a good laugh as he told me the story again.

The Niagara strip proved very very tacky, but also good for a laugh. We had lunch at Subways and walked back to the car. I had heard that there was an outlet mall in Niagara so we went looking for it as it was only 14:30. We found it on Lundie Rd. I bought some stuff at the Hilfiger outlet for my little cousin Ayden, and got some cheap socks and a Levi’s, us being wet and all.
We drove back around 3:00 to be home in time at Aunt Ellen’s for dinner. She had made another great meal (potatoes, steak and corn). I also met John there, my other cousin, and Billy’s brother. John was going to play in a badn that evening (he is an amazing drummer and songwriter) and he was going to put us on the guestlist for tonite.
After dinner Billy, Daryn and I drove home to change and then headed towards the Hideout downtown. A met some of their friends and we had a great time untill leaving around 1:30 AM.

Thursday

This was an off day for me as I had nothing planned at all. I spent most of the morning updating my blog and pictures, and spent some time on messenger as well. I decided to leave the house around 12 and head downtown to just walk around a bit. I got off the subway at Osgoode and walked down Queen street West. Lots of nice small shops. I had coffee halfway through and when I got to Spadina I decided to walk to Kensington market. I strolled around and bought some cycling jerseys for little money (2nd hand). As I was walking out of a store, I ran into Dave, a Torontonian whom I had met at the couchsurfing meet up. We smalltalked and then decided to grab some coffee nearby. We had a very entertaining conversation about just about all sorts of things. After coffee we walked across Kensington towards Dundas station where we both got on our mutual subways.

Wednesday

Today my aunt Ellen picked me up from Billy’s place around 10:30 AM.
She had offered to take me shopping at a nearby Mall, an offer I gladly accepted.
Last time I saw my aunt was back in ‘86. When she arrived I was suprised to see how much she looked like my other aunt marga, who lives in my old hometown of Ter Apel. We talked about family things and about how she still spoke some "grunnegers", which is the local dialect in the region I grew up in.
I was quite suprised by that since she had moved to Canada at age 10 with her parents and brother Ted (my Uncle, who I will visit later this week).
Aunt Ellen told me some stories about when she and my dad, aunt and uncle were kids.
Quite suprising how, eventhough I knew I had this overseas family, it still felt like a new addtion to the family now that I really got to know them at the age I am now. Pretty cool.

That said, aunt Ellen took me to Vaugh Mills, a mall even larger than Eaton Centre or Yorkdale.
This mall also had some nice outlets and a pretty big store called "winners", which sells brand clothing at discount prices. I bought some, jeans, shirts, sweaters, a jacket, and some shoes.
It’s hard to not go overboard since the prices are just very low from a dutch point of view,
this is especially the case for brands like Calvin Klein and Hilfiger and what have you.
I already expected this to happen so I hadn’t bought any clothes before I came over, eventhough I really needed some. Also I figured I would stock up so I would not need to buy anything in Holland for the next 12 months at least. (and then I’ll just have to travel back to Canada again hehe)
After we had a nice lunch and I raided the Hilfiger outlet, we drove home to Aunt Ellen and uncle Bill’s place. We had tea and uncle Bill, aunt Ellen and I talked about all sorts of things such as housing, environmental things, healthcare and the differences between our mutual countries.
Billy came over after work and we had a wonderful dinner which aunt Ellen had prepared. Baked potatoes, chicken with mustardsauce and nice fresh veggies. I couldn’t resist a second helping of this. After dinner, we had a coffee and chocolate cake (just a small piece hehehe).Billy and I drove home at around 8 and sat in front of the tv for a bit. I started to doze of and called it a night at around 9:30.

Tuesday

This morning I woke up pretty early, around 8:30. I updated my blog first and sorted some pictures.
Untill now I had not been up the CN tower yet and figured I would give it a try eventhough the weather was simply shit. It had been raning and drizzling and it was cloudy.
I took the subway but hopped off at the Yorkdale mall. I figured I would stroll around and get coffee and a muffin at Tim Hortons and maybe in the meantime the weather would clear a bit. I walked around again, had my coffee right under a wireless access point, and slowly walked back to the exit. Yes!!! the sun was shining!! I got on the subway down to Union station where I walked over to the CN tower. I took some shots at the base of the tower and then went in. The elevator ride is quite funny. The door has lareg windows in it and the elevator rides on the outside of the tower. However this is not noticable when you get in the elevator at the base. Some of the people (girls in this case) were standing next to the window when all of a sudden this huge panorama appears inches away from you. Not good when you are afraid of heights as the world gets smaller quickly.
on the panorama deck I took my time walking around, taking pictures, and just plain enjoying the view.

After leaving the tower I walked back to Union station and strolled towards Yonge street where I went into Eaton’s again and grabbed a coffee. I found a nice pair of jeans at H&M too. I walked up to College and then back to Spadina where I had a sandwich at Mr.Subs again. It was now around 5 PM and Billy would leave home at 6:30 for a softball game. I was going to join him so I needed to get going. I jumped on a cable train and got off at Spadina where I got on the subway home.

Billy and I left at 6:30 as planned. I brought a fleece and a windproof jacket since it would no doubt be getting colder. Nothing prepared us for what was to come. we arrived at the game around 7 and met Bill, Billy’s dad in the parkinglot. Bill was pitching and Billy did back catch. The wind was picking up and it was already bgetting colder. As the game started the wind picked up even more and it started drizzling. It was around 8 degrees and few were dressed for the occasion. I respected the guys in the field with their long sleeve shirts and some of them even in shorts! After about an hour I was so cold I figured I would ride it out inside the car. I killed time playing tetris on my cellphone and it wasn’t untill 10 PM that the game finished. The guys had lost and they were not in the best of modds as it was the final championship game. You win some, you lose some I guess.

Monday.
Anthony agreed to meet up with me again at 2 in the afternoon on the corner of Bathurst and Bloor.
I woke up around 10 and there were heavy showers. Like a monsoon almost it seemed.
I decided to wait a bit and around 11 it cleared up. I got my new camera backpack and headed out to catch a bus.
I walked the last stretch along Bloor street from Spadina subway station to Bathurst.
Bloor is one of the oldest streets in Toronto, and on the corner of Bathurst it had the first trafficlights of the city.
Toronto is very streched out. It has 4 million people, but it is not a packed togther as for instance Manhattan. There are less highrise buildings and far more old type houses and stores that bring you back to the 20’s and 30’s of the last century. Many of them in old english style. It’s a very nice mixture of old and new everywhere you look. The city also has a very relaxt feel to it.
The word heard on the street most would have to be "sorry", whereas in Amsterdam it would probably be "watch out!".
In cities such as Amsterdam, you always have eyes in the back of your head, you never really know what may happen there. Much less so, in my case not at all, in Toronto. It has a very safe feel to it,
also because of all those nice people who keep saying sorry, even if I am the one bumping into them.
The only place friendlyness is over the top is in the stores and shops, especially those in malls.
a big smile and a "how are you today sir" will be heard whereever you enter.
No point in sneaking in, you will be spotted and made subject to this commercial friendliness.
Off course I tried throwing them off by replying with a huge smile:" excellent, and how are you today?". To no avail, they kept smiling and even made friendly conversation. Maybe tomorrow I will try saying :"I feel like shit, how about you?".
Anyway, back to the afternoon. Anthony and I met up and walked from Bathurst back to Spadina and down to Dundas where we took a left and headed for Dundas square. I wanted to check out Eaton centre to check prices on clothing. I only brought one pair of jeans and had worn it for 3 days now. Time for an extra pair.
Dundas square nowadays has the aspirations of Times square NYC, but since it has
less skyscrapers surrounding it, the feel is much different. Still very nice however, in it’s own way.
Eaton centre was pretty big as I expected. I remembered the huge open space and the glass ceiling from the last time I was there in ‘86. I was 13 at the time and walking through the city center, there was little I remembered.
From Eaton, we walked up Yonge street towards college and got some postcards and stamps. By this time it was around 5 PM and Anthony was going to meet up with his girlfriend shortly so we headed back on College towards Bathurst. After we went our separate ways, it started to rain again.
I pulled out my raincoat and walked the last 30 mins. back to Spadina. By this time, my feet where slowly killing me. My feet had not felt like this since back when I was walking marches in the military.
I hopped on the train again but now got off at Yorkdale station, which is connected to the Yorkdale mall. off the train and into the mall, I went straight to the Sears mens department and picked up a pair of Levi’s. 75 dollars regular price, 35% discount, makes. 44dollars..that’s 28 euro’s. Good deal.

Dundas

Yonge street

Sunday.
We had planned on going to a Blue Jays game. It was the last homegame of the season against the Seattle mariners and had Billy managed to get some good seats close to the field.
On the way over we picked up Anthony. We walked over to Rogers stadium and enjoyed the game
It was a very nice experience, so much different from soccer games on dutch tv.The audience was really being involved.
T-shirts and other fan stuff was handed out to the audience for example. Fan appreciation they called it. A canadian pizza chain called Pizzapizza would give away free pizza to those at the game, if the pitcher would throw out more than an x number of hitters, this off course driving the crowd crazy.
Very funny to watch this going on all around you, and very different.

After the game Billy headed for home and Daryn and I walked around Kensington Market. It was pedestrian Sunday there, so no cars.  For the dutch, it can be compared somewhat with the waterloop plein in hippy style. Very laid back and nice to just stroll around.
I bought a fleece army liner at the Army surplus store, I had been looking for one for a few months already since the one my brother Bas gave me had a broken zipper. 30 dollars for a nice liner is a pretty good deal.

We kept walking towards chinatown and crossed over to get a sandwich at Mr.Subs.

At 7 PM I was supposed to be at Brunswick Av. for the weekly Toronto Couchsurfing meet up.
After about an hour there were around 20 people there. Hard to compare with the Amsterdam meet ups where we sometimes have up to 70 people there. Of course it helps that that’s organised in a bar on saturday evening ;-). I met some nice people and left around 10PM. I had not used the subaway or bus up to that point but it proved very easy and accesible.
I bought a weekly pass for the Toronto public transport system for 32 dollars and hopped on the Northbound train back to Downsview, and then took a bus to Wilson Av. The last 10 minutes was on foot.

Saturday

I arrived around 20:30 at night on Saturday. That’s local time. Dutch time it meant 03:00 AM.
Daryn and Billy picked me up at the Airport.
We went straight into town to Queen street. They guys took me to the Drake hotel, which is a popular club. It showed. We waited outside in line for an hour. Did I mention in was raining too?
Inside, we met up with Kevin one of Billy’s friends,whom I already met when Billy, Anthony, Daryn and him were visiting Amsterdam last year.
The guy behind me in line was from Stuttgart and worked for Bosch,we had an entertaining conversation about the differences between Europe and North America, if the comparison can even be made like that.
The club was nice. Very modern, with clips being played on wall screens accompanying the DJ’s music.
The women were especially dressed up I found. Lots of short skirts and very high heels.
Being used to Amsterdam nightlife, quite unusual even for me,I wasn’t complaining though.
We got home at 3AM, being 9 AM for me. The next day I slept in and got out at around 10 AM.
Jetlags are for girls ;-)

On Sunday evening I received an email from Iris from Germany. She asked to stay at my place with her two friends Mareike and Laura. They planned to arrive on Monday evening. I picked them up from the station as agreed and we soon sat down for the first beers and, in my case, wine. The girls asked if they could stay through the week, which was not a problem for me. I usually limit the number of niights for couchsurfers to two nights. Part of this is kind of a safety system for myself. Sometimes you just have people over with whom you have no click or common ground, which can make for akward conversation, or non at all. I am sure you know what I am talking about. Now that I had talked to these three girls, 4 nights were not an issue to me. Next day I got up early to go to work on my bicycle. I felt kinda funny when I left home for the 30 KM ride. I was already sweating before I even got on the bike. Underway, I couldn’t get my heartrate over 140 bpm, which is some 15 to 20 beats lower then normal. Must not be my day I guessed, and I kept riding. After I got to work I quickly started to feel worse and worse, like a bad case of the flu. After about 30 mins and collegues making fun of me during the first meeting (we need to get you a bed Eric? ) I asked my collegue Harm to give me a ride home. I got there around 10:30 and crashed in my bed after informing the girls. I woke up around 5 PM and felt a bit better, apart from a big headache still. The girls got home at around 8 PM and were kind enough to cook dinner for all of us. The next day I slept in till 12, which did good. I was already feeling like my old self again. Around 4 PM the girls, who had stayed home for the day, and I decided to go for a walk along Oostvaarders nature reserve, which is 20 mins away from my place. We strolled around and I took some pictures. I had brought my dad’s birdwatching telescope so we could get a nice view of the wildlife. After we got back, the girls worked on making necklaces and bracelets from all sorts of girly DIY stuff that I do not no the name of…they planned on selling these at a local market back home. The money they made would sponsor a party of course (bravo)
On thursday I went back to work. After work I agreed to meet the girls in Amsterdam at bar Skek on the Zeedijk (alongside NH Barbizon hotel for those familiar with amsterdam), which is slowly becoming the designated meeting spot for myself and my surfers, mainly because I can conveniently park my bike close to it, and it’s easy to find from Central Station. We had drinks and played some "mens erger je niet", which kind of translates into "don’t get agrivated". A fun game for 4. Around 10 ish I found out the girls had not doen the obligatory tour of the Red light district yet so we took off and walked around a bit there. If I come there any ofter people will start recognizing me I am afraid.
After we got home from this nice eveing on the town, I said goodbye to Mareike, Laura and Iris. They would leave fridaymorning and I would be at work. It was a week well spent and I had gained 3 fun friends. Since they live in Osnabrueck, which is not all that far, I am sure we will meet again.

Mareike, Laura & Iris

Lately I figured out that I do not have enough weekends in a year…bummer…means I have to chose what to do or cram it into the same weekends. The latter is of course the case (like I would have done anything else :P ). This weekend was no exception to that rule. Fridaynte I had off because of a cancellation from a couchsurfer. I spent it at the gym on a spinning bike. Always good fun. I woke up early saturday morning to go back to the same gym before it opened as I had forgotten my watch with heartrate monitor. It was still on the handlebars of the spinningbike…..not a smart thing to do Eric.
I then rode into town. I needed to get a suitcase for my upcoming trip to Toronto. Since I have been on holidays per motorcycle for years and years, I have never had the need for a suitcase. Also I decided to buy a small pocket camera, a Casio Elixim in this case. I don’t always want to carry around the much larger D20 DLSR. Also since it has a large battery pack attached to it. After I had carried all this stuff back home on my motorbike, I decided to go get a haircut. I hadn’t done so in years as I am used to cutting this myself with a clipper. Much cheaper and just as effective, but not quite te same still. Damn things sure changed since my last haircut! The hairdresser (who was a cute blonde of course, and very distractive), put me in a massage chair ( I kid u not) and washed my hair and massaged my skull. Appearantly this is a new thing. Where I’m from that’d be considered pretty gay, but hey, what do I know. They only thing I could conclude it that is will put you to sleep in minutes!

Meantime I had gotten an email from Dear, she invited me to come to Amsterdam as there was a Thai street festival going on. Mika, a mutual expat friend from Finland was also joining. I decided to go there around 16:30. The three of us had a great time and we also met up with Mae, the Thai au pair who lives closeby in Almere. After I had tried some Thai food and mistook a red chili pepper for a paprika (do not try that at home!) Mika and Dear decided they wanted to go on a sightseeing cruise in the canals, and for 8 euro’s I figured I would just join them.

  Mika

 Mika & Dear

We got back on shore around 8 PM and had a drink at one of the bulldog bars in the red light district. Then I carried on to the weekly Couch surfing meet up.
(photos see here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1165207@N20/pool/ )
I was early and already a bit hungry again, so I had 3 of Ramon’s stroopwafels that he always generously hands out. I met a lot of nice people again that nite and ran into 3 German girls I had previously emailed with regards their couch request earlier that week. We got to talk and just before they left they took me up on the offer to join them on a tour of the RLD (red light district). So much for a boring Sunday. Also I met Gerry and Martijn, 2 locals and friends of Ramons. They both have a comedy act and were performing the next evening at the comedy cafe in Amsterdam. We all were invited and the CS’ers had a nice discount! (Thanks guys!)

Sheila & Paula

Ann-Sophie

Hole in the boat

The weekend before I had Philip over, I went to Groningen to pay my mom and friend Bernhard a visit. On Saturday I had planned to go to the harbour town of Harlingen first. There were some festivities going on there and a friend had organised a photowalk there via Flickr. I had organised to take Dear along for the trip. Dear is a friend from Thailand who works as an au-pair in Amsterdam. We both met at a Couch surfing meeting in Amsterdam some time ago. Dear had no problem with riding the back of my motorcycle all the way to Groningen (300 km in one day via Harlingen). After a wonderful meet up in Harlingen and a nice walk around, we rode to my mom’s place. I had called her earlier that day and she had made reservations on my request at "Plunnhock", a restaurant in Germany just across the border. My mom, dear and myself enjoyed a wonderful evening and some great german food (yes I had the Ratsherren schnitzel with bearnaise sauce again, and let’s not forget the bratkartoffeln with bacon). After we got home, Dear and I walked over to my friend Berhard’s. We had drinks and chatted a bit. We agreed sunday would be a nice day to ride around and we decided to go to Bourtange. We rode there around 1 PM and eventhough we had some rain when we left home, the weather quickly turned around and we had a very sunny rest of the afternoon. In Bourtange we were lucky to find a group of war reenactors again. This time a group from the US was there, dressed in civil war uniforms. They fired their guns at the market square. We walked all around Bourtange before heading back to Amsterdam where I dropped Dear off at the trainstation.

Bernhard and Dear enjoying a sandwich at Bourtange market square

Civil war reenactors at the market square

Dear and Bernhard on the towns defensive walls.

Okay, an update. Time just flies with so many things to do and som many people to meet. Last week I received an email from Philip Poupin from France. He wanted to surf my couch on Wednesday night. Philip is a 27 year old photographer who was on his way to Groningen, where some of his work was exhibited. After this he would travel on to Hamburg to visit Der Spiegel magazine to try and sell some of his work.
We met up at Amsterdam Central station as I was already in Amsterdam for drinks with another couchsurfer from California. We hung out in a bar, walked around a bit and shared a bag of awesome flemisch fries from Manneken Pis (@Rokin). After this, I rode my bike home and Philip took the train to my place.

Philip is an interesting and open minded guy who started his professional career when he was 22, by traveling to Darfur to capture the refugee camps on film. He has visited numerous countries as you can tell by looking at his website. We had a nice conversation about traveling and photography (he has an amazing cool Nikon DSLR!) and before I knew it is was 02:30 AM…..on a weekday…damn!

I said goodbye to Philip the next morning and I am sure to see him again one day as he invited me to come over when I have a chance. He lives in Brittany, an area that is on my list of places to visit anyway. Thanks for a nice evening Philip!

This week I had Valerie and Mikiech staying over, they are a young couple from Bellingham, Washington (state). They had quite a visit. They had been traveling from Munich to Amsterdam. I met them at bar Skek (well known amongst fellow CS’ers) on the evening after their arrival. They sent me a message inviting me for drinks there. A very sociable, friendly, and interested couple.
Whilst in Munich, Mikiech had been trying to locate his biological father in the Frankfurt area. Him being the son of a US military soldier, his mom had gone back to the states and his German father stayed behind in Germany. Him and his father never met. Mikeich found 3 people in the Frankfurt area that matched his dad’s last name, and he left all three a voicemail message. As the couple arrived at my place, he had received an email from his dad, saying he would like to meet up but the only possibility would be the next day. I urged him also to take the train to Frankfurt, which is 4 hours away. He would no doubt regret not going after he got home. As Mikiech went to Frankfurt, his GF Valerie went to see Amsterdam. I had given her a key to my place so she would not have to roam the streets if she didn’t want to.  After Valerie had invited me for drinks again that night, which I unfortunately had to decline as the next 4 surfers were already on my couch, she mentioned that it would probably be a good idea for her to go back to my place. I was expecting her to show up later that evening, but no Valerie. I decided to go to bed around 23:30, and still no sign. Around 2 Am, the phone rang, and I just missed the call. It was Valerie, saying she was going to have to get a hotel since she couldn’t make it back. After about 45 mins, I woke up again as someone was fumbling with keys at my frontdoor. Valerie it turned out. I stuck my head around the bedroom door as she walked up the stairs. " Ow man" she said, " I had the worst night!". Turns out she first spent hours looking for her rental bike as she couldn’t remember where she put it, and as she finally managed to get on the train, some idiot decide to commit suicide and jumped in front of it. Of course everyone had to get off the train and had to transported by busses. Quite some nite. I received a quick note from both of them yesterday, saying Mickiech was welcomed with open arms by his dad, and Valerie still loved Amsterdam, despite her last day’s adventure. Unfortunately I did not manage to take a picture of the both of them, as they had to leave so unexpected.

During Valerie’s last nite, I welcomed 4 more guests; Teresa,Marlene,Pia & Flora, who were all from Vienna. They were on route from Luxemburg and had not found a place to stay. I hosted them for 2 nights as they explored Amsterdam. These 18 year old girls sure knew how to cook as they prepared themselves a great meal within minutes with the use of my kitchen. Another thing they were good at was making a mess ;-) It was like a bomb had exploded in the livingroom after I got back from work the first day. I can’t really blame them since the girls did not have a room but slept in the livingroom, and also had to put their packs there. I smiled as I stepped through the doorway, as it reminded me of how my room sometimes must have looked when I was younger. Fair is fair, I came back after they left and it was spotless, they had even done the dishes. Girls, I hope you had a good time in Holland!

Teresa, Marlene,Pia & Flora from Vienna

Deo from Rio and Isabela from Manhattan. Both crashed my couch as a last minute resort, arriving from Paris at 1:30 at night. Easygoing people whom I was glad to have helped out.

Saturday I went to a tweetmeet (meet up via twitter) in Zandvoort at beachclub Skyline. I arrived late at around 5 PM. I was in Amsterdam for a CS meet and got home pretty late. hence I slept in. With the daily chores done, I didn’t get to leave untill 4 in the afternoon. The weather was excellent with some 25 degrees celcius and I had a nice ride over. There was a group of about 35 people who gathered at the beachclub. I met some nice new people, had drinks, sandwiches, and most of all enjoyed the sun on the beachfront.

This past wednesday I had over my first couchsurfers. I had offered them a couch earlier but they managed to find a place in the Amsterdam city centre, which of course is the best place for any couchsurfer. Varanya, one of the 4 russian CS (Couch surfing) girls, send me a text message on wednesdayafternoon asking if I could have them over for the night. They wanted to travel to Paris on thursday but did not find a spot for their last night in Holland. I picked them up from Almere station around 23:30. They all looked quite tired, which was no suprise. They told me they had flown from St.Petersburg, their hometown, to Bremen, Germany. From there they hitch hiked to Amsterdam with a stop over in Groningen. They had not had a single resting day in between. After a drink, two of the girls quickly disappeared upstairs to get some sleep. Varya and her friend Olga stayed up. I had a very nice conversation with both. All four were last psychology students, ages ranging from 22-23 years of age. We called it a night at around 2 AM. After I had made them a simple breakfast with coffee and tea, I gave them directions to the highway so they could hitch a ride to Paris. A very nice experience, I could not have asked for nicer couchsurfers to start with.

Olya,Varya,Alla & Alyona from St.Petersburg

Last night I went to a couchsurfing meetup in Amsterdam in "de oude Herbergh". This is a weekly meeting on saturday evening, first initiated by Ramon Stoppelenburg (see my booklist). A very fun guy that I only got to meet untill last night. The difference between this meet up, which can consist of some 70 people in good weeks, and an evening in a normal pub/bar, is the fact that everyone is a stranger, and everyone wants to meet other people. This makes for a very relaxing and friendly atmosphere. I met people from all over the world who were in Amsterdam either for a day or two, or who had moved to amsterdam to live and work there. I plan to get more actively involved and have some couchsurfers over. I will probably make this meeting a bi-weekly thing for myself. It was really enjoyable!

Group picture by Ramon

Me talking to Mika (finland) on the left and Jay (right) from Dominican republic/Chicago

Last week I took friday off work. In Vlagtwedde, where my dad lives, they had the annual week of festivities which includes classic motorraces on saturday. I figured I would bring my camera to try shoot some nice pics. It’s always hard to capture fast moving objects. I met my old time friend Reinder there, as well as his sister and brother in law. Reinder I have known since I was half a year old, as he lived, and still does, across the street from my dad.
Reinder and his brother in law have also taken up photography, and we strolled around the track and pit area. Lots to see. From the 50CC kreidlers to bigger bikes such as MV Agusta’s, Norton’s, BSA’s,Ducati’s. Action pics proved to be difficult, but I managed to get a few nice shots. More on my Flickr page.